Rick Shaftan

In response to a threatened primary challenge to Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Morris), Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson wrote a letter to gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan defending DeCroce and asking the anti-establishment Republican to distance himself from his chief strategist, Rick Shaftan.  

“I truly hope that Mr. Shaftan’s comments and intentions are not yours and that you had no prior knowledge of his self-indulgent, baseless, inaccurate and personal attack on Assemblyman DeCroce,” wrote Wilson. "I ask that you make clear your position on Mr. Shaftan's comments and, if the statements were made without your authorization, to make sure that Mr. Shaftan does not abuse his position with your campiagn in the future.  His childish outbursts only serve to divert focus away from our principal goal:electing more Republicans and reversing the policies that have driven our state to the doorstep of bankruptcy." 

In an interview with PolitickerNJ.com yesterday, Shaftan said that DeCrcoce was “happy to be a big fish in a small pond” and was Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts’ (D-Camden) “best friend in the state.”

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Gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan’s campaign is actively seeking to recruit a candidate to take on Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Morris) in the Republican primary, according to Lonegan strategist Rick Shaftan.

“There will be a primary against Alex DeCroce,” said Shaftan.  “The candidate shall be named later, but there are three people who are looking to run.”

DeCroce, the assembly’s top Republican, is in charge of an assembly candidate recruitment effort that Shaftan called “inept and pathetic.”

“He’s the most inept leader on the Republican side imaginable.  He’s just given up the fight and is just happy to be a big fish in a little pond,” said Shaftan.  “If I were [Assembly Speaker] Joe Roberts, I’d be doing everything I can to make sure Alex stays in office. He’s Joe Roberts’ best friend in the state.”

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It was a tough crowd for state Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest).

Speaking as a surrogate for gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie to a group of conservatives who mostly supported rival candidate Steve Lonegan at the Conservative Leadership Breakfast at a diner in North Brunswick, Cardinale was interrupted by Lonegan's chief strategist, Rick Shaftan, while he was making the case for Christie's conservative ideals. 

"This guy was just out there spewing cold lies out so I just corrected the record a bit," said Shaftan.

That led to a testy exchange between Cardinale and Shaftan that would soon reverberate in the conservative blogosphere and add another layer of drama to an already tense primary campaign.

While Lonegan has taken a confrontational tone with Christie since he entered the race, the Christie camp has, at least until recently, purposefully refused to engage Lonegan.  Last week, Christie gave a rare acknowledgement of Lonegan, albeit without mentioning his name, by criticizing his decision not to compete for party support at Republican county conventions.  But it largely has fallen to Christie's supporters, like Cardinale, to debate with the Lonegan loyalists.

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Kevin Collins has been let go as campaign manager of Steve Lonegan's bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.  Collins will not be replaced, at least not formally.  As of today, the Lonegan campaign has eliminated titles for staffers.

Collins told PolitickerNJ.com that he viewed the direction of the campaign differently than Lonegan and his strategist, Rick Shaftan, and that the decision to leave the campaign was his. 

Collins declined to say if he would still back Lonegan for the GOP nomination.  "There are several fine candidates competing in the GOP primary and I wish each of them well.  Steve's decision to attempt to compete in a statewide primary without a campaign manager speaks for itself," Collins said.

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Gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan’s campaign yesterday asked Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin to take Lonegan’s name off the ballot for tomorrow night’s convention in his home county. 

Today, Yudin refused.

“To now, just 48 hours before the convention, ask to have his name removed, I don’t feel is proper and therefore we will move on with the convention,” said Yudin. “First it denies the Lonegan rank and file an opportunity to vote for their man. Second of all we have a process in place.” 

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Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan’s campaign announced today that they are giving up on trying to win county lines from mainstream Republican organizations unless and until legislation that reforms county political parties is signed into law.

Or as Lonegan Campaign Chairman Hank Butehorn put it in a press release: “If I may use a Star Wars metaphor, we are leaving behind the Empire to focus on building a Rebel Alliance.”

Lonegan, a strict conservative, has participated in several county committee screening processes and a nominating convention, but has lost every time to former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie -- the more moderate candidate who Republican leaders have long courted to run.

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Former Freeholder candidate Dan Roberts said, "For Rick Shaftan to claim the growing number of rank-and-file Republicans calling for Loran Oglesby to resign is part of some evil plot to award the line to any particular candidate shows Mr. Shaftan's glaring lack of knowledge of the issues in Gloucester County."

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Phyllis Scapellato the owner of the website itsnotloransparty.com and leader of a group dedicated to electing a new GOP chairman in Gloucester County took issue with remarks made by Steve Lonegan campaign strategist Rick Shaftan.

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Mainstream Republicans are avoiding holding county conventions to give former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie favorable ballot placement in the primary, according to Rick Shaftan, the chief strategist for Christie rival Steve Lonegan.

"This is exactly why we can't win elections in this state.  They don't want any public involvement at all. It's a country club," said Shaftan.  "So we never expected any kind of fair process from these guys, because they hate conservatives more than they want to beat Democrats."

Shaftan made the comments in response to Camden County Republican Chairman Rick DeMichele's decision to award Christie the organization line without holding a convention where county committee members could vote on the decision.  The Camden GOP did hold a straw poll last month, where Christie won.

"Come on, it was a straw poll.  The guy invites his friends and says it was a straw poll," said Shaftan.

Monmouth County Republican Chairman Joe Oxley last week awarded Christie the line without holding a convention where county committee members could vote, arguing that the party had in recent months failed to reach quorums at its meetings. 

Oxley's endorsement came only after current and former GOP officials had a chance to meet with the leading candidates for Governor.  The Christie campaign has released endorsements from most Monmouth GOP officials. Read More >

As he endorsed Christopher Christie for the 2009 GOP gubernatorial nomination on Wednesday, former Governor Thomas Kean, Sr. reminded reporters that the only other time he involved himself in a Republican Primary was when his son ran for the U.S. Senate three years ago.   That's not completely accurate.  During his second term as Governor, Kean went to Hudson County to endorse Albio Sires, a Republican activist from West New York who had been recruited by state Republicans to challenge U.S. Rep. Frank Guarini (D-Jersey City) in 1986.  Sires was facing a primary challenge from one of two Republicans on the Hudson County Board of Freeholders.

At the time, Republicans believed they were looking at a possible political realignment in Hudson County.  They had won two Freeholder seats in 1984 and four Assembly seats in 1985.  Ronald Reagan carried Hudson in 1984, and Kean won every town in the county when he ran for re-election in 1985.  The GOP was playing heavily in non-partisan municipal races that year, and was counting on electing a Republican Mayor of Union City, where Assemblyman Ronald Dario (R-Union City) was heading a local ticket - financed by the GOP - that included a young lawyer named Robert Menendez.

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