Steve Lonegan

With a convincing win in defeating an encumbent Governor, why were there no coattails?

Independent Chris Daggett, left, and his running mate, Frank Esposito

MONTCLAIR - Campaigning today in Montclair, independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett appealed to movement conservatives to vote for him despite Steve Lonegan's amplified endorsement of GOP nominee Chrs Christie.

"I think the people who backed Steve Lonegan in the past aren't at all interested in supporting Chris Christie,' Daggett told PolitickerNJ.com. "I've seen it on the campaign trail. They know Chris Christie does not represent what they feel is in the best interest of this state in the sense of taking on the tax system and being able to reduce taxes as I've proposed to do.

"I've seen they're more interested in seeing somebody who's interested in stepping up to address the issues and give some commonsensical answers, not some big promise that he's going to cut taxes across the board and then give you no plan whatsoever to do it," Daggett added.

Sagging poll numbers, and the drumbeat on 101.5 FM, however, suggests that Republicans have penetrated with the message that a vote for Daggett is a vote for incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.

Lonegan ally Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) on the stump for Christie at a Flemington rally also attended by Lonegan.

Putting the punctuation mark on his weekend of stumping for GOP candidate Chris Christie, movement conservative leader Steve Lonegan issued an email blast to his supporters this morning citing a quote from President Barack Obama's rallies for incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.

"He said that Corzine was 'one of the best partners I have in the White House...we work together.  We know our work is far from over.'

"That's right," Lonegan added. "The radical national agenda of Barack Obama is hoping to get a boost from the election for Governor of New Jersey. You know what that means. Last week, the most left-wing Speaker in the history of Congress unpacked her plan to take over health care - and with it 18% of the American economy. Coupled with the Obama 'cap & tax' scheme, both these bills will destroy American competitiveness, drive-up costs, and amount to the largest collective tax increase ever."

From left: GOP nominee Chris Christie, Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown), Steve Lonegan.

FLEMINGTON - Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie this afternoon stood onstage with the man he conquered in the June Primary: former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, leader of the conservative movement in New Jersey, who promptly bashed President Barack Obama.

"The people who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in ships didn't come here looking for security and a welfare check, they came here seeking freedom and liberty," Lonegan told an excited crowd packing the sidewalk in front of the Hunterdon County Courthouse. "Barack Obama doesn't understand that simple message.

"Those folks had learned a lesson that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid do not understand," Lonegan said.

A day before Obama is scheduled to appear at rallies in Camden and Newark in support of Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, the crowd cheered in the rain.

"Some of my friends said they were going to write Steve Lonegan in," added the former gubernatorial candidate. "But let me tell you, we have an opportunity to take back New Jersey, to make New Jersey the economic leader it once was. The best man did win. The best man will put an end to the advancement of the Corzine-Obama team."

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(OCEAN CITY, October 29) – First Legislative District GOP Assembly nominees Mike Donohue and John McCann – joined by former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan at a press conference on the steps of City Hall in Ocean City – today announced their opposition to Question One, the so-called “Green Acres” $400 million bond issue.

Assemblyman John McKeon (D-West Orange) jumped on today’s Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll that showed the $400 million open space bond referendum with a 23 point lead in the polls.

"The poll results indicate that our message of the benefits of open space -  especially its economic advantages - is resonating with New Jersey citizens,” said McKeon, who chairs the Environment and Solid Waste Committee and is the ballot question's prime sponsor.

McKeon said that he is “confident an increasing number will support the open space ballot question on Nov. 3."

Voters in 2007 rejected two out of three ballot initiatives, even though polls showed them leading in late October.

For instance, an October 25, 2007 Eagleton poll found voters supporting a $450 million bond issue to finance stem cell research by a 57%-36% margin.  On election day, the measure was defeated.  Voters that year did approve a ballot measure to borrow $200 million to fund open space, however, and have voted to support open space ballot questions 13 times since 1961.

Former gubernatorial candidate Steven Lonegan, the state director of Americans for Prosperity, is expected to announce today that he is forming a campaign organization to urge the defeat of the Green Acres referendum on the ballot next month. The state is seeking voter approval to spent $400 million for Green Acres, water supply and floodplain protection, and for farmland and historic preservation projects. 

In 2007, Lonegan led the statewide effort to reject three public questions - all supported by Gov. Jon Corzine -- on the statewide ballot that year.  A proposed constitutional amendment to dedicate 1% of state sales and use taxes for property tax reform failed 51%-49, and a proposed $450 million stem cell research bond issue failed 53%-47%.  A $200 million Green Acres/Blue Acres bond issue passed 54%-46%.

Part One: Gorillas in the Missed: In the 1970s, Dian Fossey spent a great deal of time living in a habitat with mountain gorillas in Rwanda, in an effort to learn all about their way of life. She wanted to separate the truth about the mountain gorilla from the Hollywood "King Kong" myth of an aggressive, savage beast.

I was very inspired by her story, and so I decided to do the same thing. Just not with gorillas, though.

Last weekend, I spent three days of ‘peace, love and music' with that very rare animal in New Jersey, the Republican-Conservative-Libertarian (herein after referred to as the ‘RCLs'). I wanted to separate the truth about the RCLs from the national political rhetorical myth of being passionless, humorless, narrow-minded, and not-very-bright politicos. Nothing could be further from the truth. Normal 0 0 1 911 5193 43 10 6377 11.1282 0 0 0

Rahway Mayor James Kennedy gives Gov. Jon Corzine the rooftop tour at the Hotel Indigo.

RAHWAY - A classic blue collar train trestle town, Rahway this morning welcomed Gov. Jon Corzine to its beautified downtown against a backdrop of local politics turned ugly.   

"I've lived my whole life in Rahway and it never looked like this," the smiling barrister said of the 10-year old station and subsequent business buildup, which includes a Soho-style coffee shop, which opened in June.

In the Indigo Hotel, anchor of the same hipster complex, a packed elevator with Corzine on board shot to the top. Sixteenth floor. Tallest building in Union County.

"Sorry," the governor told a young woman sunbathing on the rooftop as he strode past with Mayor James Kennedy and took a look at the industrial wasteland to the north where the train track snakes toward a heat-hazed New York skyline.

Then they strolled to the other side of the roof and looked west at the green treetops stretching into the same filmed-over distance.

Conservative activist and blogger Michael Illions announced over the weekend that he is running to become Middlesex County Republican Chairman.  

“Currently, the Executive Board of the Middlesex County GOP is ineffective and void of leadership, both in providing it or inspiring it in others. It is mostly filled with longtime establishment insiders, who care more about what’s in it for them, then how to grow and build the Party,” wrote Illions in a post on his blog, Conservatives with Attitude.  

Illions made the announcement on Saturday at the Conservative Leadership Breakfast in North Brunswick, which he helped organize.  

Illions was a major backer of former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan in the Republican gubernatorial primary, and has been a frequent critic of GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie, who he says has shifted his campaign rhetoric to the left after defeating Lonegan in June.  He has also criticized current chairman Joseph Leo, whose term does not expire until June, 2010.