Steve Lonegan

Conservative activist Steve Lonegan said that Kim Guadagno’s statement that she was pro-choice today was a let down, but that it remains to be seen whether she’ll have the support of most conservatives.

“One big disappointment right out of the box is her abortion position,” said Lonegan, who lost the Republican gubernatorial primary to Chris Christie last month.  “But the interesting thing was it wasn’t one of the proven liberals, and that’s a good sign. Had he picked a [Bergen County Clerk] Kathleen Donovan or [Assemblyman] Jon Bramnick, they would have totally blown off the conservative base.”  

Still, Lonegan said that simply being pro-choice would be a deal breaker for many conservatives.  

Lonegan noted that the state’s biggest pro-life group did not endorse anyone in the primary.  

“Remember Marie Tasy and New Jersey Right to Life did not endorse in this primary.  So now how do we feel?  I guarantee you unequivocally, I would have chosen a good, solid pro-life lieutenant governor that reflected my views,” said Lonegan.  “So maybe this is an attempt for the political insiders to appeal to everybody, to pander to both sides.”

Steve Lonegan doesn’t care much for the state's GOP establishment, but he has only nice things to say about Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno, who is said to be one of the leading contenders for lieutenant governor.  

“I think she’s a good pick,” said Lonegan, who lost the Republican gubernatorial nomination to Chris Christie last month but has not exactly gone quietly.  

“She’s central Jersey, she’s pretty solid.  She doesn’t have a lot of baggage, I don’t think,” he said.

When asked whether he views Guadagno as a conservative, Lonegan said he “believes so,” but has not discussed the issues with her enough to know for sure.

PITMAN -- Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie barely acknowledged Steve Lonegan’s missive against the state’s establishment Republicans during a campaign appearance today.

Lonegan, who lost the primary to Christie last month, called Christie’s top supporters and operatives “hollow men” in an email to supporters today.  When asked about it by The Record’s Charles stile, Christie blew the question off.  

“I don’t think Steve really means that. He probably just had a bad morning,” he said.

Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan issued an op-ed blast to supporters this morning entitled "The Hollow Men," rebuking campaign operative allies of GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie, State Party Chairman Jay Webber, pro-cap and trade Republican congressmen, and the state party in general for what Lonegan cites as an abandonment of conservative principles.

"Since the Primary Election, loyal Republicans have been baffled by the behavior of the GOP establishment in New Jersey," writes Lonegan in his most pointed criticism of his party since losing the nomination to Christie on June 2nd. "First, operatives in the campaign of our nominee for Governor, Chris Christie, monkeyed around with the social issues page on his website, gaining the attention of the media before resolving what they caused.

"Then, at the meeting of the Republican State Committee – the men and women elected from each county to formulate and advance the party’s principles – the party leadership blocked a move to formally adopt the platform of the national Republican Party, as well as blocking a resolution condemning Governor Corzine’s tax hikes.  At least one major newspaper, the Star-Ledger, linked the leadership’s refusal to adopt our Party’s platform to the fact it contains Pro-Life and Pro-Traditional Marriage planks."

Alan Bateman for Congress

Holmdel Deputy Mayor Alan Bateman

It looks like a GOP primary in the 12th Congressional District. 

Republican Alan Bateman of Holmdel, who ran for Congress in the 12th last year and lost, said Fair Haven Mayor Mike Halfacre's decision to pursue the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-Hopewell) alters nothing.

"I did plan on running and I filed my papers a couple of months ago," said Bateman, a former deputy mayor in Holmdel and hospital administration consultant who lost to Holt last year, 62% to 36%.  

"This doesn't change my plans, not at all," added Bateman of Halfacre's announcement, scheduled tomorrow, that he intends to run.

Bateman said today's news about Halfacre created a surge of telephone calls from supporters, who told the Holmdel resident that he can count on them. 

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Conservative strategist Rick Shaftan says potential candidates have emerged to take on three Republicans who voted for cap and trade

Cape May County Republican Chairman David Von Savage said today that he does not agree with U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo's (R-Vineland) vote on cap-and-trade, but that conservative political consultant Rick Shaftan is “taking advantage of a highly volatile situation” by helping candidates take up primary challenges against three Republican congressmen who voted for cap-and-trade legislation on Friday.  

“I think Rick Shaftan is reckless," said Von Savage. I understand Rick is a vendor, and therefore looking for willing accomplices to advance his financial endgame.”  

Von Savage, whose county is entirely represented by LoBiondo, said that he does not agree with the his congressman's vote.  Instead, he favors tax incentives for alternative energy development and over  “punitive levels of taxation” to wean the United States off foreign fossil fuels.  

“While there are issues regarding the Congressman’s vote with conservatives in the party, I think it’s irresponsible for Shaftan to be sticking his nose down this way,” he said.  “Respectfully, what he ought to do is consider relocating to the south and utilizing his approach to campaigning south of the Mason-Dixon Line.”

Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno

In recent years, a few inter-party contests stand out as wars, and as George W. Bush's numbers threatened to flat-line in New Jersey, Democrats felt a surge of confidence in Monmouth County, where they ramrodded GOP excess and Bush backlash into annual wins on the freeholder board and a Senate victory by Ellen Karcher for territory that could be described as leaning in their favor but finally uneasy.

2007 proved the Democrats' penultimate chance to squeeze as much citizen angst as possible out of the GOP's control of Monmouth and Bush's perceived deepsixing of his own party, and nowhere was the countervailing intensity better demonstrated than Jennifer Beck's challenge of Karcher in the 12th District and, in less publicized if no less intense fashion, Kim Guadagno's battle with Belmar Police Chief Jack Hill for a vacancy at county sheriff.  

Both women won - Guadagno narrowly - and in the process earned reputations as tough, well-prepared campaigners.

Consequently, at various stages of Chris Christie's journey as a Republican gubernatorial candidate, Beck and Guadagno have been mentioned in GOP circles as potential candidates for lieutenant governor, with the former's name surfacing as early as last summer while Christie was still U.S. Attorney, then fading for the most part; and Guadagno's coming louder late in the process here.

Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan will once again stand with a fake pig.  

The former Bogota mayor is returning to work at the anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity, which he ran between leaving office as mayor of Bogota and running for the Republican nomination for governor.

Lonegan, who used to be the group’s state director, will now be the New Jersey chapter’s senior policy director.

"I welcome this opportunity to educate citizens about the dangers of Washington and Trenton's socialist policy agenda," he said.  "Big government has one goal and that's replacing individual initiative and excellence with collectivism and overall mediocrity.  Americans need to know what's at stake with Washington's plans for our nation," Lonegan added, "Their policy ideas will destroy our nation and, like Rush Limbaugh, I hope they fail."

GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie, center at microphone, with, from left: Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, Assemblyman Jay Webber, and Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean.

TRENTON - Presenting him as an emblem of youth, GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie today unveiled 37-year old freshman Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains) as his recommendation to the Republican State Committee to be the party's next state chairman.

"It's time for the party to have a generational turn," said Christie, standing at a Statehouse podium with state Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean (R-Westfield) and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany), hours before a private Christie fundraiser headlined by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who Webber backed for president in 2008. 

"Jay is one of the leading young leaders in our party," said Christie. "I like his instincts. Symbols are important in politics. ...I appreciate Jay's support since February, and he has played a key role in terms of being a surrogate for me. I have a great deal of faith and trust in him. He exemplifies the principles we believe in in the party."

The party committee is scheduled to formally embrace Webber next week.

A Ronald Reagan conservative who put the exclamation point on Christie's formal declaration of his gubernatorial candidacy - and broke some hearts in the camp of movement conservative Steve Lonegan - when he likened Christie's leadership mold to Reagan, Webber said he was humbled and honored by Christie's backing to succeed Chairman Tom Wilson.

Assemblyman MIke Doherty (R-Washington Twp.)

It was a different scene than it was in Clinton earlier this year when establishment Republicans felt like misfit grunts bucking KP duty as Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) bellowed out a speech from atop the stage at the middle school.

Stunned when they voted against him and chose Marcia Karrow to succceed the mild-mannered Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton), Doherty stubbornly launched what many assessed as an implausible primary campaign.  

This morning at the Republicans' unity breakfast at the Mountainview Chalet in Asbury, Doherty called his win over incumbent state senator Karrow the toughest of his decade-long political career.

"I've been through a lot of tough primaries, but Marcia was the heartiest competitor," said Doherty.

Defeated by Karrow in that January special election, Doherty aligned with movement conservative Steve Lonegan's gubernatorial candidacy to come back and beat Karrow Tuesday night, 52% to 48%.