Steve Lonegan

LONEGAN CALLS ON CHRISTIE, KYRILLOS AND KEAN JR. TO CONDEMN ATTACK ON DOHERTY’S PATRIOTISM

PARSIPPANY -- Speaking in front of Christie Campaign Headquarters in Parsippany, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan called on opponent Chris Christie - as well as Christie's campaign chairman and co-chairman - to distance themselves from a direct mailer and robo-call that attacks the patriotism of a fellow Republican.

WHO: Mayor Steve Lonegan, New Jersey Gubernatorial Candidate

WHAT: Mayor Lonegan will be holding a press conference at the Christie Headquarters

WHEN: Sunday, May 24 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE: Christie Campaign Headquarters
1719 Route 10 East
Parsippany, NJ 97054

ORADELL, NJ – Mayor Steve Lonegan, the conservative Republican candidate for Governor, is running a new television ad hitting back at Chris Christie's tax plan.

"Chris Christie says he is going to cut taxes but has offered no specifics about how he'll do it. That's why the Star Ledger called it "a fantasy." This is what I've been saying all along.  When you look at Christie's plan, the numbers simply do not add up," Lonegan said.

Steve Lonegan

The campaign ad of a ramrod Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) happily ingesting the oratory of former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan at the minimum suggests he would be a short list candidate for lieutenant governor in a Lonegan administration. 

Not likely, said Lonegan. Right cred, wrong timing.

“Mike’s going to be in the Senate,” Lonegan told PolitickerNJ.com, referring to what he hopes will be Doherty’s successful anti-establishment efforts in the 23rd District Republican Primary, where he is challenging state Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.).

Lonegan stops short of presenting names when asked to compile an LG short list. 

Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie

Chris Christie Campaign Consultant Mike DuHaime this afternoon countered the “Democrat Party’s” latest attack ad against his gubernatorial candidate: an estimated $900,000, one-week television buy that highlights the Wall Street entanglements of Christie’s younger brother and suggests the former U.S. Attorney improperly used his connections to bail him out of trouble. 

DuHaime blamed Corzine, describing him as a Wall Street multimillionaire who’s thrown a lot of money around in his party and who now must rely on the intervention of attack dog front groups like the Mid-Atlantic Leadership Fund, which purchased the ad. The governor’s still behind Christie in the latest Quinnipiac University poll, 45% to 38%, a margin widened from seven points in a poll conducted by the same outfit a month ago.

“This week is a stark reminder of how Jon Corzine operates,” DuHaime said. “Taxes are up, unemployment is up… The only thing going down are his polls numbers. Clearly this is an effort to influence the Republican Primary. Jon Corzine may have bought the Democrat Party, but he will not buy the Republican Party.”

The Christie Campaign is set to respond with its own New York and Philadelphia television ad, featuring their candidate speaking straight into the camera. “If we want to change Trenton, we have to change governors,” DuHaime said.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan with Lonegan operative Morgan Levy.

MT. ARLINGTON – The Republican gubernatorial candidates’ forum here tonight sponsored by the Mt. Arlington Republican Club contained at least one surprise from the standpoint of stump speechmaking. 

Led to the front of the room by an aide, former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan spent several moments groping for the microphone before confessing to the small crowd, “I’m severely visually impaired. I can’t see anyone in front of me, so if anyone wants to flip me the bird, go right ahead. When I was 14, I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa.”

Down 23 points to former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie in the latest Quinnipiac University poll, Team Lonegan insisted their candidate has crumpled up his speech before on the trail, in Toms River, for example, to talk about his blindness, a subject he usually avoids.

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Twp.) tonight in Mt. Arlington.

MT. ARLINGTON - Establishment buzz portends at last – and again! - the political demise of veteran Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Twp.) in this cycle as he runs against the son of a Republican workhorse and a popular freeholder, and yet at this 25th Legislative District candidates’ forum tonight, it’s Carroll who injects theatrical pizzazz into a roomful of local GOP diehards, crumbling stiff upper lips into broad grins. 

Eschewing the microphone after back-to-back podium performances by Tony Bucco, Jr., and Freeholder Doug Cabana in front of the Mt. Arlington Republican Club, Carroll strides across the dance floor and drives his heels with dramatic impact - equal parts Patrick Henry, Cicero and flamenco - as he projects his voice from the far side of the banquet room.

“Most new ideas are bad ideas,” he announces, bearing down on Bucco, who has just promised the room he intends to take “fresh” ideas to Trenton. 

“We don’t have to look for new ideas we’ve had them from hundreds of years,” Carroll thunders. “We just have to go back to what works.”

Campaign strategist Rick Shaftan

The Lonegan campaign today struggled to find the upside of the latest Quinnipiac University poll, which shows their candidate trailing former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie by 23 points.

“The poll shows Steve Lonegan beating Jon Corzine,” said Lonegan campaign strategist Rick Shaftan, referring to the former Bogota mayor’s 42-40% edge over the sitting governor, a statistical dead heat, according to Quinnipiac. 

“Look, these primary polls are going to bounce all over the place,” Shaftan added. “What the results show is that you have to be a pro-life candidate if you’re a Republican. Christie’s changed his position several times, but he’s pro-life now, for the purposes of this race, and he threw some money around over the last three weeks to get that message out there and it’s essentially reconfirming our pro-life message.” 

Shaftan’s other phone rang.

Steve Lonegan

BEDMINISTER – If Joe the Plumber provided the campaign’s blue collar focal point, Fiddler’s Elbow this evening illuminated Steve Lonegan’s House in the Hamptons crowd, 30 of whom hovered in a small room at $250 apiece for cocktails and hourdervs amid pink tableclothed tables adorned with candles. 

“This is an important event,” said the GOP gubernatorial candidate, who trails by six to one in the money game behind his chief opponent and the Republican Party's presumptive frontrunner in the primary race, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.

Earlier in the day, the administration of Gov. Jon Corzine proposed a new millionaires’ tax and suspension of property tax rebates for all but seniors to help close a $2 billion budget shortfall, adding to already proposed deferred pension contributions and school aid payments, triggering criticism from the two chief rivals for the Republican nomination.

“By borrowing and increasing debt to pay for ongoing expenses the governor is about to violate a State Supreme Court ruling, and his own promise,” said Christie, who upbraided Corzine for failing to cut political patronage jobs, eliminate the public advocate and reduce the state payroll.

Oradell, NJ – Conservative Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Lonegan today blasted Governor Jon Corzine's new proposed 10.75 percent income tax rate for families earning over $1 Million a year.