Michael Steele

JERSEY CITY -- Both gubernatorial No. 2s were in New Jersey's second biggest city today, speaking to very different audiences.

Republican lieutenant governor candidate Kim Guadagno hosted Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele at the Christie campaign's canvassing headquarters on Martin Luther King Drive in the heart Ward F -- the most important cog to Jersey City Democratic turnout machine. 

It was, as one supporter noted, the first time Republicans had opened any kind of headquarters in that neighborhood since the Eisenhower era. 

"Jon Corzine has turned his back on you. Chris Christie will not and he has not," Guadagno told a group of about 20 - mostly local Republican activists and candidates - who packed the tiny room. 

Steele cut a ribbon to signify the headquarters' opening, although Hudson County Republican Chairman Jose Arango said it had been open for about one and a half months.

Steele said that, as the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, he appreciates Guadagno's.  He said Christie was "the only candidate on the ticket who's come to your communities, who's goin to do something for your community to make it safer."

Steele, who also planned to join Guadagno at a campaign stop at Bergen County Republican headquarters, did not take any questions from the press. 

For the Christie camp, it was another push to show that they're making a real effort in the inner-city - even if that backfired last month, when they opened a campaign headquarters in Newark with much fanfare.

In an appearance on Face the Nation this morning, Republican National Chairman Michael Steele questioned why the White House wants David Paterson to drop his campaign for Governor of New York, but didn't ask Gov. Jon Corzine to do the same thing.

"I think Governor Paterson's numbers are about the same as Governor Corzine's numbers, and yet the president was with Governor Corzine and I don't know whether there's been a request for Governor Corzine to step down in New Jersey," Steele said.  "I just find it to be stunning and also rather bold."

Elected Member of NJ Republican State Committee Speaks Out for His Constituents!

Lawrence, left, and DiCicco at Monday's event in Pitman

When Republican National Chairman Michael Steele and Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie came to their district on Monday, fourth district GOP Assembly candidates Dominick DiCicco and Eugene E. T. Lawrence were far from the center of attention.  But they were happy to see the state party at least paying some attention to their region.

"It opens the door for South Jersey. We don't get a lot of attention down here, and we don't really have a lot of intense representation that really goes to bat for issues the way that we should," said Lawrence.

When Republicans announced Lawrence's candidacy in the spring, they hailed it as a "game changer" in this suburban Philadelphia district with a nearly two-to-one Democratic registration advantage.  Lawrence, an African-American former councilman from Gloucester Township, switched from Democrat to Republican to join the ticket.  He was soon joined by DiCicco, who is the chief counsel for Zurich's North America Commercial division.

They're running against two-term incumbent Paul Moriarty (D-Washington Township), and Bill Collins, a former Gloucester Township school board president and track coach who is replacing outgoing Assemblywoman Sandra Love (D-Gloucester Twp) on the ballot.

CRYAN BLASTS CHRISTIE’S OPPOSITION TO $2 BILLION IN PROPERTY TAX RELIEF

Says Christie Focused on Obstructing Obama Agenda, Not Helping New Jersey Families

TRENTON--Just one day after Republican Right Wing Conservative gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie stood by silently as RNC Chairman Michael Steele called President Obama's economic recovery plans "nonsense," New Jersey Democratic State Committee Chairman Joseph Cryan blasted Christie for his refusal to accept $2 billion in property tax relief for New Jersey from President Obama's economic recovery plan. Cryan said Christie's opposition to the federal stimulus funds shows that he is more interested in joining with his fellow right-wing Republicans to obstruct President Obama's agenda than working toward common sense solutions for New Jersey.  

Despite a growing chorus of GOP leaders disgusted by racist remarks police said he made, embattled Republican candidate Lee Lucas today refused to back out of his District 3 Assembly race. 

"It's not even a consideration, and I hope I make their blood boil," Lucas told PolitickerNJ.com. "I'm messing with the Republican leadership. I'm not only not going anywhere, I'm having fun. I'm doing the irish jig."

On learning that he used the N-word in 2006, State Republican Party Chairman Jay Webber, Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) and Gloucester County GOP Chairman Bill Fey all asked Lucas to immediately abort his run.

But the commercial cooking equipment repairman who defeated GOP establishment candidates Arthur Marchand and Gibbstown Mayor George Shivery in the June 2nd primary in this 2-1 Democratic district, said there's no way.

"I have a lot of supporters, I get a lot of phone calls of support - of course, they're all scared," Lucas said. "This is a mountainous wave of propaganda."

PolitickerNJ.com

From left: Republican State Chairman Jay Webber, GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Chris Christie and Republican National Chairman Michael Steele

PITMAN - Republican National Chairman Michael Steele came to South Jersey today to campaign with GOP gubernatorial nominee Christopher Christie, calling him a politician who "plays across the state unlike any other Republican in the last 10 or 12 years."

"I am honored to be here today to represent Republicans around the country who knows just how important this race is - not just to New Jersey, but to the nation, because it is a bellwether in so many ways for the future of our party and the future of our nation," he said.

Gloucester Republicans estimated that 175 people showed up to see Christie, the former U.S. Attorney and Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate candidate, in front of the office of the Main Street Financial Group in this small Gloucester County town.  Afterwards, Christie, Steele and GOP State Chairman Jay Webber were off the Vineland for a meet and greet at a diner with the 1st Legislative District's Republican Assembly candidates.

The Pitman event had two distinct strains of campaign rhetoric.  Christie held to his argument that the gubernatorial race hinges only on New Jersey issues, resisting pitting himself against a Democratic president whose in-state approvals remain high. National Republicans like Steele, however, see the race as - in Steele's own words - a "bellwether."  There are only two gubernatorial races this year, and Republicans are hoping that victories here and in Virginia will cast them as a party on the mend.

Christie gave an abridged version of his usual stump speech, listing rankings that showed New Jersey with an unfriendly business climate and lamenting the loss of residents to neighboring states with lower tax rates.  Steele, however, noted that President Obama was coming on Thursday to campaign for Corzine.

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.

One factoid that has appeared on PolitickerNJ.com numerous times in recent years is being reprinted in honor of Republican National Chairman Michael Steele's visit to the Garden State: Republicans haven't won a statewide election in New Jersey since 1997; since then, 49 other states have elected a Republican to statewide office.

Despite their winning streak, New Jersey Democrats went fourteen years without re-electing an incumbent to statewide office.  U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) was re-elected in 2008, having last won re-election in 1994.  Besides Lautenberg, the last New Jersey Democrat to win re-election was Bill Bradley in 1990.

Homophobs are always hypocrites!