Lonegan Interview: The Lost Tapes

by: JRB

Wed Nov 14, 2007 at 07:37:46 AM EST

MORAN: You are generally looked to as the leader of a conclave in New Jersey, of conservatives disaffected by their government and the state's Republican Party.

LONEGAN: That's right, Tom. It's a real movement we have here.

MORAN: How did your movement single-handedly defeat last week's referendum on stem cell research.

LONEGAN: We were absolutely critical. I had 2,000 real activists, and we rolled into action on this. That's how we were able to put up 15,000 signs in less than two weeks. If we had more money, we would have beaten the open space referendum, too. And given another two weeks in the cycle, we would have easily recalled the governor and elected me.

MORAN: Mayor, might I then ask why, if you had such a movement with 2,000 "real" activists, was it necessary you hire undocumented workers to assemble your signs?

LONEGAN: (Confused) I'm not following you here.

MORAN: Well, why not have the 2,000 activists assemble the signs?

LONEGAN: (Indignant) Are you crazy? This is a movement and my people are activists, but they're not fanatics, they're not zealots! The kind of dedication needed to assemble a sign -- it could take hours!

MORAN: Then what do you do when you need to assemble signs?

LONEGAN: You go to a street corner in Palisades Park and pick up a few Latino day-laborers. Assembling signs to advocate for a core-belief is no job for an activist.

MORAN: But they weren't legal.

LONEGAN: I didn't know that. I just assumed that if they're standing on a street corner looking for work, they've got to be here legally.

MORAN: But don't you see the hypocrisy of hiring these men to assemble your movement's signs, while railing against illegal immigration, and in doing so lumping together everything that is Spanish-language and of Latin-American orientation into the sphere of lawlessness and criminality?

LONEGAN: Got you there, Tom. I've never paid an illegal immigrant in my life.

MORAN: Touche, Mayor. Touche.