Three decades ago, a relative of mine became one of the Reagan Democrats because his stupid union union told him to vote that way. He was so proud. Until the day he found out that Reagan cut veterans' health benefits. He said, "I voted for him because he was going to cut the special interests. How can veterans be a special interest?"
Illuminating, right? Same thing's going to happen to Christie-loving high-fiving parents who find out Junior's band teacher, and AP classes are no more, and baby sister's SOL for after-school care so Mom 'n Dad can work. Unions are organized. But it's going to be interesting to see how many civilians show up. For this rally to leverage power and provide backbone & support for legislators standing up to Christie, it cannot be all organized union labor. Like it or not, Christie will swat that away. So I'd say it depends on librarians, parents, college professors, bus & train riders, homeowners, people who need parks, disabled people, students, athletes, librarians, musicians & artists, hospital administrators ...
The Wing Nuts are coming to South Jersey! The Lonegan Tea Party wack jobs will be picketing State Senator Steve Sweeney's Office in West Deptford on Tuesday May 18 at noon.
They are going to voice their opposition to the State Senator's constitutional right of "Advise and Consent" on Justice Wallace.
Lonegan and Christie do not like it when other people read the State Constitution.
The freedom to assemble goes both ways.
True Democrats and true Americans support the idea of "seperation of powers" .
The original Tea Party members were against a Monarchy. Now they support King Christie.
Lonegan and his wackos will be a better show than the circus!
I got a phone call from a reporter asking how I felt getting an 'F' in the recent Americans for Prosperity Score Card. Gee, what a surprise.
Steve Lonegan opposes recycling, health care for children, minority owned businesses, new schools, and environmental protection. It would be a story if I got any grade other than an F.
But, to be fair, not all legislators did as poorly as me:
Michael Patrick Carroll - A+
Alison Littell McHose - A+
Gary Chiusano - A+
Jay Webber - A+
The Bergen County Republicans were hoping they could unite behind a candidate, Kathleen Donovan, in order to take on County Executive Dennis McNerney. That hope is fading fast after this broadside from Steve Lonegan:
"I consider Kathe Donovan to be the Dede Scozzafava of New Jersey. There's no more far left liberal running as a Republican than Kathe Donovan," said former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, referring to moderate upstate New York Republican assemblywoman who last year suspended her special election congressional campaign after a challenge from the right doomed her chances.
He said the only reason people are supporting her is because they have no other option and chastised the party for not looking to recruit more conservative candidates. But Bergen GOP Chair Bob Yudin was having none of Lonegan and fired back:
"Steve could not even win Bergen County - his own county - against Chris Christie. I'm tired of losing races. I want to see resurgence in the Republican Party," he said. "I have received overwhelming support for what I have done in uniting the Republican Party in Bergen County -- overwhelming support. I can't tell you how overwhelming it has been."
Overwhelming he tells you. The Bergen GOP has been targeting the county executive seat as their crown jewel and Yudin doesn't want anyone, especially Steve Lonegan to get in the way of that. If there are enough people who agree with Lonegan, you wonder if they would run a candidate separately or if they would sit home viewing their options as unacceptable? Somewhere, Dennis McNerney must be smiling watching this.
The tea party went to Washington yetserday with people demonstrating and protesting on Capitol Hill. Reports say that Americans for Prosperity were the driving force behind the organizing:
ThinkProgress has video of AfP workers handing out signs and talking points to the Tea Partiers the group shuttled in from other areas. According to one AfP staffer, the group paid for 40 buses to bring protesters to today's event.
They said they brought 25 buses from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Congressman Rothman took some time to speak with protesters that were his constituents and Steve Lonegan had this observation on Rothman choosing to speak with them:
"We thank the congressman for having the guts to come out here - whether we agree with him or not," Lonegan said, and many in the crowd voiced agreement.
The peabag bloggers over at Clowns With Agita have been claiming credit for Christie's victory because of the so-called "Lonegan Surge". Despite bashing Chrisite since they lost last June, the unreconstructed Loneganistas now say that Lonegan's appearance with Christie at a rally in Flemington on Saturday propelled 100,000 Lonegan voters to the polls to vote for Christie and provide the margin of victory.
Evidently these bloggers think that their fellow Loneganistas are so mindless that they wouldn't know who to vote for until they received their marching orders from "Der Fuehrer"
Steve Lonegan's group has put together an ad urging people to vote no on 1, the open space public question. He decided the best way to convey his message, was to use a park and water as a backdrop with children as props:This is what he recently said about his effort:
Conservative activist Steve Lonegan said Tuesday he hopes to raise $200,000 and run radio and television ads opposing a statewide referendum to borrow $400 million for open space.
He said he wants to tap into the outrage he said was shown in tea party protests against federal healthcare and cap-and-trade legislation.
The paper looked into how the committee is run and had questions:
While Lonegan told reporters the committee was "all me," state documents filed Sept. 22 say the committee's top members are top officials with Americans for Prosperity, a libertarian-leaning group based in Washington, D.C.
Lonegan is AFP's New Jersey director. His name does not appear on any committee filings.
In filings with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission, the "Committee to Defeat Question One" lists the Bogota, Bergen County, address and phone number used by AFP's state branch. Its chairman is AFP's Executive Vice President and General Counsel John Flynn and its treasurer is AFP's Chief Financial Officer Steve Mullins. It also names Jonathan Martin, AFP's senior finance manager.
Lonegan said later "I run the operation." Asked about the out-of-state connections, he said, "That's just the way we set it up."
The event is being organized by the NJ Keep it Green Coalition, made up of 135 organizations from across the state that are working to renew the Garden State Preservation Trust and to provide for clean water, open spaces, farmland preservation and historic preservation. They are supported by a bipartisan group of legislators and local officials.
Governor Corzine supports the Open Space question, while his opponents Chris Christie and Chris Daggett oppose the measure. Polls thus far have shown support for the Open Space measure.
There has been plenty of reaction today to Chris Christie choosing Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno. It appears that while many are satisfied with the choice, the fact that she is pro-choice raises questions for some including Steve Lonegan about her selection:
"So maybe this is an attempt for the political insiders to appeal to everybody, to pander to both sides."
Now I know, people will say since when does Steve Lonegan speak for all conservatives. This choice may keep the NJ Right to Life out of the General election, which may also be smart politics for someone trying to run to the middle. Kim Guadagno may be very qualified, but that doesn't change the face that Christie's whole campaign strategy has been an attempt to pander to both sides.
In the primary he was the super conservative, now he's Mr. Moderate trying to tie himself to President Obama. It may be smart politics, but the question remains at what point do the conservatives get tired and decide to sit on their hands? As much as he's looking for votes in the middle, he still needs the base to turn out to win.
That would be Paul Mulshine opinionating at www.nj.com.
Mulshine has it out for Christie, as demonstrated in his last 2 columns (and before, I'm sure).
Echoing Rosi's observation that Christie posed as a conservative in the primary and is now positioning himself in the center for the general, Mulshine asks why Christie would weigh in, positively, on Sonia Sotomayor.
If he were a true conservative, he would have focused on Sotomayor's hazy positions on gun and property rights.
Perhaps it has to do with his relationship to Stu Rabner. And to Mulshine, that is scary.
You see, unlike the US Supreme court, the highest court in NJ dictates to the legislature what laws it can pass, most notably in education.
Taking this position to its logical conclusion, it doesn't matter whether Christie or Corzine is elected, Stu Rabner will run the state. Never mind that we have one of the strongest executives in the country.
In his 2nd column, Mulshine encourages people to replace Christie on the ballot. He notes that they have 51 days before Nov. 3rd to do so without having to bother with the courts in a situation akin to le afaire du Torch.
After all, what could be worse than a Republican endorsing Obama's environmental plan or "pandering to urban voters" with a "two year exemption from the state income tax for people who move into 'super zones' in the cities." (I agree with Mulshine on the second proposal. It is kind of dumb for a Republican to focus on relief to the cities in an effort to take away votes from a Democrat.)
Best of all, Mulshine complains that "Republicans can't get a straight answer from their party's candidate." It seems the party can only get what I call weasel words; Mulshine calls it lying: Christie promises tax cuts while restoring property tax relief. At the very least, its an oxymoron.
The commentariat's response was rather low key by nj.com standards. No one considered replacing Christie on the ballot. But a number of people said they were going to write in - write in - votes for Lonagen.
You go, Paul! The next best thing to to having Lonegan on the Republican ballot is having you trash Christie from now until election day!
Since the Primary Election, loyal Republicans have been baffled by the behavior of the GOP establishment in New Jersey. 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.
We've talked plenty here at Blue Jersey about Christie's missing shared values and the state party has been all over him. I wrote about the party plank issue yesterday, but the only response Christie gave was to make a joke that the news was out and he was a Republican. Lonegan concluded his letter this way:
Republicans have a base vote who wants fiscal change. It is the hollow men who reject it, and they do so for the simple reason that it is in their financial interests to maintain the status quo. At the back of every seemingly inexplicable betrayal by a GOP "leader" sits a close personal advisor with his own personal reasons. And in a state GOP without principles - that fails to adopt its own party platform - this kind of venal corruption is rampant.
That's why it is so important for the New Jersey Republican State Committee to take a principled stand, adopt the party platform, and then use those principles when the hollow men come round with their personal agendas.
"I don't think Steve really means that. He probably just had a bad morning," he said.
It's unlikely many of these conservatives would support the Governor, but the numbers game for Christie to win the Governors mansion assumes that his base turns out as he tries to get more of the vote in the middle. Carl Golden did an op-ed that "sore-loser Lonegan could cost Christie the election" saying:
If the Lonegan wing boycotts the Christie candidacy, the candidate's task of overcoming the Democrats' registration advantage will be that much tougher. Christie will be forced to make up the difference by peeling off a greater number of unaffiliated voters - the very people who've demonstrated election after election that fringe ideology is unacceptable and their support will be given to the candidate of responsible and more centrist policies.
You wonder at what point the base gets tired of being kicked before they just stay home. If they don't see Christie as a better alternative for them, would they still give him their vote?
Steve Lonegan is back with his pals at Americans For Prosperity, according to PolitickerNJ.com. He's holding a press conference this afternoon, complete with a ten foot inflatable pig, to announce his return to battle against "Trenton's socialist policy agenda".
Of course I expect there will be implications for the fall campaign. It is my opinion that Christie's financial backers will pour money into AFP's bank account (I wonder how much Todd Christie will donate; it won't be the first time he puts up money to benefit his brother) in echange for Lonegan's personal endorsement (AFP cannot endorse candidates, but Lonegan can and I expect at some point will campaign for Christie). Christie, by way of supporting AFP, now becomes Lonegan's meal ticket.
I also expect that Christie will gain access to AFP's mailing list which I expect will include a significant number of wealthy out-of-state donors.
It looks like we still have Steve Lonegan to kick around some more.
"Christie might as well propose a law requiring the rivers to run with whiskey and the mountains to be made of ice cream."
- Star Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine, commenting on the absurdity of Chris Christie's tax and spending proposals.
If politics is theater, than the 2009 Republican gubernatorial primary was akin to a Tony Award winning show on Broadway. Since the silly season accelerated last February with Chris Christie's formal entrance into the race, several moments stick out as worthy of inclusion on a list of the Top Ten Moments in the 2009 GOP Primary.
Click on the headline to read the list, and feel free to offer favorite moments of your own.
During Reporters Roundtable this week, Charles Stile gave a pretty succinct critique of the options before the voters between the two major candidates in the GOP Primary and what they say they plan to do:
They're both fantasies, both plans. One with numbers, one without.
That's almost a bumper sticker slogan of the GOP primary, because we know how much they like bumper sticker slogans. It's good to see the media picking up on the fact that Christie continues to say nothing of substance.
"Mitt Romney was rejected by Republican Primary voters because he was a moderate trying to pass himself off as a conservative just in time to win an election. Chris Christie has done the exact same thing in this race, so it follows that Romney would back him," he says in a statement.
"This is a case of one fraudulent moderate trying to help another one. Republican voters will see through Chris Christie the same way they did Mitt Romney last February."
Rejected and fraudulent, it must be getting close to election day. I love the fight over who is the bigger, better conservative too. But my favorite part of the Romney trip into town was learning that he knows something no one else does:
I know Chris Christie. I've looked at his plan in great depth.
Maybe since Mitt knows all about the plan and has seen it in such great depth, he could share with the voters because Christie hasn't been willing to do so.
Rasmussen released a report on Thursday for the Republican primary and found Chris Christie leading Steve Lonegan 46-35. This is a bit better for Lonegan than the other companies' polls, but the bottom line is he remains the underdog with the election next week.
It's interesting to see that Generation X (ages 30-49) favors Lonegan -- I guess Reagan dies hard among those who were an impressionable age. 70% of Republicans have a favorable view of Christie, so the bitterness on PolitickerNJ comment threads is not too widely shared.
No matter what people say to him, Chris Christie manages to respond by spouting off talking points of how he will cut taxes when others have failed because people will just follow him. Rick Merkt has been relentless in saying Christie is full of it and that he's being the realist. Yesterday, in yet another radio debate, Merkt continued going after Christie's talking point campaign:
"You have to understand that what you can do are the things you can do as governor, not the things that you hope the Legislature's going to do. I'm not being pessimistic. I'm being realistic,"
Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan is just being honest. And that's the problem. Lonegan, a hardened conservative who is running well behind front-runner Chris Christie, is pushing a 2.9 percent flat tax as a replacement for what he calls "the state's destructive and progressive income tax."
Christie's chief drawback is his foggy agenda, a combination of GOP boilerplate and deliberate ambiguity. That's probably because he is trying to keep the party's conservative base mollified without harming his ability to move toward the center in November - a perennial challenge for Republicans in the liberal state.
Lonegan, by contrast, deserves credit for making substantive policy proposals. Unfortunately, some of them would be disastrous if ever carried out.
The Inky praises Merkt but says that "his barely funded campaign dooms him to also-ran status." They even say that if Christie wins the nomination, he should start offering some more clues about where he plans to take the state.
So it's boiler plate and ambiguity vs. providing something that would be disastrous. They seem to have gone with the perceived electability over substance. We'll see on June 2 what the GOP primary voter does.
Steve Lonegan has a new ad out where he stops trying to convince people that Chris Christie is Jon Corzine's best friend and contrasts his proposals with Christie's lack of a plan, pointing out that what Christie has produced was called a "fantasy" by the Star Ledger:
After the Christie campaign has pounded away on what they say is a 70% increase in taxes under Lonegan, I don't know if this ad will be completely effective. And a bigger problem for Lonegan at this point is that people in the Republican primary may be looking for that "fantasy" candidate they think can win in November.
Sean Hannity had Steve Lonegan's main competitor on his show last night. Please take a moment to urge Mr. Hannity to give equal time to Steve Lonegan on the show.
Take a moment of your time to write a note. There is no need to be negative. Just point out that Steve Lonegan is running neck-and-neck with his main competitor in the Republican primary. Sean Hannity's audience would benefit from hearing how Steve Lonegan is starting a conservative resurgence in New Jersey.
It's a good thing he sent this out before the latest poll numbers came out on the neck and neck competitor section. I'm trying to think who Lonegan could have on in the Rudy role, not like he needs it though. Any suggestions?
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