Have Conservatives Grown Tired of Lonegan’s Antics?

In our first Freditorial we told you that Chris Christie would not be the next governor of New Jersey. We still stand by that statement.

One of the reasons we believe this to be true is the surprisingly strong candidacy of former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan.

Well, let us state up front, that “strong” is a relative term. After all Lonegan’s showing thus far, does speak ill of the NJGOP in that Lonegan personally is not a great candidate. A healthy party that was proud of itself could clearly have produced at candidate better than Christie and /or Lonegan.

Lonegan has an intellectually superior platform than his competitors. In a campaign about pocketbook issues Lonegan has excelled to the surprise of many; however, it should be noted that Christie is shockingly under prepared and seemingly ill-advised.

Lonegan is also benefiting from an anemic establishment that has been is a state of paralysis since at least November 2004. There are simply no principled spokesmen within the party to oppose Lonegan.

While Lonegan has a strong platform and no intellectual opposition within the party, he is his own worst enemy. Lonegan has a well-deserved reputation for always saying too much, going just a little too far, crossing boundaries and/or lines while doing battle in intramural contests. This may also be attributable to the guy he uses as his campaign guru, Rick Shaftan, who is neither a nice person nor a rocket scientist.

Through his career he has successfully alienated so many of his fellow conservatives. Lonegan has pursued a strategy of under cutting all other conservatives in an effort to make himself the leader of the right in New Jersey.

Lonegan and Shaftan have always reserved their harshest criticisms for other GOPers. Rarely have they attacked Democratic figures with exception of Gov. Corzine’s toll plan. Ironically the two of them have been employed and linked to local Democrats in Hudson and Bergen Counties.

This is why not many, but just enough conservatives are withholding their support for Lonegan. Many conservatives blame Lonegan for Bret Schundler’s defeat in 2005.

Steve Forbes, a flat tax advocate like Lonegan, should be supporting Lonegan, but perhaps Steve’s famous “who cares what Steve Forbes thinks?” line from the CBS debate in 2005 is still on Forbes’ mind. That comment is right out of the Rick “shoot off your mouth” Shaftan playbook.

Maybe Murray Sabrin hasn’t gotten over Lonegan publicly backing away from him in last year’s primary. Steve very publicly took a hike on longtime friend Sabrin, making Murray look foolish and now Murray is taking shots at Lonegan. According to rumors, Shaftan had a chance to weasel money out of Jersey Joe Pennachio and Murray’s years of friendship and support no longer mattered to Steve.

Many in Bergen still remember Lonegan’s brutal criticisms of Bergen County Clerk Kathe Donovan or his public endorsement of moderate Kevin O’Toole in the District 40 state senate primary in 2007. Senator O’Toole is many things, but conservative is not one of them; yet, Steve backstabbed friends and supporters in order to prevent other conservatives from getting ahead. Assembly candidate in that 2007 primary, conservative activist John Ginty was treated especially poorly by Lonegan.

So, when it comes time to run in a race where support matters, the feet you step on suddenly have trouble walking with you.

Lonegan’s platform and willingness to say anything he believes he needs to say to win make him a potential threat to steal the primary contest on June 2.

It is unfortunate for Steve that his years and years of mistreating friends, supporters, allies and even staffers is starting to come back and bite him you know where!

Were it not for the two timing Steve and Rick have done over the last couple of years, this primary would be a real dog fight with Chris Christie. It may still be, but unless he finds a way to mend some very shattered fences, his antics may cause him to finish second in a race that he could have won. People like paybacks. The question is who will payback whom on June 2nd.

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