New Jersey Republican Senate candidate Steve Lonegan said that voters are tired of politicians who simply tell them what they want to hear. The former Bogota, N.J. mayor and conservative warrior is taking a page out of Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) playbook and giving voters the straight talk they need.
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“They are tired of politicians who are committed to their own self-interests at the expense of the taxpayers. Rather than go out and get everyone to agree with me, I have let them know. What you see is what you get. When I go down to Washington D.C. I will be working hard for them every day, because that’s the only way I know how to do it, and that’s what’s going to win us the election,” Lonegan told Rare in an interview Friday.
Though the Republican candidate admits that the country is divided, he is proud of his ability to bring the party together. Lonegan boasts marquee Republican names on his side through his entire campaign.
“I have brought together the entire Republican Party, from Gov. Christie, to [former] Gov. Palin, to Gov. Perry (R-Texas) to [Sen.] Rand Paul (R-Ky.), to [Sen.] Tom Coburn (R-Okla.),” he said. “The entire party from the tea party, the conservatives, the pro-life, not so pro-life, the pro-gun, not-so pro-gun.”
At a recent campaign rally, Gov. Palin spoke on Lonegan’s behalf, repeating his signature phrase: “New Jersey needs a leader not a Tweeter.”
This Republican unity has brought in outsiders as well, Lonegan says, with polls showing him leading among New Jersey independents.
“[People] recognize that the real threat to our liberty is Barack Obama and his administration,” Lonegan explained. “It’s not fellow Republicans or independents; it’s the Obama administration. There is a huge contingent of conservative Democrats, those are the working union men and women, guys that go to church on Sundays and go shooting on Saturdays, and like to hunt and fish and they are Boy Scout leaders and football coaches. Those are my voters.”
Lonegan entered a New Jersey Senate race that was presumed by many to be gift-wrapped for his opponent Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a man who Lonegan calls the “poster child for a poll-driven, speech coach, consultant-trained candidate.”
With the election only hours away, Lonegan believes that the liberal-leaning state will choose old-fashioned conservative values over a man who has led the city of Newark into economic and social turmoil. Lonegan is quick to point out his opponents failures as Newark’s mayor and refers to Newark not as a city, but as a “black hole.”
“Robberies have hit a 14-year high, where murders are off the charts and crime is up,” Lonegan said. “High school dropouts rates range from 15 percent to 17 percent, unemployment has hit 14 percent.”
“It just demonstrates that when you don’t pay attention to your business, and [as] anyone who has run a business knows, that when you neglect your business, it falls apart. And Newark is falling apart,” Lonegan added.
Lonegan has focused his campaign on the notion that Booker is not a genuine politician, but rather a puppet of the Obama administration. New Jersey needs a “leader, not a Tweeter,” his campaign slogan goes, a line that references his opponent’s massive online following and national name recognition; a profile Lonegan believes should trouble the people of New Jersey.
Lonegan believes that Booker is preoccupied with his own personal fame saying that Booker “has been too busy tweeting, running around Hollywood and San Francisco trying to hang out with a bunch of movie stars.” Lonegan is quick to point out that unlike Booker New Jersey voters don’t “hang out in Washington D.C. with Matt Damon, Barbara Streisand and the rest of them. They live and work in the state,” before pledging that “as a Senator I am going to live and work in the state.”
The idea that Mayor Booker is preoccupied with his own brand and image has been a frequent point of attack during the campaign with Lonegan describing Booker as an “example of another politician whose own self-promotion at the expense of the taxpayers has come before his commitment to govern.”
Despite Lonegan’s gravitas and tough talk, polls still show Booker holding a commanding double-digit lead. Lonegan’s chances were further wounded in recent days by allegations from his opponent and the New Jersey Star Ledger that while mayor of Bogota, Lonegan received hundreds of thousands of dollars in a state bailout. Lonegan refers to this issue as one from the “junk pile of ideas,” and describes the allegations as “absurd.” According to Lonegan, the funds he received were mere “pennies” in comparison to funds Booker’s Newark receives regularly.
The spotlight on Lonegan’s Bogota scandal also allows him to continue his comparison to Newark, he shared.
“All the money gets poured into what I call the big black hole in Newark, just like the big black hole in space that sucks things in and nothing comes out of,” he said.
“That’s what has happened, billions of tax dollars have been poured into the coffers of Newark, never to be seen again and there is no improvement. If you poured those billions in and Newark became this utopian city, that would be different. But all of a sudden it has disappeared, in the pockets of politically connected hacks.”
Only the polls will reflect how New Jerseyans feel about Steve Lonegan. The citizens of New Jersey are not looking for “someone who is going to agree with them on everything, they want someone who is going to speak with honesty and principle,” Lonegan shared.
Related articles
- How Steve Lonegan is giving Cory Booker a run for his money (rare.go-vip.net)
- Poll: Did Booker or Lonegan win second U.S. Senate debate? (nj.com)