Steve Lonegan

Conservative activist Steve Lonegan said the Republicans’ tentative support of Gov. Corzine’s ethics reform plan is a mistake. 

While more mainstream Republicans have cast the reforms as the Democratic realization of what the GOP has been pushing for all along, Lonegan – a staunch opponent of campaign finance laws in general who’s considering running for governor next year– thinks they should be fighting against them. 

“Republicans should get their act together and go after this with a vengeance, because this is an assault on liberty,” he said.  “I think it’s an all-out assault on freedom of speech, freedom of association and the whole American system and tradition of open and competitive elections.”

New Jersey voters’ feelings about Gov. Jon Corzine remain tepid, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University Public Mind poll released Thursday. Survey respondents are split on whether they approve of Corzine’s performance, with 41 percent approving and 43 percent disapproving. Sixteen precent had mixed feelings or didn’t know. Thirty-one percent of New Jersey voters think Corzine is doing an “excellent” or “good job,” while 41 percent rate his performance as “only fair.”

Conservative Activist Steve Lonegan, who’s returning from the Caribbean on a cruise ship, just caught wind that John McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for vice president.

His verdict: “I think it’s a terrific choice.”

That’s a strong endorsement coming from Lonegan, who has no qualms about making his dissatisfaction with mainstream Republicans public.

“I know she’s solidly pro-life. This woman is totally outspoken on the issues. She’s got an outstanding record of the governor. I think she’s attractive,” he said. “I think it’s going to unite the party from one end t the other. She’s going to bring excitement and energy."

Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Medham) is thinking about running for Governor in 2009.
DENVER - When people ask him if he’s a mountain man - one of those hard right warriors from Northwestern Jersey, Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Randolph) responds that he’s "more of a foothill guy."

Whatever the colloquialism, Merkt said today that he is very serious about trying to climb over the obstacles to challenge Gov. Jon Corzine. Tomorrow he will officially establish an exploratory committee toward that end.

How serious is he?

"I will not seek re-election to the Assembly," said the 11-year legislative veteran, a corporate attorney with TDI Power in Hackettstown.

"This is no trial balloon," Merkt said. "I’ve been considering this for a number of months, and I am convinced that New Jersey needs a governor who respects the people."

DENVER -- Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) said that members of the unofficial legislative committee figuring out how to salvage the Clean Elections program have met at least once and are “rolling up their sleeves to do everything they can to keep the program.”

Clean Elections faces a potential constitutional hurdle and the fierce opposition of conservatives, who went looking for what they called a “secret” committee meeting. Conservative activist Steve Lonegan’s Americans for Prosperity even made a video documenting their search for the committee’s meeting.

Although Roberts convened the committee, he doesn’t know where they met either (he’s not actually a member).

“It might have been somewhere in the statehouse.”

For years, conservative activist Steve Lonegan has been seen by the state's moderate, mainstream Republicans more as a thorn in the side than a boon to their party.

But after leaving office as the mayor of Bogota, the ever-controversial Lonegan has - at least on the surface - made nice with some of the party's more high profile members as he's dramatically increased his statewide profile.

Take the convention run shortly before the U.S. Senate primaries at the Trenton Marriot, where Americans for Prosperity - the anti-tax group whose New Jersey chapter Lonegan heads up - brought out a couple national Republican luminaries and a few New Jersey Republicans who typically aren't seen with Lonegan.

Once you got past the 3,000 pound fiberglass pig perched atop a trailer parked outside the hotel, you could meet not only some of the  of the Republicans' most conservative legislators -- like Assembly members Michael Patrick Carroll, Richard Merkt, Allison Littell-McHose and State Sen. Gerald Cardinale.  But also present were members of the new crop of Republican leadership like Tom Kean, Jr., Kevin O'Toole and Joe Kyrillos.

The convention came about six months after the November surprise defeat of two ballot initiatives that Lonegan fought hard against, including one to borrow money for stem-cell research.  Political observers differ on how much credit Lonegan gets for the measures' defeat, but he was most vocal opponent, and became the face of the effort.

Conservative activist and potential gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan said that he’ll support John McCain for president, even if he picks a pro-choice running mate.

But he hopes it doesn’t come down to that.

“I’m going to support the McCain ticket, but I think that would be another discouragement for conservatives. So I hope he chooses better than that, wiser than that,” said Lonegan. “Barack Obama is way far to the left, but that would just be, I think,a political blunder on McCain’s part. And I think the signal to conservatives, again, is hey we don’t need you or where else are you going to go.”

Calling conservative activist Steve Lonegan “New Jersey’s Ronald Reagan,” Assemblyman Michael Doherty announced today that he will chair the recently-formed Committee to Draft Steve Lonegan for Governor.

The committee was jump-started earlier this week by Republican political consultant Dan Gallic.

“No one speaks out louder or stronger for taxpayers and in defense of our conservative values than Steve Lonegan.  He is not only the strongest candidate we can run against Jon Corzine, he is the best man for the job,” said Doherty in a statement. 

Doherty, who’s among the legislature’s most conservative members, flirted with a U.S. Senate run last year, and was the only New Jersey legislator to endorse Republican Ron Paul for president. 

“Lonegan was not only our only hope to save our state, but our last hope.”

Assemblywoman Alison McHose is mentioned as a possible GOP candidate for Lt. Governor in 2009: Getty Images Photo
Among the many names bandied about as potential Republican gubernatorial running mates next year is Assemblywoman Allison Littell McHose (R-Franklin), who represents the third generation of a Sussex County political dynasty.

Just before speaking at a news conference attacking the Clean Elections program that she took part in last year, McHose indicated that she was open to the possibility of running for the newly created position of Lieutenant Governor.

“I’d be flattered and would consider it. I’m not actively seeking to promote myself like some on the other side,” she said. “I’m a humble politician.”

Yesterday, when veteran Republican political operative Dan Gallic announced that he was forming an organization to draft conservative activist Steve Lonegan into the Governor's race next year, he lamented the candidates Republicans typically choose for statewide races as "weak-kneed wimpy moderates who believe in nothing and are afraid to throw a punch." 

Today, Gallic said that language doesn't apply to the two other most high profile potential candidates next year: U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie and biotech millionaire John Crowley.

"I was referring to the past slew of candidates who have lost by 9 or 10 points," said Gallic, who managed conservative State Sen. Joe Pennacchio's run for U.S. Senate earlier this year.  "So far what I've seen is a far better group of candidates than the Republicans have put up in quite some time, all of which have no ties to the establishment at this point."