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“Lonegan has produced one nasty ad after the other.

He spends more time slamming and slashing Christie than he does attacking Corzine.

Ugh

My vote goes to Christie.”

christie is the one lying in his ads talking about 70% tax increase...2.9% of like 30,000 dollars is a few hundred bucks that they will get back in their eic’s anyway...

christie is the one being misleading in his ads...lonegan has facts in his ads and an actual plan with numbers

christie just says...”hey i’ll get around to cutting taxes sometime in the next 4 years”

christie is just corzine in a different suit...

“Lonegan has produced one nasty ad after the other. He spends more time slamming and slashing Christie than he does attacking Corzine.”

You must live in a different state than I do!

If Christie had run a clean campaign primarily against Corzine, I’d vote for him. Other things being equal, I’d like to elect a Republican Governor, and Lonegan is the Don Quixote of the pro-life movement. Christie’s attack ads against Lonegan have been some of the most scurilous garbage I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure now who I will vote for in November if Christie is the nominee. Probably for the Libertarian, whoever that is.

I've heard grumbling from freepers that Christie is a RINO (and that may well be the case if the NJGOP establishment is pushing hard for him in the primary), but in all honesty I'm not impressed with Steve Longean at all. Yes, he's conservative, but I think he'd make a poor candidate in the general election. If you watch his videos on his website, Longean doesn't come across as a very likeable guy in his speeches. If a weakened Corzine beats Longean, that will just embolden the NJGOP to use it as "proof" that "conservatives can't win", and foist even more RINOs on us the next time around.

People mention how the NJGOP establishment screwed conservative Bret Schnduler... That was true in 2001, but in 2005, I blame Longean's ego-trip bid for Governor as the reason Schnduler lost. Schnudler was polling dead even with "moderate" establishment choice Doug Forrester in the primary, and had statewide name recognition. Then little known small town mayor Longean gets in the race, has no funds and no shot at winning, comes in a distant 4th place in the GOP primary with 8%, but manages to pry enough conservative votes from Schundler to let Forrester squeak ahead of him and win the nomination. I believe anyone has the right to run, but I think there's infinitely more evidence Longean was the spoiler than some freepers claim about State Senator Bill Brady causing Topinka's nomination because he wouldn't "get out of way" for unelectable Noshowberweis in the 2006 Illinois governor primary.

Aside from being elected mayor of a small town, Longean has tried his hand at higher office twice, and done very poorly in both campaigns. First he tried for Congressman in NJ's 9th District, and then sought the 2005 Republican nomination for Governor. He did succeed in getting elected mayor of Bogata, a town of 7,000 people. As I've noted in the past, that may be a springboard to statewide office in a rural state like Alaska, but it's hardly a blip on the radar in the ultra-urbanized state of New Jersey. Schnudler, by contrast, was mayor of a city with over 200,000 people. The situation is not comparable at all aside from the fact they were both mayor.

I'm also still wondering how much of a RINO Christie is. The phrase has been thrown around on FR so much that it's almost become meaningless. It could vary all the way from 1) Mushy Moderate-Conservative Norm Coleman type who will do the right thing roughly 70% of the time, 2) Worthless "centrist" Steve Sauerberg type who has no position on any issue besides "Democrats are bad and corrupt", or 3) Obnoxious left-wing Linc Chafee/Mark Kirk type who tries to outliberal the RATs from time to time and only agrees with "his" own party about 15-30% of the time. ('RINO' could also mean "conservative who agrees with me 90% of the time but opposed me on my pet issue", but I assume that doesn't apply in that case)

Where Christie falls on that spectrum certainly affects whether I'd support him. Type 1 would get my vote in the primary if he's the only viable choice, Type 2 would get my vote in the general election only if he has a good chance at stopping a socialist RAT from winning, and Type 3 is unacceptable for me under any circumstance.

There is also a third candidate in the primary, State Assemblyman Rick Merkt. Anyone know where he stands on the political spectrum and how good of a chance he has? I bet he has a larger constituency than Longean in any case.

Can't say I'm too happy with any of the choices for NJ Governor right now.

That has the facts completely reversed. The early campaign was completely on topic by Lonegan and completely dismissive by Christie, who acted as though anointed by the bosses.

Since the bosses in NJ appear to have the same goals regardless of party, I’d be against anyone openly claimed by them regardless of party.

When Christie realized he really had a fight on his hands, he came out slinging and has not stopped to wipe his hands since then. Only recently has he become something, and that something is a weak “me-too” candidate.

I don’t know what campaign you’ve been watching, but it’s not the one in NJ.

Even now, you can’t tell me what Christie’s plans are on tax cuts, spending cuts, encouraging business, stemming the exodus of high-earners, dealing with COAH, Abbott, NJ Supreme Court, illegal aliens, gun ownership. If you can say anything about Christie that can be documented, it will be generalities and unsupported rhetoric.

We are all grown up now, and no longer desire our elected officials to pat us on the head and reassure us that, while they don’t know what they are doing, it will all be for the best. That’s Christie. That’s been the last dozen politicians in both NJ and the national scene, including our Senators. THAT’s OVER!