He couldn't really do much in that situation; Lonegan was clearly the most conservative candidate, and those conservatives all swung towards him. So Schundler could have kept going after them, but he likely would have lost a lot of moderates- and the opportunity to win the main election had he won this primary. So it seems like it was a calculated gamble.
Unfortunately, the more conservative folks in NJ decided they're try to have it all by voting for Lonegan (who had no chance) instead of taking as much as they could realistically get by voting for Schundler. I fail to see how voting for Lonegan really did anything to promote their conservatism, but hey.
A few thoughts on New Jersey:
I hate New Jersey...
I hate New Jerseyans...
I hate the cesspool in Trenton...
I hate the cesspoll in Mt Holly (county seat)..
I hate the cesspool at the local level (Evesham)...
I hate the NJ "republican" party which is to the left of Air America radio...
I REALLY hate the NJ democrat party which is to the left of Karl Marx...
I hate the next governor, the Dishonorable Comrade Corzine...
And...drum roll please...I hate the NJNEA, NJDOT, NJDMV, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Atlantic City, and everything else concerned with Jersey -- even football jerseys...because they're called JERSEYS!!!
...elvis voice..."...thank you, thank you very much".
BTW, I stopped in before work this morning and voted for Bret knowing there would be a better chance of hitting the Pick 6 lottery twice...in one week...than Bret actually becoming governor.
The lady on News 12 had it right, Steve Lonegan is the New Jersey Conservative's version of Ralph Nader.
Just wonderful, Forrester is probably going to get shalacked by Corzine. I was only able to tolerate McGreevy because I lived under an even more Liberal Governor, George Pataki, Corzine is almost as bad.