MacArthur: “A team effort all the way”

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

10439029_331266630354368_414878361289038945_nAs prepared for delivery on Tuesday night by Tom MacArthur in Berkeley (Ocean County) after receiving Steve Lonegan’s concession phone call…

Thank you!

And I mean that from the bottom my heart. Thank you to each and every one of you who talked with your family, friends and neighbors. Who knocked on the doors, made the phone calls, and stuffed the envelopes. Who wrote letters to the editor and attended our Meet and Greets. Who forwarded the emails and posted on social media and put up our lawn signs.

Thank you.

This is not my victory – it’s our victory. A team effort all the way. I want to thank our hardworking staff and volunteers, George Gilmore and the Ocean County Republican Party, Bill Layton and the Burlington County Republican Party and everyone who helped make tonight possible – especially the great voters of the Third Congressional District.

I also want to recognize Steve Lonegan and his supporters for a hard fought race. Our differences on the campaign trail aside, I want to wish Steve’s family well and his infant grandson a speedy and full recovery.

Speaking of family, before I go any further, let me thank my own family. I know this campaign wasn’t easy on them, and I also know I wouldn’t be standing up here today without their love and support and encouragement.

Our country is at a crossroads.

We spend too much. We borrow too much. Too many of our citizens are out of a job. Still others are working more but making less. Seniors on a fixed income are struggling to make ends meet. And our children are on course to inherit an America headed in the wrong direction.

Yet, in the face of these challenges, the politicians in Washington are focused more on pointing fingers at each other than they are about coming together to solve problems. Too many politicians want to divide us for their own self-interest. Six years ago, we were promised “hope and change”. Today, the “hope” has waned, and the “change” has been for the worse.

Also, not without blame are some within our own party, who would prefer to stand against everything, and for nothing. We can and must do better.

In the campaign ahead, I intend to emulate Ronald Reagan, and articulate a positive, optimistic message built around common sense conservative principles of individual responsibility and freedom, smaller government and free markets-while extending a compassionate hand-up to hardworking people who are struggling every day to build a better life for themselves and their families.

I want to assemble a coalition of Republicans, Democrats and Independents who may not agree on every single issue, but realize we are all in this together and the only way to strengthen our nation and secure a brighter future is to find common ground.

President Reagan said: “The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence, and patience to turn that dream into reality.” I do dream of a better, safer world and by God’s grace, I will with courage, persistence and patience do my part to turn our shared American dream into reality.

I pledge today to be a different kind of Congressman, one who will care more about solutions than finger pointing and bring people together to restore our country and get America working again.

Thank you. God Bless. On to November!

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8390 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

15 Comments

  1. That’s too bad. I don’t vote for party. I will mail in a new application to become “Unaffilated” once again, and I will not vote for this machine-picked candidate.

  2. You are no Ronald Reagan, and your stances and policies do not reflect Ronald Reagan. He was not beholden to the establishment. The Republican party is only a shadow of itself. They have given in to big government and crony capitalism. I too will become unaffiliated because the Republican party no longer represents anything Reagan stood for. By invoking Reagan as someone you think you are emulating , insults my intelligence.

  3. A team of 2 million (dollars, that is) and the best smear campaign money could by. MacArthur did everything he could to besmirch the name of a good conservative. But ultimately, whoever the establishment designates as “the chosen one” by awarding them the line is ultimately the candidate who will always win. If they had thrown their support to Lonegan, he would have won by a more impressive margin. But they stayed true to their mission of nominating more liberal candidates … and yeah, I’m sure the monetary donation from MacArthur certainly helped more than it hurt.

  4. Great. We will send another Congressman to Washington who stands for nothing and will do NOTHING to change the course this country is on.

  5. So, given the slates of dozens of candidates these organizations have endorsed over the years, could you please give me a list of which ones are liberal and why? I’ll wait. Feel free to include council candidates if you would like.

  6. You misunderstand – clarification. I am Frederick John LaVergne, and I am on the ballot for Congress, this Fall. When I log in while also editing some of our web-stuff, that e-mail address shows as “publiusnj”.

    I am MacArthur’s opponent in the General Election. You do have another choice. I have five months to show you that it’s “okay” to vote for a “non-R” who shares your values.

  7. I’m just seeing this post now. OK, I’ll admit that I’m not always on top of local politics, but I will say that Ocean County is not known for its pro-business policies, which explains why, in spite of our large population, many people have to commute out of the county for work and why there are so few large employers in the area. That’s for starters. There are also all of the career politicians at the county level, which includes every single freeholder, all of whom vote in unison year after year to hike spending and raise our taxes. It doesn’t get more liberal than that. Then there’s the current and outgoing establishment-backed candidates for Congress in the 3rd District. Just look at their records – that’s all I have to say. With the exception of Scott Garrett, every single Republican Congressman in New Jersey has an abysmal record according to numerous taxpayer advocacy groups. But they’re all so deeply entrenched by getting in good with the party bosses, and they all have obscene amounts of money and name recognition (Frelinghuysen immediately comes to mind), that it’s impossible to primary and defeat any of them … though surprisingly, David Larsen made it pretty interesting against Leonard Lance. I know at times I tend to single out politicians in Ocean County, but in general the entire state has the overwhelming tendency to back liberal candidates for office, and it always comes back to haunt us: either they lost by wide margins, or if they get in, they fail to do what’s best for their constituents.

Comments are closed.