By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
As anticipated, Save Jerseyans, the Burlington County Republican Organization sought to kill Steve Lonegan’s congressional candidacy in its cradle on Monday by giving his primary opponent, Tom MacArthur, the county line only 24 hours after we learned that Ocean County had done the same.
“Our Screening Committee, as well as our Republican Municipal Chairs, are proud to enthusiastically endorse Tom MacArthur for Congress in the Third District and will forward our recommendation to the full County Committee for their consideration,” said Screening Committee Chairman Steve Solomon in a Monday evening press release.
“Not only were we deeply impressed by Tom’s experience of helping to create jobs and prosperity for his employees and their families, but also by his vision for the future of our party and our nation,” continued Solomon. “Tom’s compelling story as a self-made success and someone who has dedicated his life to giving back to those in need made him stand out among the candidates we interviewed. We believe he will make an excellent Congressman for the people of Burlington County and the people of the Third District.”
Steve Lonegan and the Burlington County establishment have scrapped openly for weeks.
i hope Lonegan can be a team player and take the hint
Hope the people say not to this GOP machine pick
Looks like Tea Party for Lonegan versus GOP “machine” for MacArthur. So sick of the machine. They keep losing elections for conservatives.
BTW, the Tea Party backed Runyan after the primary and helped get him elected. Ya think they’ll want to get burned by the machine again?
What is in the water in Ocean county nominating more Obama gun grabbing RINOS ?
It’s not that Lonegan won one election too many. I’m not in CD3, what is that MacArthur?
Please the tea party has been the main problem as of late and is tearing the party apart
The Independence Hall Tea Party PAC backed Jon Runyan DURING THE PRIMARY in 2010 and
announced its support of Tom MacArthur several weeks ago–before the Burlington and Ocean
County Republicans.
So it’s not a Tea Party v. Republican race. We’re united behind a conservative who can win–Tom MacArthur.
Go Tom go!
Don Adams, President
Independence Hall Tea Party PAC
Independence Hall Tea Party hasn’t endorsed conservative Scott Garrett so it’s no surprise they didn’t endorse Steve Lonegan
I have grave concerns about this so called “Independence Hall tea party group” that is supposedly the largest yet only had 8 votes for MacArthur!
8 votes? & they claim to be biggest TP group?! How many of those 8 votes came from OUT OF STATE? Unless, of course they don’t let their members vote. And why should they, when they don’t even interview all the candidates?
Note that the Independence Hall Tea Party chose to remain silent in October 2013, when Lonegan needed the votes in that U.S. Senate race against Booker.
They spoke in November & prior to the general election but when it counted their silence endorsed Booker.
http://independencehallteapartypac.com/?_page_=33
BTW the IHTP’s main concern is that Lonegan has lost races. But no big name Republican threw their hat in to run, it was a supposed given Booker was going to walk away winning the Senate race. In fact if you read that IHTP piece they say Lonegan was 25 points below Booker, yet it ended up far closer than anyone thought, & the gov’t shut down just days before the election cost him many votes and perhaps the election because Obamacare problems took the back seat just at it’s introduction. Too bad IHTP looks at polls. They should look at real numbers.
Lonegan got 64% of the votes in Ocean County & 44% in Burlington County AND he was far behind in getting money not a dime came from this “so called” Independence Hall Tea Party
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/10/booker_raises_eight_times_more_cash_than_lonegan_in_us_senate_race.html
Compare that to the “Independence Hall Tea Party” favored candidate Joe Kyrillos for the U.S. Senate race in NJ in 2012.
NJ Senator Joe Kyrillos went up against U.S. Senator Menendez & in that race he had twice as much campaign money as Lonegan, yet Kyrillos numbers were far more disappointing losing 59% to 39% overall
He won Ocean 56% (again Lonegan won w/ 64%) and lost Burlington with 40% (Lonegan again had more getting 44%)
Did the Independence Hall Tea Party even speak to all half dozen candidates thought to be running for this 2014 CD3 race? If not, then how can they endorsed BEFORE any candidate even qualified to run for the Congressional seat then it appears they are hardly independent!
(To qualify to be on the ballot each candidate must turn in at least 200 signatures on petitions to run & none has done so yet)
I have seen the IHTP poor performance before and can provide a list if you wish.
Lonegan will not be facing a candidate with $11M, in fact he should have more money than the Democrat candidate in this race. Yes Lonegan has lost previous races, he ONLY won 4 counties when he ran for Governor against Christie in 2009 (despite having only $500k to Christie’s $3M).
But open your eyes.
This time Lonegan is not the underdog in this race, and he stands on the issues I favor. It’s time for Burlington County to wake up. And it’s time for IHTP to stay out of NJ & probably DE & PA if they’re as bad as they are in NJ.
Don Adams should go back to PA because the IHTP isn’t conservative enough here in NJ.
We need more like Scott Garrett in Washington DC, and Steve Lonegan is the true conservative we need in Congressional District 3.
First, the Independence Hall Tea Party PAC is a legitimate Federal PAC–the only Tea Party PAC in the tri-state region.
Second, the Independence Hall Tea Party PAC does not get involved in North Jersey races.
If Scott Garret were in our media market, we’d most certainly support him. He is terrific!
Third, a screening committee of 8 Jersey members–3 from CD 3–vetted Tom MacArthur.
They unanimously recommended Tom’s endorsement to the full Board of Delegates–22 members.
The full Board voted unanimously to endorse Tom.
Fourth, many PAC’s do not have nearly the number of voting members that we have. Many PACS, like Tea Party Express, have only a couple of decision makers.
By the way, Lonegan was endorsed by Tea Party Express. Sal Russo, who probably made the endorsement decision by himself, is from California. Sarah Palin, who single handedly decides her PAC’s endorsements, is from Alaska. But Lonegan gladly took their endorsements–and guess what, he still lost.
BTW, our PAC has a terrific record when it comes to contested primaries in our tri-state region. We have now won 22 of 26 such races.
And we were quite happy with our 21st victory–MacArthur over Lonegan, 60% to 40%.
Lonegan is now 0 for 6 in attempts at higher office.
Do you think Lonegan will finally go home to Bogota where he belongs?