U.K. Daily Mail Wades Into MacArthur vs. Lonegan Primary with Insurance Claim Story
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
It’s not at all unusual for targeted House races to receive national attention, Save Jerseyans. But to draw the attention of a international media? Specifically, the British papers? That’s eyebrow-raising…
That’s what happened on Wednesday when The Daily Mail ran an investigative piece aimed at candidate Tom MacArthur, revealing that his former insurance company York Risk Services Group was previously “accused of cheating disaster victims.” A loaded charge! Especially in a congressional district where Sandy aid is a major major issue.
But what does this particular story have to do with the Third Congressional District? Specifically?
The Daily Mail is careful to note that “MacArthur, the New Jersey congressional candidate, is not named personally in any of the legal actions described in this report, but he was both a York officer and a major shareholder.” The substance of the article has nothing to do with Sandy, for the record, pertaining to Hurricane Ike (from 2008) which largely affected the deep South.
Context: MacArthur also left York in 2010. Some of the referenced settlements came after MacArthur’s departure, and although I’m not in the insurance industry, insurance company investigations/lawsuits aren’t exactly uncommon. As CEO from 1999 to April 2009, it’s unlikely that MacArthur ever touched or managed any of the claims implicated in the referenced California investigation. Or at least based on everything cited/linked/referenced in the Daily Mail piece.
Still, since these incidents originated during MacArthur’s time at York’s helm, the campaign of primary opponent Steve Lonegan says it’s a question of character for voters to consider.
“Tom MacArthur’s sleazy insurance practices have been blatantly exposed by this devastating story,” said Lonegan campaign manager, Chris Santora, in a statement obtained by Save Jersey. “The article speaks directly to the character of Tom MacArthur, his shady business practices, and his true lack of compassion for his fellow man. Tom MacArthur made his millions with his own unique brand of insurance salesman double-talk and deception of unsuspecting, hardworking, God-fearing men and women across America.”
“This story clearly leaves liberal Tom MacArthur’s campaign, character, and image in shambles,” Santora continued.
But at the risk of obsessing over the process angle, again, how did any of this fall under the gaze of a U.K. paper across the Pond?
Who knows, but here’s an interesting side note: the author of this particular piece, David Martosko, has worked very extensively in the past with Charles C. Johnson covering various New Jersey political story-lines including scandals involving Senators Menendez (D-Dominican Republic and Ecuador) and Booker (D-Twitter). Mr. Johnson’s company, Charles C Johnson Research Services, was paid $6,200.00 on March 18, 2014 by the Lonegan campaign according to the latest FEC filing presumably for opposition research.
So when’s the MacArthur endorsement coming?
I am confused you label this as a “load charge,” so you are implying it is false or overblown? Do you have proof or are you just re-writing the talking points from the MacArthur campaign/Burlington County contractors (which I believe are one in the same)? I am not sure the residents of Ocean would be so kind to the insurance exes who are stiffing them, if residents are getting the run around from their insurance companies.
What did I say that offended your delicate constitution?
Respectfully, I’m not sure that you understand the idiom; a “loaded” charge is one that’s weighty, serious, etc. Would you disagree that implying someone could’ve committed insurance fraud is, in fact, a serious charge? I doubt you would!
What a choice of newspapers for Lonegan to make! He couldn’t find an American newspaper to take his trash, so he gets a skinhead tabloid to do it for him. Here’s a history lesson (courtesy of Wikipedia) about Lonegan’s choice of venues for his oppo research dump:
(Daily Mail owner) Lord Rothermere’s 1933 leader “Youth Triumphant” praised the new Nazi regime’s accomplishments, and was subsequently used as propaganda by them. In it, Rothermere predicted that “The minor misdeeds of individual Nazis would be submerged by the immense benefits the new regime is already bestowing upon Germany”.
Rothermere and the Mail were also editorially sympathetic to Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists. Rothermere wrote an article entitled “Hurrah for the Blackshirts” in January 1934, praising Mosley for his “sound, commonsense, Conservative doctrine”, and pointing out that: “Young men may join the British Union of Fascists by writing to the Headquarters, King’s Road, Chelsea, London, S.W.”
The Spectator condemned Rothermere’s article commenting that, “..the Blackshirts, like the Daily Mail, appeal to people unaccustomed to thinking. The average Daily Mail reader is a potential Blackshirt ready made. When Lord Rothermere tells his clientele to go and join the Fascists some of them pretty certainly will.”
Yes I know what the idiom means, I even know what an idiom is. I still don’t see how it is a load charge and based on York paying out in Cali, they didn’t either. Paying the fine while at the same time professing innocence always looks bad.
The tone of this post make it seem that the Daily Mail article and charges against York/MacArthur were false. So I ask again, were they?
Why does it matter if a UK based paper writes about it? Every US paper writes about stories out of their jurisdiction and the country, I assume you don’t mind that happens. Presumably Lonegan is doing the tried and true method of getting some published, so his campaign can use it to attack his opponent. I am sure Chris Russel does it. Would you not run an article about Belgard if it came from the winner of this primary before it ran in a “reputable” paper.
The MSM in the USA is so much under the control of liberal-progressives that I often find myself reading foreign news websites to see what may have been censored. The local papers often lie by omission when the information does not fit the liberal-progressive agenda. It could well be that the lib/progs think MacArthur would be the easier target in November. Either that, or maybe they feel he will be more amenable to “crossing the aisle”.
I don’t think Lonegan would give any credibility to a story published about him by ThinkProgress because ThinkProgress has an axe to grind. In fact, there have been numerous stories with great information that ThinkProgress has broken on Lonegan and he has dismissed each by waving his hand towards their source.
This fool of a writer and his writing partner (Lonegan’s oppo man) are embarrassments to the profession of journalism. One gets paid to dig it up and the other to hype it up. They are not disinterested parties. These fools concocted the Menendez doing hookers story that so covered “conservative journalism” in glory last year.
The tone of the Daily Mail article makes it seem that the charges against York/MacArthur are true — just as the tone of last year’s Daily Caller article did for the charges against Menendez. But look closer. Any attorney with a PACER account can figure out that MacArthur isn’t a party in any of these lawsuits. So this is shaping up to have about as much credibility as those hookers the Lonegan dirt crew came up with last year.
Here are just some of the stories that Lonegan waived away by pointing to who published it.
New Jersey Senate Candidate Backs Balanced Budgets, Owes More Than $1.5 Million
Published on August 20, 2013
Senate Candidate Tweets Racist Attack On African American Opponent Cory Booker
Published on August 9, 2013
Jersey Senate Candidate Who Once Hired Undocumented Immigrants: No ‘Amnesty For Illegal Aliens’
Published on June 11, 2013
Same anon as above. I’m not a wacko, just poking fun – this sounded very pro-MacArthur!
You don’t name the CEO in a lawsuit. You name the company. Basic understanding folks. Also basic understanding, most insurers suck. From healthcare to car to labor and employment claims, if an insurer can get away with not paying a claim or paying a crap amount, they profit. But it seems here that Mac went even farther than the usual miserliness. No wonder he us so rich. finally , lawsuits take a very long time do many of these could have been filed while he was at the helm and responsible but not settled /decided until he was gone.
Nope. CEO’s are often directly named in lawsuits when there is evidence that they are directly implicated.
You sound like one of Steve Lonegan’s neo-Socialists. Yep, all for-profit businesses “s-ck” as you put it. For profit businesses should be run like the governments goes the new Lonegan line.
Funny that it was Lonegan who helped set up New Jersey Watchdog which exposed what happens when you don’t have a tough-minded claims adjuster looking out for taxpayers. People with small injuries get lifetime pay and benefits and then go find second government jobs and even run marathons. And they do this on the dime of the taxpayers or consumers or basically on everyone else purchasing a good or service.
In his quest for office at all costs, Steve Lonegan is basically Lyndon LaRouche in reverse. LaRouche started out a Socialist and ended a Neo-Con of a kind. Lonegan was a garden variety conservative. Then, after being bankrolled by an atheist Ayn Rand follower, became a money-trumps-all Darwinian capitalist. Now, having to run against someone with more money than him, now Lonegan hates money (presumably the Koch Brothers too).
Lonegan really is a man without a shred of genuine principle. He was just a good actor and for a long time we all chipped in and paid him to act for us. Even the Koch Brothers (don’t you think they have good claims adjusters???) were fooled (because the new Lonegan says private enterprise is theft). We were chumps to have ever believed in Lonegan. Chumps.
Lonegan wasn’t the only one to disseminate this information 😉 – and, if you think that the NORCROSS-owned papers in the District were ever going to cover this, as the tacit detente continues between the two parties, as evidenced and referenced by Chris Brown of Atlantic County, when referring to the “deal” cut to let the D’s keep “their” Senate Seat, and let the “R’s” keep the Governor’s Mansion last year, you are sadly mistaken. Lonegan and Buono were run as sacrificial lambs, and were abandoned in most districts. Last Fall’s election debacle will bite both parties in the hindquarters the day after the Primary….stay tuned. If you’re not sure what I am referring to, read “LaVergne v Lonegan, et al”, docket # 13-1933-L, and review what is necessary BY STATUTE for a so-called “major” party to receive “preferred” ballot position for the general election. There is no way that either will qualify, this year. Precedent was set in October, and civil actions proceed against the individual clerks and other officials in that matter at this writing.
Stand for what’s right, or settle for what’s left – FJL 2014.
(Would you vote for a candidate who committed the same act of voter fraud that has a sitting municipal court judge facing penalties up to and including 3-5 years incarceration? – ONE of them will…promise)
1933-13-L – sorry.
You got that right. Lonegan is acting like a shill for Norcross. Someone should ask Lonegan about the sit down he had once upon a time with Norcross and the contribution the BOSS gave to AFP to get Corzine. Strange bedfellows, huh?
Wonder how he’s going to rebut what’s next…
Matt Rooney, when are you going to take your rose-colored glasses off?
Steve Lonegan is clearly going to win this primary. He actually has more than one donor and, unlike your boy’s donor (singular), many of Lonegan’s donorS (plural, S capitalized for emphasis) actually live in the Third District. Unlike your boy, Lonegan is principled and does not have a shady rap sheet.
I urge you either to perform your due diligence before endorsing a candidate next time around or just admit that you are a shill for the GOP establishment.
Thank you.
I believe Matt’s eyes are indeed open, at this point, at least. However, I don’t think he is willing to fall in behind Lonegan in CD3. The important question for you, Mr. Rooney – not to put you on the spot or anything – but are you an “R”, first, or an American, first? Party loyalty is hard to fathom when both parties continually break faith with those they are elected to serve. I would be willing to bet that you are better ‘defined’, if putting anyone in a box is appropriate at all, as a Fiscal Conservative. I am also willing to bet that you are more socially moderate than Steve, (although it’s really hard to guess what might come out of his mouth next – sometimes, it would seem that not even he knows). Inconsistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, it has been said. You have been consistent in your views, and in your support, but there comes a time that being an apologist becomes an unrealistic burden, when you find yourself having to spin almost everything the candidate you support says or does. I don’t believe you are a shill. I don’t believe even for a moment that you are “bought and paid for”. I believe that you ARE a zealot – and there’s nothing wrong with that…it shows loyalty, and firmly established values. It is a difficult thing to shake off the shackles of dogma, however. Inertia exists in the human mind as far more of an irresistible force than in the physical world. People willingly deny the evidence of their own eyes every day – self-delusion is almost a pastime for some.
I further believe that, were you and I to spend 1/2 hour over coffee – as I invited you to back in January, when Tom M. was just a blip on the radar – well, let’s just say I don’t expect to “convert” you to voting for me by leaving the “R” line – but people YOU know KNOW ME – and I believe you would find us to have very similar overall goals. We won’t agree on everything. When two people agree on EVERYTHING, one of them is irrelevant. We will agree, however, on the most important things. I am sure that you will do what you can to support the Republican line – it is your self-appointed duty. Think on this, however. What if the BEST choice was neither R nor D? As Steven Covey taught many before his untimely death – “The enemy of excellence is “good enough”. ”
A better example was given to me by my 10-year-old nephew. He was asked “Do you want pancakes or waffles for breakfast?” He, wise beyond his years, replied “If only offered pancakes or waffles, I would prefer waffles – but I really want Steak.” Why settle for a plate of waffles when there’s porterhouse on the menu? To paraphrase Clara Peller – “Where’s the beef?”
All of your NJ readers will have a unique opportunity in this year’s election, all over the State. Most already know how they will vote, but only because they believe their only choice is pancakes or waffles. (funny, the Carlin sketch to that effect just popped into my head). It is the duty of every voter to know who they are casting their ballot for, and why.
For me, I like steak.
“Stand for what’s right, or settle for what’s left” – Frederick John LaVergne, “Democratic-Republican” for Congress…NJ CD3, 2014.
If I had a nickel for every time a new voter said “I can’t believe it…you guys are for real”…I wouldn’t spend them on yard signs.