Lonegan: Sitting in on a Sussex County Commissioners' meeting an eye-opener

ditor’s Note: Steve Lonegan was a Mayor for 12 years. He took a town that was nearly bankrupt and turned it to an efficiently run success story. When Lonegan left office, his budget was lower than the budget he inherited 12 years earlier.
 
Lonegan’s reputation for finding fraud, waste, and abuse in a public budget was such that other towns in northern New Jersey hired him to review their budgets and make recommendations. Lonegan not only achieved savings and efficiencies for taxpayers, on two occasions he uncovered criminal activity that resulted in the arrests and convictions of four public officials.
 
Lonegan serves on the Sussex County GOP’s candidate screening committee. He is also chairman of the Cost Cutting & Savings Committee. It was in the latter role that he visited last evening’s meeting of the Sussex County Board of Commissioners. What follows are his observations.
 
By Steve Lonegan
 
The first thing I noticed is that the Commissioners lacked an understanding of Robert’s Rules of Order. They know enough to ask for a motion and a second before each agenda item, but it disappears after that. Two moments are noteworthy:
 
When neither the Board nor the County Administrator could explain why a $1.6 million no-bid contract was handed to an out-of-state election machine company that has made national headlines with its problems, Commissioner Herb Yardley quietly suggested that the contract be held for further review. Yardley’s suggestion was drowned out and then ignored by others on the dais. Can you imagine members of Congress shushing each other like that?
 
The correct procedure would have been to ask Commissioner Yardley to make a motion to table, ask to have it seconded, and then vote on it. Now, the Board will have itself – and the County Administrator – to blame if something goes wrong in the next election, the way it has in the last two elections in Sussex County. This “nothing to see here, move on” attitude towards election integrity is all too familiar but nevertheless tragic.
 
The second incident was when Commissioner Carney wanted to end Sussex County’s mask mandate for county buildings. In the “new business” section of the meeting, Carney noted that other counties had done away with their mask mandates. He was immediately interrupted by a board member who said “I think that there’s discussions going on within administration on that” – that’s right, when you lack political courage, punt it to the bureaucrats. Blue state Governors and Mayors are ending mask mandates all across America, but in supposedly red Sussex County the Commissioners go a wimpy shade of violet when the idea is raised.
 
Commissioner Director Anthony Fasano called ending the mask mandate “a topic the Board is interested in pursuing” – suggesting the Board needed the eventual approval of the County Administrator – to which Carney replied, “Well, if there’s not a problem, why don’t you do it now?”
 
Fasano replied with a sort of “Mooo” and Carney pressed him with, “What’s the hold up?” Then Commissioner Sylvia Petillo jumped in with the claim that it was the County Administrator’s call, not the Board’s call (which is just stupid). The correct procedure would have been to have a motion for a vote, ask to have it seconded, and then vote on it. Put every Commissioner on the record as to where he or she stands in ending the mask mandate. That’s how it works in a representative democracy.
 
Taxpayers can only see who the county pays after the checks have been cut.
 
A double-dipping scam has been taking place in Sussex County. It works like this: A favored worker can retire in their 50s, start collecting a pension, and then get rehired to their old job as a temp through a temporary employment agency.
 
Christina Marks is the President of the CWA union representing most of Sussex County’s day-to-day workers. She asked the Board about the absence of a detailed Bill List in the agenda. This led Freeholder Director Fasano to admit that taxpayers cannot review the county Bill List prior to the Commissioners voting on it.
 
When I was mayor, we always included a detailed list of everyone we were going to pay and posted it 48 hours before a meeting. This is common practice throughout New Jersey and most everywhere else. Sussex County doesn’t do it that way. Instead, they just post totals being paid out but not to whom or for what or any line items at all.
 
Apparently, four of the five Commissioners don’t get to know what bills they are voting for because only the Commissioner Director has the detailed Bill List in his “binder”. This is a terrible system because it allows scams like the one just mentioned to go on. If nobody catches the fact that the county is paying a temp agency, then nobody will know to ask questions.
 
There is also the gross lack of transparency to consider. Let’s look at two counties named Sussex. If you live in Sussex County, Delaware, and you want to know where your tax dollars are going, you simply access this page…

https://sussexcountyde.gov/bills-approval-list

 
Then you click on an individual meeting/approval date and up comes this…
 

https://sussexcountyde.gov/sites/default/files/bills/Invoices%20Paid%20Through%202.11.22.pdf

 
If you live in Sussex County, New Jersey, you fill out an Open Public Records Act form and hope their email system hasn’t crashed that day. Maybe they’ll get back to you in a couple weeks with an acknowledgement and maybe you’ll get an answer some time after that. Or maybe you won’t.
 
This lack of transparency raises the question: What are they hiding?
 
For a local representative democracy to function, the involvement of those the people have elected to represent them is of primary importance. That’s important to keep in mind when judging the efficiency of county governments. Our committee is continuing its review and I will keep you informed of its progress.   

Steve Lonegan is the Father of the Conservative Movement in New Jersey.

Reagan’s 11th Commandment and the hypocrisy of the political class

By Steve Lonegan

A group of political grifters (such as Anthony Scaramucci and George Conway) and career liberals (including Bill Weld and Christine Todd Whitman) put out a letter condemning the RNC for censuring two GOP members of the congressional commission investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Two former New Jersey Congressmen (Rodney Frelinghuysen and Leonard Lance) signed that letter. Their letter ignores the fact that the January 6th riot capped off a year of political riots and violence, which kicked-off a wave of street crime that continues to this day.

Instead of looking at the totality of what happened in America and figuring out why it happened, the Democrat-controlled commission and its Republican cheerleaders want to narrow their focus for political purposes. They want to ignore the hundreds of incidents that happened, that killed and harmed many, and cost billions – to focus on just one. The reasons are transparently political and most fair-minded people know this.

The letter attacking the RNC contains this piece of vile hypocrisy: “There can be no justifying the horrific attack that day, and we condemn the Committee for excusing the actions of men and women who battered police officers, ransacked our nation’s capital…”

Didn’t we watch countless members of the media and the political class justify a year of politically inspired arson and violence visited on America’s cities during 2020? Didn’t we hear the excuses as the police were denounced, attacked, battered, and murdered? How many businesses, places of employment, were ransacked and burnt to the ground?

To top it off, didn’t a chamber of the New Jersey Legislature pass a resolution praising the organization behind those riots and the torching of America’s cities? What did Congressmen Frelinghuysen and Lance do then? Did they send a letter condemning the Legislature for being apologists for violence and anti-police hatred? No, they sat on their hands – in silent consent.

It’s so predictable but always amusing when a liberal Republican pulls out the mythological 11th commandment of Ronald Reagan. It’s the only time liberal Republicans reference the Great Communicator and conservative icon. New Jersey’s liberal NJGOP Chairman Bob Hugin pulled this maneuver out of mothballs to deflect from his vote against the National Republican Party’s resolution censuring of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for failing to investigate the year of political violence that struck America’s cities, and instead shilling for the Democrat Party in their abuse of prosecutorial power for political gain.

Hugin used the often-misplaced 11th commandment attribution as an excuse for initially dodging questions on how he voted on the censure. In fact, it was not Ronald Reagan’s at all. It was attributed by Reagan to California Republican State Chairman Gaylord Parkinson. A Wikipedia entry notes:

The goal was to prevent a repetition of the liberal Republican assault on Barry Goldwater, attacks which contributed to Goldwater's defeat in the 1964 presidential election. East Coast Republicans like Nelson Rockefeller labeled Goldwater an "extremist" for his conservative positions and declared him unfit to hold office. Fellow Republican candidate for Governor George Christopher and California's liberal Republicans were leveling similar attacks on Reagan. Hoping to prevent a split in the Republican Party, Parkinson used the phrase as common ground. Party liberals eventually followed Parkinson's advice.

Christopher would lose to Reagan in the Republican primary, and Reagan would go on to defeat incumbent Governor Pat Brown, the father of future California Governor Jerry Brown.

Reagan followed this "commandment" during the first five primaries during the 1976 Republican primary against incumbent Gerald Ford, all of which he lost. He abandoned this approach in the North Carolina Primary and beat Ford 52–46, regaining momentum and winning a majority of delegates chosen after that date.

In 1976, after losing the New Hampshire primary and trailing Gerald Ford, the Reagan campaign moved to North Carolina. It was in NC that Reagan met with Senator Jesse Helms and my good friend and mentor Arthur Finkelstein, may they rest in peace. Reagan had been nice to Ford up to that point, but Helms and Arthur told him it was time to go on the attack. Ronald Reagan took this advice, abandoning any 11th Commandment nonsense and ripping apart Ford for the selling the Panama Canal. Reagan won North Carolina and would go on to win Texas (with 100 delegates), shocking the liberal Republican establishment. It was too late in the primary for Reagan to recover from his earlier losses but he became a force that would change the face of the Republican Party, despite the best efforts of the liberal wing of the party to stop him.

At the 1976 convention the nomination went to Gerald Ford who later that night invited Ronald Reagan to speak. Reagan delivered one of the greatest speeches in convention history. I believe that on that evening many delegates on the floor realized they had nominated the wrong guy.

Apparently, the youngsters who work for Bob Hugin are not aware of the history behind the so-called 11th Commandment. Since Reagan’s presidency the tables have turned, and the 11th Commandment has been more often used by liberal Republicans who don’t want to be held accountable for their actions.

The actions of the NJGOP over the last month should be a wake-up call for conservatives of all stripes to face the obvious fact: The liberal Rockefeller wing is back and Bob Hugin is its leader. Hugin is hostile to the views of the vast majority of registered Republican voters in this state. And if you don’t believe me, do a poll.

- Mayor Steve Lonegan is the Father of the Conservative Movement in New Jersey.

Ronald Reagan addresses the Republican National Convention in 1976. Talks platform and freedom and unity, outreach, & victory.

It is worth watching.

“In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

George Orwell

Is the NJGOP’s Bob Hugin a “Reagan Republican”?

By Rubashov

A few hours after a Jersey Conservative column by Steve Lonegan asked the question, NJGOP Chairman Bob Hugin confirmed he had opposed an effort by supporters of former President Donald Trump to pass a motion censuring the efforts of two GOP congress members serving on the commission investigating the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol. Hugin had dodged answering for several days, until Lonegan, the Father of the Conservative Movement in New Jersey, posed the question in these pages on Monday afternoon.

In explaining his opposition, Hugin issued a statement that was quoted yesterday in the New Jersey Globe: “As a Ronald Reagan Republican who believes in his 11th Commandment, I believe we should be laser focused on beating Democrats and holding Joe Biden accountable, and so I voted against the resolution.”

Hugin continued: “That being said, while I believe those who broke the law on January 6th should be held accountable, the Commission set up by Pelosi does no such thing because it is being weaponized as a partisan, political tool and a sham attempt to distract from the many abysmal failures of Joe Biden and the Democrats.”

In other words, Hugin opposes an effort by Pro-Trump Republicans to criticize Anti-Trump Republicans who are criticizing Pro-Trump Republicans. Hugin believes the vehicle for this criticism is a partisan “tool” and a Democrat “sham”, but he wants to refrain from criticizing the Republicans involved in it. Why? Hugin claims he is doing this because he doesn’t want to criticize other Republicans.

That is a rather convoluted statement dreamed up by the staff at the NJGOP. In contrast, National Committeeman Bill Palatucci was direct in his opposition to the motion to censure: “Terrible action by the RNC but too few of us in the room to object and stop it. The Resolution we should have considered would commend Mike Pence for standing up for the Constitution and saving the Republic.”

You might disagree with Bill Palatucci, but that kind of honesty is refreshing. You can’t ask for more from someone than an on-the-level statement like that.

What struck us odd was Chairman Hugin’s claim to being a “Ronald Reagan Republican”. Words have meaning when they are not being used as slogans to pacify and obscure. Behind words, there are policies that inform their meaning.

Ronald Reagan, the author of a book that takes a Pro-Life position on abortion, is well remembered for the Pro-Life plank he insisted be part of the RNC platform. Generations of New Jersey Republicans have opposed the Reagan abortion plank, and Bob Hugin’s position appears to be in that vein. As a candidate for the United States Senate in 2018, Hugin was clear about his anti-Reagan position. A Bergen Record/ NorthJersey.com story from October 22, 2018, reported Hugin’s position:

Abortion rights: "I am pro-choice, pro-marriage equality, and strongly support equal pay for equal work. Politicians would rather point fingers. I will be different." — campaign ad, nomination speech

The same article provided U.S. Senate candidate Bob Hugin’s position on the Second Amendment:

Gun rights: "I’m a big believer in the Constitution and the protection of our civil constitutional rights. But I think New Jersey has strong anti-gun laws, or strong gun-control laws, which I think I’m supportive of. I believe teachers and children should be our priority, and safety is our No. 1 issue ... I believe in sportsman’s rights, rights to own the gun. I think you have to look at the specifics of legislation to make sure it’s appropriate, but I’d always side with teachers and children as my first priority.” — interview with USA TODAY Network New Jersey

In contrast, here is Ronald Reagan speaking on the subject…

President Ronald Reagan discusses the Second Amendment and gun control with members of the NRA.

So as a candidate for the United States Senate, on at least those two big issues, Bob Hugin was decidedly not a “Ronald Reagan Republican”. In fairness, Hugin might have changed his positions since 2018. If so, he needs to make them clear.

What remains clear is that the staff at the NJGOP, under Hugin’s chairmanship, have allowed a hostile atmosphere to develop towards the new legislative leadership of the State Senate and Assembly. This is mainly due to them being sore over who was brought in to quarterback the effort to gain a legislative majority in 2023. Instead of going with the Hugin-Ciattarelli team of operatives, a team with roots in Governor Chris Christie’s statewide victories and with President Trump was brought in.

The fact that this new legislative leadership is strongly both Pro-Life and Pro-Second Amendment – genuine “Ronald Reagan Republicans” – should not be lost on Chairman Hugin and the staff at the NJGOP. If Ronald Reagan’s referenced “11th Commandment” means anything to the NJGOP, it demands their focused cooperation on serving the needs of the legislative leaders and their team who are charged with the task of scraping together a majority in 2023.

The Republican Party’s existential struggle in New Jersey shouldn’t come down to institutional jealousy over which political consultant is getting the buy. That would be too sad. Too ridiculous. With elements of both tragedy and farce.

“In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
George Orwell

Did BCRO violate FEC rules?

By Rubashov

The Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) has sent out a number of potentially problematic election communications recently.  Several mass emails blasted out on behalf of the BCRO by members of its leadership failed to note who paid for them, in apparent violation of Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules.
 
The BCRO also sent out an expensive mass direct mail piece that appeared to suggest that the candidates on the BCRO “line” were part of a ticket sanctioned by President Donald Trump.  An operative with the President’s campaign denied this, stating that being on a local party ticket that is endorsing the President does not mean that the President is endorsing the other candidates on that ticket.  The endorsement goes up, not down, the ticket.
 
FEC rules on communications like this are very restrictive.  From the FEC website:
 
“A state or local party committee may prepare and distribute a slate card, sample ballot, palm card or other printed list naming candidates for any public office. The payments are not considered contributions or expenditures on behalf of any federal candidate listed, as long as the following conditions are met:
 
The list names at least three candidates running for election to any public office in the state in which the committee is organized.
 
The list is not distributed through broadcast stations, newspapers, magazines and similar types of public political advertising (for example billboards). Direct mail, however, is an acceptable method of distributing a slate card or sample ballot.
 
The content is limited to the identification of each candidate (pictures may be used), the office or position currently held, the office sought and party affiliation. Additional descriptions, designs, images and photographs must not provide supplemental biographical information, descriptions of candidates’ positions on the issues or statements of party philosophy. Certain voting information, however, may be given, such as time, place and instructions on voting a straight party ticket.”
 
Curiously, some of the BCRO email blasts contain appeals to Ronald Reagan’s so-called “11th Commandment” (“Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican”) and accusations that the candidates opposing the BCRO-endorsed John McCann for Congress were running “negative” campaigns.  Hypocritically, the authors of these emails failed to mention the BCRO’s own negative campaign on behalf of John McCann in 2018.
 
That was the year that Steve Lonegan, the father of the conservative movement in New Jersey, was on the receiving end of a campaign unprecedented in its level of sustained hatefulness.    That campaign caused many conservative donors to simply give up on New Jersey Republicans, to this day sending their money to candidates elsewhere.  This drain of conservative money to campaigns outside New Jersey affects the ability of state Republicans to secure and hold elected offices.  Bergen County has particularly suffered.
 
The political consultant brought in to run the campaign against Lonegan was a brilliant tactician named Kelley Rogers.  He came up with a series of fiercely negative campaign advertisements.  It is worth noting that John McCann’s consultant was not around to direct his 2020 primary campaign.  Last year, Kelley Rogers pleaded guilty in federal court.  Politico covered the story (09/18/19):
 
In one of the first Justice Department cases of its kind, Maryland political consultant Kelley Rogers pled guilty to wire fraud on Tuesday for operating multiple fraudulent political action committees that raised money from donors for conservative causes but kept much of the funds for Rogers and his associates.

Rogers’ arrest and indictment took place shortly after Politico and ProPublica investigated one of Rogers’ PACs, Conservative Majority Fund, which since 2012 has raised close to $10 million — mostly from small-dollar donors, many of them elderly -- while giving out just $48,400 to politicians.
 
The BCRO appears to have a love affair with John McCann, despite his history of campaign losses – including the biggest defeat in the history of CD05.  For his part, McCann exudes a quirky charm and a combativeness that often gets him into trouble…
 

THERE ARE NO STUPID QUESTIONS, ONLY STUPID POLITICIANS- Congressional candidate John McCann to a woman asking a question- that's a stupid question.

Nevertheless, the BCRO leadership’s faith in John McCann appears unshakeable.  Despite his historic loss in 2018, BCRO boss Jack Zisa awarded McCann the party “line” without a vote of his membership.  That is, of course, an entirely different discussion for another day.
 

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.”
(Karl Marx, author and philosopher)

Despite resistance from some NJ Republicans, 2nd Amendment advocates score victories

By Sussex County Watchdog

What began in Virginia as an important demonstration of popular support for the Second Amendment has spread all across America with towns and counties formally passing resolutions declaring public support for the Second Amendment and the Bill of Rights.  These resolutions have served as a rallying point for political action – bringing people together, educating voters, recruiting new activists – which has manifested itself in grassroots political action and lobbying.
 
What started out as a movement to pass pro-Second Amendment resolutions in Virginia became a grassroots effort that shaped a surprise win that successfully blocked passage of an “assault weapons” ban in the Democrat-controlled Virginia Legislature.  The resolution movement quickly turned into a wide-reaching and comprehensive grassroots movement that frightened 4 Democrat legislators into joining a solid block of Republicans to kill the “assault weapons” ban. 
 
Here in New Jersey, grassroots activists Bill Hayden and Mark Cheeseman have led a similar pro-Second Amendment resolution effort that has led to the passage of resolutions in towns and counties across the state.  This effort has aided the work of longtime Second Amendment advocates – like the 2nd Amendment Society’s Alex Roubian – who successfully stopped two anti-Second Amendment bills on Monday. 

(click on image for video)

The Second Amendment Society has taken legal action against 28 towns in New Jersey and won every battle.  They have sued the state 3 times and won every time – winning back legal fees of more than $200,000.
 
Imagine the grassroots movement that could be built if even just a portion of New Jersey’s Republican establishment would lend a hand?  There have been some notable heroes – the District 24 legislators, particularly Parker Space, as well as freeholders from half a dozen counties, particularly Sussex County’s Dawn Fantasia – but too many pretend not to notice as the Bill of Rights is assaulted. 
 
Worse still are those who actively talk down the work of Second Amendment advocates and the grassroots resolution movement.  This includes the campaign of Mayor Michael Ghassali of Montvale, a Republican candidate for Congress in CD05. 
 
Ghassali has resisted passing a pro-Second Amendment resolution in his town, which is controlled by the GOP.  But he had no hesitation in adopting a leftist “anti-hate” resolution authored by a Democrat “social justice” activist and elected official.  
 
And Ghassali’s campaign has gone even further, by publicly crapping on the pro-Second Amendment grassroots movement itself.  His campaign issued this statement in a two-part social media post yesterday:
 
“The 2nd Amendment on its face is the right to bear arms as such, why would a municipality need to pass a 2A resolution?”
 
“Exactly, it’s one of the dumbest things I’ve heard…”
 
While we don’t expect establishment GOPer’s to possess the imagination to energize the Republican base, they should at least have the intelligence to copy what conservatives in Virginia and many other states are successfully doing.  The grassroots resolution movement is producing victories, which is more than can be said of these establishment types.
 
Ghassali is a victim of one of those GOP confabs where a few insider consultants are presented as “experts” (while their actual win-loss record are, shall we say, glossed over if mentioned at all).  For some establishment GOPers, the idea of a grassroots movement mobilizing the Republican base and bringing in thousands of new pro-Second Amendment voters is a nightmare that disrupts all their calculations.  They don’t want that.  That doesn’t serve their interests.
 
But Mayor Michael Ghassali – who after all was mentored and urged to run by Steve Lonegan – should have better instincts than those he hired to run his campaign.  We expect better from anyone who is a Lonegan person and Michael is a Lonegan guy.  So what’s the deal?  Is Ghassali afraid to take a stand and help grassroots conservatives?
 
Steve Lonegan had no problem standing up for what was right.  Say what you will, the guy had balls.  Does that make Michael Ghassali a Steve Lonegan without the balls?
 
Michael Ghassali needs to get real and soon.  And stop taking the advice of GOP establishment wimps.    

McCann has $6k to Gottheimer’s $4.5 MILLION

NorthJersey.com/The Record has reported that Republican John McCann has a little over $6,000 in his congressional campaign  account to the more than $4,500,000 amassed by Democrat incumbent Josh Gottheimer.  According to NorthJersey.com/The Record, Gottheimer has broken the record for money raised in a quarter:

“Freshman Rep. Josh Gottheimer's campaign said Thursday that he raised more than $1.5 million from April to June, a total that sets a record for a New Jersey House candidate and exceeds what some U.S. Senate candidates are raising.

Gottheimer, D-Wyckoff, had $4.5 million left in his account on June 30, his campaign said. That compares with less than $6,500 in cash on hand reported Thursday by his opponent, attorney John McCann of Oakland, who also had $55,000 in debts to consultants and vendors.

The previous New Jersey House record appears to be the $1.1 million set in the first quarter of this year by Democrat Mikie Sherrill of Montclair, who is battling Assemblyman Jay Webber for the open seat in North Jersey's 11th District, where Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen is retiring. Sherrill has not yet disclosed her second-quarter receipts, which have to be filed at the Federal Election Commission by Sunday night.”

NorthJersey.com/The Record continues:

“Since the 2016 election, Gottheimer has raised nearly $5.3 million. 

McCann beat former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan by about 6 percentage points in the June 5 primary, but he appears to have done little fundraising since then. A disclosure he filed Thursday shows just seven contributions after the primary, totaling $5,468. He put $204,000 of his own money in the campaign on May 22, bringing his total personal loans to almost $329,000.”

Now this next sentence should strike terror into the hearts of every Republican in New Jersey.  This is what every Republican should be worried about – congressional challengers, incumbent members of Congress, county and local candidates, and Assembly candidates next year…

“If Gottheimer does not spend what he raises for his re-election this year, he can roll it over for future campaigns or contribute it to other candidates.” 

You can read the full article here…

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2018/07/12/josh-gottheimers-1-5-million-haul-breaks-nj-house-fundraising-record/778641002/

McCann: After victory… radio silence?

The primary over, most winning campaigns are asking supporters and potential supporters for money – to retire their debts from the primary as well as looking forward to the General Election in November.  But not John McCann.

His campaign has been silent.  Despite the fact that the McCann campaign is deeply in debt. 

According to the Federal Election Commission, as of May 16th, the McCann campaign had managed to raise just $61,155 in campaign contributions.  The rest of the campaign’s cash came from the candidate – who was convinced by his consultants to dump even more of his personal resources into the effort in the weeks and days leading up to the primary election.

So where is the effort to reach out to GOP donors who sat out this contentious primary?  And where is the effort to reach out to opponent Steve Lonegan and his donors?  After all, Lonegan was able to raise $429,803 in campaign contributions.  Even Jason Sarnoski – a Freeholder from Warren County who dropped out of the race – raised $75,998 before getting ending his campaign.

But rumors persist that many of McCann’s consultants and/or operatives were paid by sources outside his campaign.  This was a method used by former Essex County GOP boss Jim Treffinger in his abortive 2002 U.S. Senate race.  Treffinger’s race came to an end with his arrest and conviction on charges of political corruption.

That’s not the case with the Lonegan campaign.  Steve Lonegan’s General Consultants – former Ted Cruz political director Mark Campbell and Larry Weitzner (Jamestown Associates) – are clearly listed, as are a host of junior consultants, vendors, and operatives.  We are told that the law was followed in great detail.

One curious McCann connection that popped-up was with DC lobbyist Rosemary Becchi.  Becchi, who now resides in New Jersey, briefly considered challenging incumbent GOP Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ07).

Meanwhile, Democrat incumbent Congressman Josh Gottheimer had raised $4,444,660 by May 16th.  None of it loans from the candidate. 

With Democrat Gottheimer at +$4.4 million and McCann at -$260,000 is it any wonder that everyone who is anyone is downgrading this race, moving it off the board, and into the “safe Democrat” column.  Oh well… maybe next time?

Was Lonegan’s defeat an inside job?

Well, at least Jay Webber won… and Seth Grossman.

Bob Hugin won’t totally have his way in wrapping the State’s Republican brand in a plain brown paper.  He’s going to have a Reagan conservative and an eccentric libertarian to provide some color to the package – not to mention the incumbents, starting with the staunchly Pro-Life Chris Smith. 

What Hugin won’t have is a genuine Trump-style populist bouncing around in the orchestra, stealing the stage of an election that he plainly believes he is paying for.  Like Grossman, Steve Lonegan is decidedly his own article, but enough in the Trump mold to easily wear the costume.

McCann you say?  The most baldly dishonest campaign in memory will now be set aside, and with it, all the Trumpian rhetoric.  No, John McCann was not endorsed by President Trump, even though his campaign communications led you to believe he was.  More on this later.

It is enough for now to compare the post-truth campaigning style of a certain southern political consultant to the rather insufficient counter-measures of the Lonegan team, whose messaging was done by a consultant shared with the Hugin team.  Although completely false, McCann’s consultant had the discipline to dominate his candidate, confine him to those tasks of which he was capable, and to run the kind of sharp, focused, MESSAGE-driven campaign that we don’t often see here in New Jersey. 

If McCann’s consultant survives the recent raid on his office by the FBI, the inquires by the United States Justice Department and such, he could become a formidable presence on the field in New Jersey.  It takes a certain toughness to come up with a message so at variance with a candidate, to bully the candidate into silence, and then to brazenly run with it to victory.

Unfortunately, now the candidate will think the victory his… he will start to talk again.  Like he did last week when, in an unguarded moment, he let slip his true feelings about abortion (he won’t vote for ANY Pro-Life legislation if elected to Congress) and guns (he opposes the NRA and supports universal background checks).  Did the New Jersey Family Policy Council know this when its (c)4 lobbying arm was induced into doing an openly political mailer that buttered the Pro-Choice candidate but trashed the Pro-Lifer?  Or did they know and did they not care?  More on this later.

Not to worry though.  John McCann has served his purpose.  The candidate with the money lost (and now that candidate is a wounded, angry animal, sitting on a million dollar war chest).  But John McCann is broke.  He has eaten his seed corn.  Don’t look for him to trouble Josh Gottheimer.  And there might even be a reward in it for him.  Another lucrative patronage job perhaps?  He might end up a judge.

So the money that would have been spent in the 5th fighting off the visceral attacks of a Lonegan candidacy will now be heading… where?  Which Democrat will be the beneficiary of yesterday… perhaps they will all share in a piece of it?

Among the other lessons learned…

The party potentates who opened the bottle  of a Tony Ghee candidacy did so before its time.  They gave the newcomer no time to breathe.  It’s a solid vintage that will hopefully be available again.

And speaking of which.  We learn from the former Wally Edge that Peter Murphy is about to assume the throne of the GOP in Passaic County – the place he occupied before a certain United States Attorney, named Chris Christie, sent him away.  It’s a bad business – especially for Bob Hugin, who has made political corruption his ONLY issue.  Lonegan’s polling showed Murphy’s support to be the strongest negative against McCann.  More than 80 percent of Republicans were less likely to vote for a candidate who had his support… that’s REPUBLICANS.  You would have hardly guessed it from Lonegan’s campaign communications, but there you have it.

Surprisingly enough, Lonegan did have coattails of a sort.  In Sussex County, Lonegan-backed challengers to two incumbent Freeholders annihilated the incumbents.  It is the first time in living memory that a ticket with two incumbents was defeated in Sussex County.

Dawn Fantasia is the principal at a charter school.  Josh Hertzberg is an administrator with the ILA union.  These are what Republican candidates look like in our populist era.  Fantasia supported Senator Steve Oroho’s negotiations over the refinancing of the Transportation Trust Fund.  She learned about it and patiently explained the details to others – and ended up cutting a radio spot to that end. People warned that it would hurt her politically, because the final deal raised the gas tax, while cutting or eliminating a host of taxes (including the estate tax) and providing property tax relief.  Another lesson learned?

John McCann injected himself into the Freeholder race, on behalf of the incumbents, who supported him.  He ran a radio spot that attacked Senator Oroho by name on the gas tax.  Former Congressman Scott Garrett came out in support of the incumbents and ran a robo-call on their behalf.  More lessons?

Lonegan won Sussex County, but by a much smaller margin – about 500 votes.  Why the difference?  Well, in Sussex, the Lonegan freeholder ticket had a strong message that they pursued relentlessly – and were quick and sharp with their counterattacks.  The Lonegan campaign itself lacked this, especially the quick counterpunches.  Fantasia and Hertzberg also had the full attentions of Kelly Hart, who had been “let go” by the Lonegan campaign in April.  She had been field director for Sussex County.

Curiously enough though, when the dust settles after the General Election, the only big changes to the line-up of elected officials in CD05 will be the election of Lonegan’s running mates in Sussex County.  Everyone else… McCann and all his running mates in Bergen and Passaic will have lost.

A few years ago, Ralph Nadar wrote a book called “Unstoppable” – in which he predicted the rise of populist movements on both the Left and the Right in response to the disconnect with the mainstream political parties.  He suggested that Left and Right reformers had much in common and therefore, the basis of a genuine “resistance” movement.

How will this translate with Dr. Murray Sabrin on the Libertarian Party ticket for U.S. Senate is anyone’s guess, but there are Libertarian candidates in Districts 5 and 11, and a Constitution party in District 3.  A Center-Left populist, Wendy Goetz, is also running in the 5th.

And finally, election night parties.  The people you meet at such things are not average Republican voters.  Many earn a living from politics – whether as a lobbyist or a vendor, a job holder or a consultant.  They are in the business of politics – even those that just secure from it a certain status, as a member of a local government perhaps, or a school board.

That is not the case with 99 percent of Republican voters.  All they get out of voting is the idea that they are checking the box for someone who thinks like they do.  Most have a general idea of what the Republican Party stands for and that they stand for that too.  That “general idea” is provided to them, largely, by the mainstream media.  And yes, it includes the points that Republicans are Pro-Life and pro-Second Amendment. 

New Jersey’s Republican political class needs to learn to live with this.  Bring to a close their 40 years war with Reagan and their contempt for our base.  Trying to pretend that you are something else or “a different kind of Republican” is not a message, it is a deflection.  For all his money spent on advertising, Bob Hugin was able to convince just 52 percent of Republicans in Sussex County to vote for him.  He will need to do a great deal better.

Let the political class make its money… but leave average GOP voters someone they can vote for.

Sadly, the party took a step back yesterday.  They took away someone who meant something to a great many average Republicans – and they did so by telling voters that McCann was just a newer Lonegan, only more conservative, and that Donald Trump endorsed him.  We all know that isn’t true. 

And on that note, we begin the General Election.

A reader reacts to John McCann

By Sam Adams

The young Republicans love affair with John McCann.

Seems the latte-sipping, basement dwellers over at the young Republicans are so desperate to become a political power in New Jersey, they backed John McCann.

Sadly though when researching McCann, I think they may have thought McCain was their guy. But hey that's alright, both democrats hiding in Republican clothing.

The problem though, this is do or die for the Young Republicans, and with the baggage McCann has, it will be a flaming wreck.

Let's see, flip flops on right to life issues.

Wasn't allowed to speak at a 2nd amendment rally because he wouldn't fill out a questionnaire.

Lawsuits.

Paying for endorsements.

Caught on tape admitting he has to lie. Yes caught on tape.

Sadly he isn't suited to be a dog catcher.

But thank God for Steve Lonegan. True conservative.

Lots of endorsements Record of lowering taxes Right to life.

Asked to speak at both Trump and 2nd amendment rallies.

Don't worry boys, Dunkin Doughnuts has a new latte coming out just for you.

McCan't again latte. Drink up.

Pro-Abortion all his career, McCann has been frightened into claiming he's Pro-Life

It is a testament to the power of ideas.  A recognition that the voter base of the Republican Party -- those loyal souls who come out in primaries -- are solidly conservative on SOCIAL issues, solidly PRO-LIFE.

Despite all the nonsense spouted by the GOP establishment about big tents and new technology it is MESSAGE that decides who self-describe as members of a party and who show up on election day.  And so long as the NJGOP uses the word "Republican" in its title, that message is a NATIONAL one.  It does not flow from 150 West State Street in Trenton, but rather it exists in the national ether -- in the brain impulses of every sentient being with a reaction, one way or the other, to the word "Republican". 

The job of state and local leaders is to find a way to sell it.  You don't get to remake the brand.

A case in point:  John McCann.

The cabal of local operators who were part of the deal that resulted in the McCann  candidacy were out and about last summer telling anyone who would listen that Steve Lonegan was TOO CONSERVATIVE.  In particular, they targeted those pesky social issues, like abortion, which they claimed were "holding us (the NJGOP) back" and preventing them from winning.

Look, the only Republican candidate to win statewide in New Jersey since 1997 was both solidly Pro-Life and Pro-Second Amendment.  Now we're not saying that Chris Christie wanted to be.  We're not saying that he liked it.  What we're saying is that he knew better than to not to be anything but a social conservative.  That is what "Republican" means, dummy.  You can't wash it off.

Argue until you are blue in the face but you are stuck with it.  All a Republican gets when he or she sucks up to the opposition or its allies is their justifiable contempt and the anger of people who would otherwise turnout out for you because they have been, once again, betrayed.  Keep doing what you are doing and you are on a one way course to extinction. 

So the people who brought you John McCann have put their candidate out there for nine months -- since before McCann left the employ of that pro-Sanctuary State darling, the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County, the hand of hands... Mikey Saudino.  And in all that time, John McCann has preached a message of how "moderate" he was on abortion. 

Oh, he'd tell some crowds that he was "Pro-Choice" but most of the time he'd say things like how he was "personally opposed" to abortion and a "moderate" on "abortion rights".  After all, this is the same guy who predicated his 2002 campaign for Congress against conservatives Scott Garrett and Gerry Cardinale on his view that they were both "too conservative" on social issues to win a General Election.  McCann is the same candidate who called himself an "Arlen Specter Republican" a few years before Specter ended his career as an Obama Democrat.

Now, over the last ten days, voters in the 5th congressional district have been receiving mailers claiming that John McCann is a Pro-Life conservative.  And not only that, McCann now claims to believe that "life begins at conception". 

Yep, it is late in the campaign.  McCann wants to have a shot at winning.  McCann did a poll and it became obvious that not even having the party "line" in over 70% of the district was going to save him.  Social conservatism trumps county party lines.  Needs must.

Sure enough... the light bulb went on and with it the recognition that you need to be a social conservative to have a chance at attracting a great many Republican voters -- whether you are running in the primary or the General Election.  Take a look at these mailers...

Of course, this is John McCann and being who he is, he's not going to play it straight.  In McCann's not-quite-right brain, he probably believes that avoiding the word "Pro-Life" provides him with an out if he should win the primary and face Democrat Josh Gottheimer in November.

No.  It's not going to work that way.

First, McCann is a Republican.  For most people, that makes him Pro-Life whether he is or he isn't.  All he does by squawking about it is to piss-off people who might have voted for him because they are Pro-Life.

If you believe in abortion, a pro-abortion Democrat is always better than a pro-abortion Republican, because a pro-abortion Democrat votes for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker.  End of story.

Second, McCann is now on record as claiming that he believes a human life is ended if it is interfered with at any time from conception onwards.  For a start, he should check with his wife, an OB-GYN doctor in New York City, to see if any of the offices or hospitals she's been affiliated with hand-out the morning after pill.

How does he think he can walk that back? 

Will he tell voters that yes, he believes that human life begins at conception but that he also believes in women's rights to abortion?  That will make him a worse monster than any pro-abortion Democrat because at least they dispute that they are taking a life.  McCann will end up saying that it is human life but that he doesn't mind if it is being exterminated.  That's quite a place to be.

But these are the kinds of conundrums Republicans place themselves in when they refuse to live up to the values and principles of the political party to which they freely affiliate themselves.  Instead of honesty... you get people like John McCann.

Why is the NJ media so very anti-Roman Catholic?

An interesting case study is emerging in New Jersey political circles that could have national implications and might very well, in the long run, change the way people look at who the "Establishment" really is.  First, the setting...

This story takes place in the same week that a committee of the New Jersey Legislature passed a bill to discriminate against people who do not engage in homo-erotic carnality when handing out government business assistance.  How they determine that, they haven't quite figured out.  Does experimenting in college count?  Does one act count or a dozen?  Is there a time cut-off?  If somebody applied based on the sex partners one had in the 1990's -- would it count?  Do you need to go all the way -- oral, anal, and so on?  And who certifies it?  Does just thinking about it count?  Does someone who is sexually abstinent, but who considers themselves to be part of the LGBT community get the money?  And it is money we are talking about here... taxpayers' money.

Hey, we are all for helping members of the LGBT community -- or indeed, ANY community -- to get a leg up in starting a business.  But make it about NEED.  Base it on their ECONOMIC CLASS -- not on what someone does in his or her or whoever's bedroom (or indeed anywhere else one can think of).  Rich people, no matter what their sexual orientation, don't need any more help.  Money attracts money, and it's all green and all spends the same.  Make it about ECONOMIC CLASS, not about how someone gets off.

So that's the backdrop.  Now here's the story...

We all know that we live at a time when saying the wrong thing about the wrong people can earn someone a media-stoked one-way ticket to demands for your public shaming, loss of employment, and calls for your assisted suicide. Seemingly normal people will spit on your children or poison your dog and think that they are doing so for the greater good... that they are on the side of the angels.

Some have put it down to a state of madness brought on by environmental factors -- as in the Terror during the French Revolution (when apparently a bread mold made everyone take to beheading each other) -- and blame it on all the crazy dieting we do.  Does it never occur to anyone to just ignore the media and stop buying ever varying things to stuff down our gullets?

But we digress...

There are some groups that are sacrosanct.  This is true in every age.  For every time -- there are those who you dare not speak against.  It is a form of blasphemy.  Try saying something against them and there is an immediate backlash from all the forces of Establishment culture.  They are the agreed upon, "sacred" objects.

And everyone else is dreck. 

Well, Roman Catholics, it's official -- so far as the New Jersey media is concerned, so far as most of the political blogs in the state besides this one are concerned -- you are dreck.

Every week someone is calling on someone to resign because they said something or did something.  Go to the wrong concert and stand in front of the wrong band banner and it's... resign; call out some Democrats because they talk like 1930's Fascists and it's... resign; make a joke about the Women's March (which lauded a cop-killer) and it's... resign; and the madness just goes on and on.

The Star-Ledger's Tom Moran can write in introspective detail about how he loathes Catholics and he is praised by the Establishment... they even lay-off a few more workers in celebration!  A few weeks ago, some Democrat who ran for mayor in Bogota claimed that -- 12 years ago -- Steve Lonegan called him a "faggot".  Hey, gay people call each other that, not to mention students in junior high.  It is a rude word. But a hanging offense?

And it was just an accusation.  A dozen years old.  That the accused denied making.  And the accuser said that he wasn't gay.  Soooo.... a hanging offense?

Apparently, yes.  The Star-Ledger's lead moron -- Tommy Moran -- said to hang him high.  He played judge, jury, and executioner and said that Steve Lonegan had to resign from his campaign for public office over the allegation.

A few weeks later and there is Steve Lonegan again, holding a meeting of those who question the modern day sacrament of abortion.  The idea that in the passage from adolescence to adulthood, a woman's womb should first hold death before it holds life.  That's a heavy duty concept... Wiccan, even.

Steve Lonegan is a Roman Catholic.  Like many millions of Roman Catholics (as well as other religions and philosophies), Lonegan is Pro-Life regarding abortion.  He takes the exact position that his Church takes.

So someone from the campaign of Joshua S. Gottheimer -- a Member of the United States House of Representatives -- fires back at Lonegan and his gathering of mainly Roman Catholic Pro-Lifers.  The Gottheimer campaign calls them a "brand of extremism."

Come again?  The Roman Catholic church's teaching on abortion is very clear.  It believes the fetus to have a human soul and so, the body encompassing that soul is worthy of human protections.  It is a spiritual idea that one can respect even if you disagree with it from a pragmatic aspect.

But to dismiss it as a "brand of extremism"?  And from a Congressional office that wouldn't be caught dead saying the same thing about a tenant of the Muslim faith?  Or about a giveaway to rich members of the LGBT community?  Or about anyone or anything that the Establishment has said that we can't get away with criticizing?

Lots of media outlets covered the exchange and published the words of Gottheimer campaign spokesperson Andrew Edelson.  But a curious thing happened when the Lonegan campaign shot back a reply...

It wasn't covered.  It wasn't published.  In fact, so-called political blogs and websites that post EVERY press release from EVERY kind of critter imaginable would not post Lonegan's reply. 

So what was it that InsiderNJ and NJGLOBE and Politico and all the rest of the state's media didn't want you to read?  Well, here it is...

Yes, that's it.

They didn't publish an attack on Josh Gottheimer because it accused him of being an anti-Catholic bigot. 

See, you can accuse Republican Steve Lonegan of being an anti-gay bigot, based on a 12-year old accusation by a straight guy, but you can't accuse Democrat Josh Gottheimer of being an anti-Catholic bigot, based on a days-old statement from his campaign spokesperson.

This isn't about Republicans and Democrats as much as it is about anti-Roman Catholic hatred.  The Establishment -- its politicians, its media, academia, and the PC corporate world -- hates the Roman Catholic church.  They don't recognize anti-Catholic bigotry because, in their collective view, you cannot be anti-Catholic enough.

They want to tax all non-conforming, politically-incorrect religions out of existence.  For them, spirituality is meaningless unless it can be monetized and a good profit made from it.  They have no time for our old-fashioned Gods who speak of selflessness and balance.

Most of the media outlets in New Jersey -- and especially its political blogs -- are the trained lapdogs of the Establishment.  They will not even consider that something can be anti-Roman Catholic.  In their collective view, all things should be... anti-Roman Catholic.  They -- as is much of the rest of the Establishment -- are already operating in a Post-Christian world.  Their attitudes are visceral and displayed thoughtlessly.  They are the enemies of Faith.

And the enemies of justice.

Because shilling for someone like Josh Gottheimer sets a very low bar.  The behavior of this kitten from the Clinton years has been as astonishing as it has been repulsive, to all persons of good-will. 

Hey, don't take our word for it.  Here's what MSNBC's Rachel Maddow had to say about the firm where Josh Gottheimer held the number two position as International Vice President (his buddy Mark Penn was International President):

Yep, Josh Gottheimer and his pal Mark Penn ran the "PR Firm from Hell"!  So now we know who it is that the NJ media is shilling for.

Did Jay Webber abandon Passaic County conservatives?

In Bergen County, conservative Steve Lonegan has a full slate of county candidates running against the dregs of the BCRO and its hapless leadership, led by Paulie "the hand" DiGaetano.  There is a weirdness within the Bergen County political establishment -- Democrats and Republicans -- in that they derive great pleasure by mimicking the folkways of a traditional Mediterranean criminal elite.  We don't get it, but it seems to turn them on.

Over in Essex County, Assemblyman Jay Webber has his own slate of county candidates.  Webber, who has taken the phrase "Reagan Republican" and made it his own, was expected to link up with Lonegan in Passaic County -- where they both faced the county machine.   Whether this "machine" is the remnants of the once powerful organization that totally dominated Passaic County or the reconstituted second coming of the same remains to be seen, but it is still formidable nonetheless.  And so it made all the sense in the world for the two conservatives to link up in common cause.

But in the rush towards the April 2nd filing deadline, they failed to agree on ballot slogan and Webber raised objections to some of those candidates recruited by Lonegan.  "It became the Jay show," said one conservative activist. 

Webber bracketed his campaign with that of Brian Goldberg, a candidate for U.S. Senate.  Goldberg is running as a fiscal and social conservative this year -- a curious conversion from the social liberalism he displayed when he ran for the same office in 2014.  Lonegan was left with the conservative insurgents running for county clerk and freeholder.  Essentially, Webber split the movement and cut the conservative insurgents off his ticket.

The only way the county-level conservative insurgency was going to have a chance at winning was to be led by well-financed conservative congressional candidates in districts 5 and 11.  They have Lonegan in District 5 -- but that is just two towns (Ringwood and West Milford).  Webber booted them from his ticket in District 11 -- that's eight towns (Bloomingdale, Little Falls, North Haledon, Pompton Lakes, Totowa, Wanaque, Wayne, and Woodland Park).

To give our readers an idea of what this did, here are two sample ballots, one from a Ringwood, in District 5, and the other from Wayne, in District 11...

Now imagine how strong the conservative ticket would have been if it had stretched from U.S. Senate down through Freeholder in ten of the county's sixteen towns?  Instead, those conservatives running on the county level found themselves cut-off Jay Webber's ticket, all but assuring their defeat in the June primary.

Was this an act of treachery on the part of Webber?  Does he have a deal with the party bosses in Passaic County?  Why assure the defeat of the conservative insurgents and the ensure the hegemony of the machine?

There are many questions here but sadly only one certainty:  A great opportunity was missed to build a conservative infrastructure in the Passaic GOP.

Tony Ghee shows us how a Republican should behave

On the one hand, you have the campaign of John McCann, gleefully sharing every attack made by the Left on conservatives and his conservative opponent, Steve Lonegan.  While on the other, there stands Major Tony Ghee, United States Army.

Tony Ghee knows how to tell his friends from his enemies.  He is new to politics, but not so new that he's going to sit by and watch some scumbag liberals attack his Republican opponent's family.  Tony is a dad himself.

So Tony stepped up and stood with his opponent, conservative Assemblyman Jay Webber, against the attacks of leftist like Democrat State Senator Nellie Pou, who disgraced herself and her party.  Speaking of Pou, a supporter of Democrat congressional candidate Mikie Sherrill, here's what Tony Ghee had to say:

"Has our political discourse gotten so bad, that we need to drag the children of candidates into political statements about the critical issues impacting our community?"

"It’s 2018 and we should all be able to agree on three simple concepts:  political corruption is bad and should be repudiated by everyone, regardless of party; everyone deserves equal pay for equal work and government has a responsibility to ensure that; and the family of a candidate for public office is off limits, especially their children."

“This campaign should not be about scoring cheap political points, rather it should be about putting the people we are seeking to serve above partisan politics.  We need leaders who are dedicated to serving a cause greater than themselves or their party, because the issues at stake in this election are too great to be mired in soundbites and cheap petty politics. Senator Pou owes an immediate and unequivocal apology to the Webber’s for dragging their children into this campaign.”

Bravo, Major Ghee!

Meanwhile, back at the McCann campaign, one of his top supporters -- West Milford Republican Chair Matt Conlon -- actually sided with double-dipping Paterson Democrat Pou's attack on a Republican Assemblyman and his four daughters.  That is a real poor move by Conlon.

This is really unfortunate behavior for a local Republican leader.  Conlon is a bad role model.

We need more Republicans like Tony Ghee!

Democrat Menendez broke federal law. Star-Ledger asks Republican to quit race.

It's a severe case of payback for daring to ask a question.

A day after the Senate Ethics Committee's "severe admonishment" of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, Steve Lonegan, a conservative Republican congressional candidate in CD05 wrote to the Star-Ledger editorial board and asked when they might comment on the Senate Ethics Committee's action against Menendez.

"The Senate Ethics Committee said Thursday that Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, who avoided conviction in a federal corruption trial last year, violated federal law and Senate rules in accepting unreported gifts from a friend and political ally." (Washington Post, April 26, 2018)

It's now been five days, and the Star-Ledger has yet to comment on Senator Menendez.  Instead of making a statement about the corrupt Democrat , Star-Ledger editor Tom Moran quickly scratched around for a Republican to attack.  It's called deflection.

Moran claimed that a 12-year-old unfounded allegation from a former Democrat candidate for mayor in Lonegan's hometown, long known as crank, and noted for his serial accusations of officials in Bergen County, amounted to  a "gay slur" even though the man alleging the slur isn't gay.  Despite there being no proof to the allegation, when Lonegan asked about Menendez, Moran replied in writing to Lonegan:

"We are also writing about the accusation against you making a gay slur, as you know.  We believe that's grounds for you to step down from the race."

Unfortunately, for the Star-Ledger, while editor Moran was writing these lines, a New Jersey court was confirming that the accuser Moran based his attack on had no veracity at all.  The case was dismissed.  When this was pointed out to Moran, he published anyway.

It is no surprise to those who have been following Moran that the Star-Ledger editor doesn't believe in fairness or due process.  After all, in another Star-Ledger editorial (from 2013) Moran labeled the Constitution as a “source of our woes” and suggested that President Obama or a future President Clinton be given the power to appoint 10 senators and 50 congressmen to serve “at large”. 

Five days on and still no word from Star-Ledger demanding that corrupt Democrat Bob Menendez step down from the U.S. Senate.  Maybe they will never comment? 

You can read the Ethics Committee's full statement here:

https://www.ethics.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/files/serve?File_id=49C12C75-7A26-4FE6-B070-19FCEF4D7532

Star-Ledger's Tom Moran: An accusation is enough to convict!

View fullsize

Well, there goes the rule of law.

In the future, we should not expect a judicial process to determine our guilt or innocence.  What we should expect is the Moran prescription:  Merely to be accused, then to have a media-appointed judge determine our guilt, and finally a social media firestorm whipped-up to ensure our punishment.

How arrogant must someone like Tom Moran be to believe that he has the power to erase due process and our Republic's democratic traditions?  With his dutiful satellite Julie O'Connor, knelt passively by his side, Moran passes  judgment to take away the civil rights of an American citizen.  To muzzle a point of view by saying that someone should not be permitted to access their constitutional right -- protected by our Bill of Rights -- to run for office and freely voice their opinion.

Hey Julie!  Didn't you recently write an entire column about the falsely accused and admonishing those who would rush to judgment?  Guess your words don't apply to Tom, do they?

Is it not enough that the property taxpayers of New Jersey are made to subsidize out-of-date print media like the Star-Ledger?  Moran and his ilk have used their political relationships to successfully lobby for a law that forces local governments to use money from property taxes to advertise in print media when so many other formats cost nothing.  The law keeps Moran and his kind in a job even as the pressure it places on working people raises New Jersey's foreclosure rate to the highest in the nation.  But this is only one instance of Moran's corruption.

Sadly, Tom Moran and the Star-Ledger newspaper continue to add to the growing stain that is New Jersey's public life.  Moran has long been the subject of derision by professional journalists, who have been appalled by his panegyrics to political bosses like George Norcross.  Moran has long supped at the posterior of the Newhouse clan, who own the Star-Ledger and other organs (Moran amongst them) and for this Moran has been hated by the union workers and journalists who have suffered personal and material privations to service the greed of the Newhouse corporate masters.  Yes, Tom Moran is a sheepish fellow (and from the looks of him he might have been sired by one).

But it hardly ends here.  Tom Moran and his editorial board of sports writers and pom-pom girls have purposefully participated in the lowering of New Jersey's standards in public life.  They have steadfastly ignored the presence of convicted criminals in New Jersey's political system and have unflinchingly remained silent when these convicts were given political power or even elected office. 

When Montclair State University proposed fashioning a course in public service modeled around the life of a bureaucrat and lobbyist who had actually been criminally indicted for public corruption (he was saved from the legal process by an untimely death) Moran and O'Connor did not wince.  There was no admonishment in the Star-Ledger's editorial pages about what they were "celebrating".  The judicial process was mocked -- even though those who were indicted along with this "model of public service" were found to be, most guilty.

You see, to Tom and Julie, public theft and public corruption and criminal conviction and all that once was bad, it no longer matters.  What matters now, so our warm couple insist, is what goes on in your head.  They -- Moran and O'Connor -- want to be the judges of your inner moral conduct.  And while their concern for public morals does not encompass corporate prostitution and office trysts, what they will not tolerate are words.

Words and writing and books and speech are what they are on about.  They will use them, to reach into another person's soul, to determine motives and character, to decide if their subject is worthy of a human consideration, like doubt.

Tom Moran and Julie O'Connor are corporate versions of Captain Beatty in Ray Bradbury's  Fahrenheit 451.  Narcissistic windbags, usurpers of process and of judgment, haters of any way other than their own, of words and of writing that expresses what they do not embrace, and so -- haters of books and of free speech.  They terrorize them without power while sucking corporate ass, are friends of corruption and criminality.  They are authoritarians and the destroyers of liberty.

DiGaetano: Is CD05 a choice between two bigots and the PR Firm from Hell?

The battle to represent the 5th congressional district has turned into a real shit show since candidate John McCann lost the favored ballot position in Bergen County and then followed up that bad news with the announcement that his campaign was in deep in debt.  For his latest attack on opponent Steve Lonegan, McCann dug up a twelve years old allegation by a Democrat candidate for Mayor in Lonegan's hometown of Bogota.  The Democrat is an avowed supporter of President Barack Obama and, like McCann, has campaigned against the Trump tax cuts.

The Democrat claims Lonegan called him a bad word in a heated exchange more than a decade ago.  This has led the McCann campaign to label Lonegan as the "Roy Moore of New Jersey" -- a reference to Alabama Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore.   But apparently someone on the McCann campaign didn't think this through because McCann's big fundraiser was built around a guest speaker who was one of Moore's main allies, a guy named Sebastian Gorka.  Take a look at the video below and note the fellow with the beard standing directly behind Moore:

McCann's attacks are taking place while his former boss and department -- the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County -- are being sued for laying-off and allegedly harassing police officers.  McCann was named by the Bergen Record as the Sheriff's "right hand man" and McCann openly takes credit for getting rid of the police.  We will let NJTV tell the rest of the story:

https://www.njtvonline.org/news/video/lawsuit-bergen-county-officials-ignored-gay-cops-harassment-allegations/

Andrew Kara was one of the dozens of Bergen County cops who lost their jobs followed the merger of the sheriff’s and county police forces that congressional candidate John McCann takes credit for making happen.

“Andrew was called a fag, a queer, a freak and a homo,” said Kara’s attorney, Matthew Peluso.

The abuse went on for years and, according to a suit, the County Executive Jim Tedesco, County Sheriff Michael Saudino and the county prosecutor, now state attorney general, Gurbir Grewal, ignored his complaints.

“Andrew reported this conduct up the chain of command and nothing ever happened,” Peluso said.

During this period, candidate John McCann was the lawyer for the Sheriff's office and the "right hand man" to Sheriff Saudino, according to the Bergen Record.

Peluso says the lawsuit is "about standing up for a gay officer who has been treated cruelly by his supposed colleagues and the county’s leadership structure."

The suit has 21 plaintiffs who allege a variety of harassment.  It calls for reinstatement of the officers, including Kara, back pay, as well as punitive damages for pain and suffering.

Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) Chairman Paulie "the hand" DiGaetano has written to all the other GOP county chairs of the 5th congressional district, threatening them and telling them to demand that any GOP candidate connected with bigotry be required to stand down.  Does this mean that DiGaetano intends to deliver the 5th District meekly into the hands of Democrat Josh Gottheimer? 

We certainly hope not.

Is DiGaetano -- the doyen of the brylcreem set -- forgetting the kind of pissbag Josh Gottheimer is?  Doesn't he know the record of Josh "the breath monster" Gottheimer?  Well thank goodness someone does and she has his number.  Her name is Rachel Maddow, perhaps you've heard of her?

Before getting elected to Congress in 2016, Josh Gottheimer followed his buddy Mark Penn, the Clintons' polling guy, to take over an international public relations/lobbying corporation called Burson-Marsteller.  These people are real turds. 

Hey, don't take our word for it.  Here's what MSNBC's Rachel Maddow had to say about the firm where Josh Gottheimer held the number two position as International Vice President (his buddy Mark Penn was International President):

Yep, Josh Gottheimer and his pal Mark Penn ran the "PR Firm from Hell"!  So now we know what kind of shithouse Paulie is shilling for.

If McCann's event was any smaller he could have held it in a restroom stall.

As he haplessly makes his way to the filing deadline, "Stumbling John" McCann held a hilariously under-attended fundraising event this evening.  To fill the room McCann resorted to bringing in a Democrat political consultant and managed to get just enough people for a seance.

Just who they were conjuring up is anyone's guess.  We believe it to be the ghost of Nelson Rockefeller.

Meanwhile, over at Steve Lonegan's campaign, they were basking in the aftermath of a very successful fundraiser headlined by national conservative Republican leader Steve Forbes.  Instead of sitting next to a Democrat and some guy who was fired by Trump, like McCann was, Steve Lonegan was standing with Steve Forbes and Senator Gerry Cardinale (R-39) -- and Lonegan's event was attended by over 100 major donors.

Poor "Stumbling John"... foiled again!

McCann dissing Jewish voters in CD05? What will NJGOP do?

Once again, "Stumbling John" McCann has pissed down his leg.  A liberal both by habit and instinct, McCann couldn't help but go overboard when trying to "improve" his conservative credentials.  So McCann brought in a controversial figure who has been linked in the media with some rather unsavory folks of the "blood and soil" variety.

This is what so-called GOP "moderates" do, like last year when they trashed a Sikh in race in Southern New Jersey.  Instead of winning on ideas -- and ideas are cross-cultural and colorblind -- they go with personalities, trying to turn a candidate into a celebrity, and when that fails, they go straight to what they think their party's base is really all about. And it isn't, but they don't know that.

Here is what was reported this morning in Politico, by Matt Freidman:

The former chairman of Bergen County‘s Republican Party is slamming a congressional candidate for raising money with Sebastian Gorka, a one-time adviser to President Donald Trump who wore a medal associated with a Hungarian group that collaborated with Nazi Germany.

“It’s absolutely despicable. It shows that I have to assume that John McCann approves of this man,” said Bob Yudin, who chaired the Bergen County GOP from 2008 to 2016 and backs McCann rival Steve Lonegan for the GOP nomination in the 5th Congressional District. “This man seems to have sympathy toward fascists and Nazis, and this act of accepting support from him disqualifies John McCann in all ways and manners from being my congressman.”

...The 5th District has approximately 67,000 Jewish residents, or just over 9 percent of its population, according to the Jewish Data Bank. That’s the second-largest Jewish population of New Jersey’s 12 congressional districts.

You can read the full column here:  https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2018/03/23/mccann-slammed-over-ties-to-former-trump-adviser-gorka-325596

Gorka has been accused of selling his endorsement to candidates looking for readymade "Trump" cred.  The Washington Examiner reported (February 22, 2018):

Sebastian Gorka doesn’t want to talk about his special friendship with Danny Tarkanian, the insurgent Republican challenging incumbent Sen. Dean Heller in the Nevada GOP primary.

Asked at CPAC whether he sold Tarkanian his endorsement, the former White House strategist bristles. “No, because that would be illegal,” Gorka tells me in his English accent, taking care to emphasize each word. “I was given an honorarium.”

As the Washington Examiner first reported, the timeline of payments and speeches and endorsements is as follows: Gorka endorsed Tarkanian on stage in Nevada on Dec. 20. Disclosures filed with the Federal Electoral Commission show that the candidate paid the speaker $5,000 the day before.

The campaign later confirmed the payment and claimed it’s not unusual for politicians to pay speaking fees to their endorsers. But a search through FEC records shows the opposite. In the last three election cycles, only two candidates ever made such payments.

Asked if it is normal for him to get paid for speaking gigs with politicians, Gorka guffaws: “Me getting speaking fees? Every week, yes.”

You can read the full column here: 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/sebastian-gorka-denies-selling-danny-tarkanian-his-endorsement-for-5-000

McCann's event with Sabastian Gorka is March 28th.

The NJGOP is trying to expand its base along the lines of demographics.  We don't know what demographic group they are shooting for with someone like Gorka, but we advise them to take the path of ideas.  Ideas are open to everyone. 

McCann anti-prayer operatives at it again

Operatives associated with candidate John McCann have once again attacked conservatives in New Jersey.  These are the same operatives who a few weeks ago attacked Steve Lonegan for supporting prayer in schools.  

Two operatives for candidate John McCann's congressional campaign went on a Facebook rant against the suggestion that prayer in public schools might be a helpful deterrent to school shootings.  The suggestion was made in a Fox-TV interview by Republican candidate for Congress Steve Lonegan, known as the father of the modern conservative movement in New Jersey.

The two McCannites practically spit on prayer as a solution to anything, one writing of Lonegan that "mentally he's in Fantasyland and has been for some time."  This was a daring statement, considering his own candidate's challenges, and clearly showed contempt for cultural and religious conservatives.

It also ignores the data and the very low incidence of school shootings among, for instance, the 7,498 Roman Catholic schools in the nation.  A daily regimen of prayer does appear to work.  Although this could be merely coincidental, the suggestion should not be so rudely discounted -- and surprisingly by people calling themselves "Republicans."

While one McCann operative called John McCann a "fiscal conservative" (the same camouflage Bill Clinton used to describe himself), the other McCann operative mocked prayer as "a losing issue" and divisively wrote, "I wonder if Steve (Lonegan) would support a Muslim prayer, or a prayer in Spanish."  It goes to show where the McCann campaign's head is and makes you ask how different are these people from far-left Democrats?

Both McCannites are affiliated with the Young Republicans organization, and one was recently active in the campaign of the Morris County Sheriff.  This leads us to wonder if the Sheriff shares these anti-prayer views too.

More and more, this Young Republicans group in New Jersey is beginning to resemble a metro-sexual finishing school for socially-challenged post-adolescents.  Their commentary is cut and paste from the script of "Mean Girls."  Yes, Lonegan is in their "burn book."  "Oh, that's so fetch... on Wednesdays we wear pink."

Isn't it time for a little intellectual vigor?  They can start by asking themselves if they really want to be Republicans and how comfortable are they with the party's conservative platform.  Perhaps they'll discover that they're closet Democrats but unaware of it?

It is also time for cultural conservatives to start their own public policy-centered youth organization.  There are thousands of meetings held across New Jersey by people who do believe in the power of prayer.  These meetings are attended each week by hundreds of thousands of people and the beliefs they represent are shared by millions in the state.  According to the Pew Research Center for Religion & Public Life, 67% of adult New Jerseyeans identify themselves as "Christian."  Of these, 34% are Roman Catholic, with 13% Evangelical Protestant, and 6% Black Protestant.  Mainline Protestant, Orthodox, independent Christian, Mormon, and Jehovah's Witness comprise the remainder. 

Of the non-Christian faiths (14% total), Jewish comes in at 6%, Hindu at 3%, Muslim at 3%, Buddhist at 1%, and other religions 2%.  Although so ascendant in political circles, in academia, the media, and in the cocktail parties of the one-percent -- only 2% identify themselves as atheists, with 3% calling themselves agnostic.  Apparently, the YR's are recruiting heavily from these very tiny groups.

Oh, and the Wiccans -- that group particularly beloved of the pussy hat brigades and whose "religious" symbol is given equal billing with the Christian cross on the flags carried at rallies by Democrat Party operatives -- their actual numbers are so small (outside the aforementioned circles of politics, academia, the media, and the one-percent) that they fail to register.  Small, but as we see from the legislation they get passed, very powerful.

Yep, the nation needs all the prayer it can get.

Assembly Democrats support Trump call to end due process

We release murderers and rapists if law enforcement fails to follow due process.  That's because we are a nation of laws.  Not a mob that demands action... any action... "let's hang the first one who comes along!"

On Wednesday, Assembly Democrats formally adopted the Trumpian position in respect of the Bill of Rights.  Donald Trump said. "Take the guns first, go through due process second," and the Assembly Democrats said, "Yes, Sir."

Trump made his comments at a meeting with congressional leaders on school safety.  Trump was responding to comments from Vice President Pence that families and local law enforcement should have more tools to report potentially dangerous individuals with weapons. 

Pence was taking the Bill of Rights into consideration, when he said:  "Allow due process so no one’s rights are trampled, but the ability to go to court, obtain an order and then collect not only the firearms but any weapons."  To which Trump responded:  "Or, Mike, take the firearms first, and then go to court."

And about the same time as Trump was playing the authoritarian card, the Democrats on the Assembly Judiciary Committee were passing Assemblyman John McKeon's "Extreme Risk Protection Order" (Assembly Bill 1217),  which suspends due process based on a simple accusation.  A no-knock warrant could be issued, the door of a home or place of business kicked-in, and the property of someone who hasn't been accused of breaking any law seized -- just because a "family member" or "member of law enforcement" believed he or she posed a risk.

Steve Lonegan offered the following testimony on Assembly Bill 1217:

"In 1971, a group of possibly well-meaning but misguided politicians imposed the Civil Authorities Special Powers Act, which allowed government to take away peoples' rights without charging them with a crime.  It was meant to be a response to violence, but only made matters worse in Northern Ireland.

In considering Assembly Bill 1217, the New Jersey Legislature should recall the words of George Will, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author, who reminded us of the dangers of 'overcriminalization.'  After the death of Eric Garner, which was the result of the New York Legislature sending in the police to enforce a state tax on cigarettes, Will warned legislators that there are potentially grave consequences every time they make a new law and then send in men with guns to enforce it.

Will said:  'Overcriminalization has become a national plague. And when more and more behaviors are criminalized, there are more and more occasions for police, who embody the state’s monopoly on legitimate violence, and who fully participate in humanity’s flaws, to make mistakes.'

Assembly Bill 1217 is open to abuse and has the potential to create many more situations with violent outcomes than those it seeks to prevent.  And, as written, there is no recourse or penalty if the law and its potentially violent outcome was triggered by a simple misunderstanding or a false or malicious report."

No president likes to give up power.  The last to do so, voluntarily, was Jimmy Carter -- and he did so under the shadow of the official criminality connected to the Watergate scandal.  President George W. Bush, President Obama, and President Trump have all expanded the state's power over the individual citizen.  The action by the Assembly Democrats reeks of the British government's desperate move to bring the Irish Republican Army to heel in the 1970's.  Instead of achieving their aim, they made victims out of innocent people and destroyed the reputation of their country's criminal justice system.

As a former IRA supporter himself, Assemblyman McKeon should know what he's done.  Perhaps this will refresh his memory...

Let's not create victims like the Guildford Four or Paterson Eleven or Metuchen six or Cape May seven...