Steve Lonegan

-- Nearly 3,000 individual contributions!
LONEGAN FILES FOR MATCHING FUNDS
WITH $384,450.35 -- $45,000 OVER TARGET

TRENTON -- Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan filed for more than a half million dollars in matching funds today, submitting an application with nearly $400,000 raised from close to 3,000 individual contributions.

With matching funds, the achievement will put the Lonegan campaign at close to One Million Dollars in total receipts. Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

There is some speculation that Barack Obama's choice to serve as Democratic National Chairman is Tim Kaine, the Governor of Virginia and a runner-up to Joe Biden in the summer vice presidential sweepstakes.  If Kaine gets the DNC post, it might drive traffic to www.timkaine.com - something that might help Steve Lonegan, the conservative Republican running for Governor of New Jersey this year.  The timkaine.com domain forwards to Lonegan's campaign site.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan has raised enough campaign cash to receive matching funds from the state, according to his strategist, Rick Shaftan.

Shaftan didn’t have the exact numbers, but he said that Lonegan has raised over $340,000 – the threshold to receive two dollars for every dollar he raises beyond the $109,000 deductible.

If the contributions are verified, Lonegan will start out with about $802,000.

“The last six to eight weeks has been all fundraising,” said Shaftan.

Getty Images Photo

Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to seek re-election to a second term in 2009.

Look for former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to file papers this month as a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor.   The former federal prosecutor is expected to become the establishment GOP candidate in a primary against former Bogota Mayor Steven Lonegan, the leader of the conservative wing of the New Jersey GOP.   Two other candidates, Assemblyman Richard Merkt and Franklin Township Mayor Brian D. Levine, are also mulling gubernatorial bids.

Incumbent Jon Corzine is expected to seek a second term as Governor, and is likely to run unopposed in the Democratic primary.  Not since Brendan Byrne faced nine rivals, including two Congressmen and a member of his own cabinet, in 1977 has a sitting Governor faced serious opposition for the nomination of his or her own party.  Corizne has struggled to win the approval of voters, but he's a Democrat in a very blue state, and he is expected to spend a huge amount of money to get re-elected.  It will be hard for any Republican to beat him.

If budget issues or e-mails make it impossible for Corzine to continue his race, look for a spirited Democratic primary with Senate President (and former Governor) Richard Codey as the front runner.

New Jerseyans will elect a Lieutenant Governor for the first time in 2009.  The new state law requires the winners of the major party gubernatorial primaries to pick a running mate, much like vice presidential candidates are designated after a presidential nominee is picked.

Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham)

In the state Senate today, Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) plans to introduce a bill that would suspend for 12 months a 2.5 percent tax on commercial development designed to create funds for affordable housing development. 

But the two Republican candidates officially in the race for governor both believe the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) shouldn’t be tweaked so such as simply scrapped. 

To that end, Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) intends to introduce his own bill on the floor that would do just that, even as the Legislature with Lesniak’s proposal will consider fine-tuning COAH, the State agency responsible for establishing and monitoring municipal affordable housing obligations in New Jersey. 

John Crowley, right, with Gov. Jon Corzine

Biotech Republican millionaire John Crowley of Princeton will not run for governor in 2009, according to his spokesman, Bill Spadea.

“What happened in the last few weeks is speculation that has gone beyond reality,” said Spadea. “It is certainly an honor for John to be considered a top-tier candidate but he does not intend to run at this time. Both John and myself will be focused on Building the New Majority (a grassroots organization Crowley and Spadea founded) and working to elect local and Assembly candidates in 2009.”

Crowley almost ran for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate earlier this year, even fielding a phone call from U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to get in the race, but he decided against it, citing the demands of his biotech business in Cranbury. 

Over the summer, Crowley and Spadea formed Building the New Majority and stepped up their outreach to party members, an effort that for Crowley included playing the host of a Mississippi boat ride at the Republican National Convention. 

Bergen County Clerk Kathe Donovan, who just won her fifth five year term as county clerk last month, does not rule out the possibility of becoming a candidate for Lieutenant Governor next year. 

But she’s not running for it.

“First of all you don’t run for it. The way I understand the law is people select you after the primary,” she said.

He’s not yet in officially, but he’s moving forward.

Franklin Mayor Brian D. Levine, a moderate Republican interested in pursuing a run for governor, this week inched closer to his goal.

“Yesterday, I filed a form with New Jersey ELEC to set up a campaign name and register and start to put an organization,” said Levine. “Monday I’m slated to give my first economic talk.” 

A CPA by trade and grassroots candidate who won election and re-election in Democratically-controlled Franklin, Levine says he’s used to going door-to-door and generating old fashioned face to face political support.

State Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Morris)

BOONTON – State Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Morris) said he has not yet committed to a gubernatorial candidate to challenge Gov. .Jon Corzine, but said he thinks whoever runs has a good chance of beating the incumbent Democrat – particularly if that person runs on an aggressive smaller government message. 

“I like Christie,” Bucco said of former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, who hasn’t yet entered the Republican Primary, but whom many establishment Republicans favor as the best choice to square off against Corzine. 

“But I haven’t committed to anyone,” added the veteran senator, who attended his son’s formal campaign kickoff for the Assembly in District 25.

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Twp.)

MORRIS TWP. – While his Democratic Party family forbearers probably found the nickname “Little Adlai” endearing, Michael Patrick Carroll hardly panned out as the ideological offspring of every  liberal’s favorite bumper sticker  - Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson - who was twice demolished by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Pro-life, pro-gun, pro-voucher,  and a proponent of scrapping Mount Laurel and Abbott who likens some of the Abbott Schools to “educational Taj Mahals,” veteran Assemblyman Carroll (R-Morris Twp.) remains one of the most outspoken conservative members of the New Jersey Legislature.

“I don’t generally do as well in my hometown of Morris Township as I do in western Morris County – places like Roxbury and Randolph,” Carroll said. “We’re like everywhere else in New Jersey – the farther east you go, the bluer it gets.”