When he ran for Governor in 2005, Steve Lonegan finished in fourth place. Then he took a job with Americans for Prosperity and outside money flowed into New Jersey. With AFP’s money, Steve Lonegan did some good things for the conservative movement in New Jersey, but along the way it became more about Steve Lonegan and less about the movement.
In his 2009 campaign for Governor, Lonegan broke with fiscal conservative principles to propose an income tax plan that would have raised taxes for most of New Jersey’s taxpayers. Chris Christie strongly opposed Lonegan’s plan as did many prominent conservatives. Christie was very clear about how he felt about Lonegan’s tax plan:
http://www.moremonmouthmusings.
This begs the question: Are those legislators and county chairmen who have endorsed Steve Lonegan also endorsing his tax hike plan? A plan that Chris Christie said will “raise taxes on the middle class” and on “70 percent” of New Jerseyeans. No one who calls himself a fiscal conservative should ever call for higher taxes.
Lonegan’s 2009 campaign also led to a lawsuit that alleges Lonegan defrauded New Jersey taxpayers out of $2.7 million by accepting matching funds while claiming that he had nothing to do with running Americans for Prosperity in New Jersey. New Jersey election law prohibits managers of lobby groups from receiving matching funds.
As State Director of Americans for Prosperity, Steve Lonegan personally controlled the organization. Anyone who knows Steve knows that’s the case. We all know that Steve Lonegan personally controls everything he’s involved in or he doesn’t get involved.
This unresolved lawsuit hangs over this election for United States Senate. The Democrats love it, Lonegan is afraid of it, and anyone who wants to elect a Republican on October 16th should be concerned too. Lonegan won’t address it, preferring to rely on hand signals, as in this video.
http://www.republicreport.org/
Republicans do have an electable conservative alternative to Steve Lonegan: Alieta Eck, M.D. Dr. Eck is Pro-Life and committed to defending traditional values. She stands solidly for the United States Constitution and is an uncompromising champion of the Bill of Rights. She is a passionate advocate for free enterprise, lower taxes, and less federal spending. Dr. Eck has worked tirelessly to find non-governmental solutions to the problems that ObamaCare seeks to fix but doesn’t.
Dr. Eck has taken conservative principles beyond the overheated rhetoric and applied them to fixing the real problems that plague everyday people. Instead of simply speaking out against government-run medical welfare programs, Dr. Eck has created a non-profit health center – a model that serves people every day. She rejects the top down bureaucratic over-reach of Washington, DC, in favor of local, people-to-people initiatives. Dr. Eck’s health center is a proven approach to delivering medical care to the uninsured, at no cost to taxpayers. Inarguably Dr. Alieta Eck has helped more low-income people and saved more lives than Newark Mayor Corey Booker has.
We have a choice to make and I will be writing about this again throughout the summer.