ELEC Meets Today
Is Lonegan On The Agenda?
By Art Gallagher
The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission meets in Trenton this morning.
It is the commission’s first meeting since the Think Progress blog reported that Lonegan apparently lied about his compensation from Americans For Prosperity when he sought and received $2.7 million in taxpayer “matching funds” for his 2009 Republican gubernatorial primary bid against Chris Christie.
ELEC forbids candidates from receiving matching funds if they were “involved in anyway” in the management of a political advocacy organization unless the organization discloses the names of its donors. Lonegan, who is and was the Executive Director of Americans For Prosperity-NJ, said the disclosure requirements did not apply to him or AFP because he was paid from the organization’s education account rather than its lobbying account. Think Progress says they’ve seen tax records that reveal he was paid by the lobbying branch.
The Lonegan controversy is not on the commission’s published agenda, however it could come up in public comments or executive session.
In addition to the fund raising controversy, our friends at The State-NJ report that Governor Christie’s office has suggested that AFP national president Tim Phillips prevail upon Lonegan to tone down his rhetoric.
More from my site
Turning up the heat on Middlesex County pay to play scandal
Monmouth Dems Outraise Monmouth GOP
ELEC Reporting Lacks Transparency
Eck Clarifies Her Position On Abortion, Says She Can’t Imagine Lonegan Getting Elected, Will Run For Senate In 2014
Qarmout Endorses Lonegan
If Christie’s the new darling of the far right, where does that leave Steve Lonegan?
Despite GWB scandal, Chris Christie a big draw at Lonegan fundraiser
Americans for Prospertity Opposes Christie’s Supreme Court Picks- AFP Presidential Summit On Spending And Job Creation
Christie Skipping Rand Paul’s Endorsement Of Lonegan
Thanks for not ignoring this serious issue.
Steve Lonegan is a growing embarrasment to AFP.
Any NJ citizen does have a right to run for governor. However, gubernatorial candidates that have participated in lobbying groups must disclose the donors if they want taxpayer matching funds.
Although, Lonegan lost the primary by a landslide, Republican primary voters who funded his campaign with taxpayer funds were denied the right to know who funded AFP. In fact they still do not know. AFP does not need to release its donors names, but those who participate in their organization can’t be funded by taxpayers and AFP at the same time without letting taxpayers know the source of the funding.
In my view this was a waste of taxpayer dollars, that could have distorted the electoral process. Christie was forced to waste time and money on fighting Lonegan’s campaign instead of focusing on Corzine. Yes, Christie won the primary and the general anyway, but we need to make sure this kind of waste and abuse does not happen going forward. ELEC and Lonegan should remedy the situation.
While they are at it, will NJELEC be looking into the voter registration operation run on behalf of candidate Christie in August of 2008? It was run from the offices of the Assembly Republicans. Yes, Christie was still U.S. Attorney at the time.
Not sure, not up on the law like the Soros-funded Think Progress people are, but there could be something wrong here.
[…] upon Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips to get Lonegan to tone his rhetoric down, as reported at the time by the now defunct […]
[…] in April 2011, two reputable New Jersey blogs reported (one now offline) that Christie-affiliated surrogates had allegedly implored AFP’s national […]