You Be The Campaign Manager
As we head to the finish line of the GOP County Convention season, which in turn leads us to the final 2 months before Primary Day, I thought it would be interesting to hear your ideas as the “Campaign Manager” for either the Christie or Lonegan campaign.
Using the results of the conventions and the week of bad press for Christie regarding contracts he awarded while US Attorney, which raises many questions, you are tasked with developing a plan for the candidate of your choice for the final weeks.
Working for Steve Lonegan, what would you do for the next 8 weeks to get your candidate side by side with Christie to showcase the obvious differences in ideas and solutions between the two. How do you spin the results of the County Convention? How much of an issue do you make of the Christie contracts?
If you choose to represent Chris Christie, what is your strategy for the remainder of the primary season? You know that you have to participate in at least 2 debates with Lonegan before the election. How do you negate the questions that Christie has not been verbal or specific about his plans and ideas? How do you spin the questions regarding the contracts that Christie awarded while US Attorney?
To put it simply, if I were Christie’s manager, I would focus exclusively on Corzine. Lonegan is at this point a non-factor.
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:18 amAgreed, Eric. When you’re Secretariat and you’re leading the second place horse by 18 lengths going into the final turn and heading towards the finish line, there’s no reason stop, run back and beat him over the head with a baseball bat.
Mayor Lonegan has both an excellent message and model as to how government needs to be reformed that unfortunately, has been overshadowed by a haphazardly run campaign and unfortunately, it’s too little, too late for him.
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:50 amWho’s Lonegan?
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:58 amIf I were running Lonegan’s campaign I would enter a humble pie eating contest, apologise to Tom Wilson and Alex DeCroce and start working my ass off for Christie.
If I were running the Christie campaign I would get out in front of the story of the DPA for the prosecutor who investigated his brother. I would give up matching funds, the spending limits that come with them and raise $50 million or more to take on Corzine in the general election.
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:12 amIt’s great to see how delusional you insiders are. Get out in the real world for a change instead of talking to each other on blogs.
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:20 amWow, you know a ship is sinking when the captain resorts to cannibalism.
A damn shame.
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:30 amAgreed. If you are Christie, keep running your general election campaign. Lonegan doesn’t have the numbers and never will, so keep hitting the dems.
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:07 amIf I were Lonegan, I would put together tv commercials with clips of Reagan’s and Goldwater’s speeches from 1964, then morph it into the candidate and have him say various messages about how win or lose I will always fight for my principles of limited government, less government spending and protection of private property rights….and that the voters will always know where he stands on issues. I know it is risky to make your message about how a defeat in 1964 laid the groundwork for future successes, but I’m not sure there is much that Lonegan to do at this point to convince people of the seriousness of his message.
If I were Christie, I would keep doing what I have been doing. Don’t mess with success. And I would probably flaunt all of the endorsements and victories at the county conventions.
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:09 amEd,
I fail to see how the production of a commercial depicting Reagan and Goldwater speeches will help Lonegan. Such commercials are trite, and show no originality. Everyone and their mother has produced such commercials. And if I recall correctly, even Barack Obama compared himself to Reagan during the campaign.
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:40 amEric:
I readily admit to be grasping at straws. Nothing has worked so far…so the only thing I can think of is to point to your roots and your principles.
But if what you are saying is that it does not look good for the Lonegan campaign (to put it mildly), I don’t disagree at all.
I suppose if I were a better campaign operative, I would have a different job….
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:45 amLonegan lost this campaign months ago. His problem is not that he is too conservative or not conservative enough. For a while last year, I actually thought that maybe Lonegan had the maturity for a lack of a better word to win the campaign. For example, I thought that Lonegan’s decision to criticize Sabrin last year showed that Lonegan had character. But I guess unsurprisingly, Lonegan has decided to emulate the Sabrin campaign this year.
If Lonegan was smart, he would have fired Shaftan the moment that Shaftan began making predictions that Christie wasn’t going to run. Shaftan’s tactics are despicable and Lonegan’s loss will can likely be attributed almost solely to Shaftan. So if I were running the Lonegan campaign right now, I would immediately fire Shaftan in a very public fashion in an effort to essentially reboot the campaign.
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:58 amInteresting points Eric.
I ask this wholly out of curiosity and not out of any disagreement with what you say: do you run political campaigns? You seem to know what you are talking about, if you will accept the compliment from me. Thanks for adding your input to our discussions.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:04 pmGiven that Mr. Shaftan also reads this blog I just want to make clear I was not endorsing his public firing, either. I was just trying to say something positive about Eric P. because I think he has added valuable insights to the gubernatorial campaign. I am not privvy enough to the inner workings of the Lonegan campaign to have a position on who should be fired or not.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:08 pmEd,
No, I’ve only interned on a couple of campaigns while in college. I’m in law school now, and would love to get involved in one of the campaigns (I’m sure you could all guess which one), but I simply don’t have the time. But this sabbatical from politics has I think provided me with a new perspective on how people who are not involved view the campaigns.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:33 pmThat’s ok, I don’t care what you all say about me. Just spell my name correctly.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:33 pmIs he joking here?
Lonegan objects to League of Women voters debate sponsorship
By Editor
Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan says that the League of Women Voters is a “left-wing political lobby that advocates a variety of positions far outside the Republican Party mainstream” and he objects to the group sponsoring one of two official debates before the Republican gubernatorial primary.
The League of Women Voters of New Jersey, along with the ABC-TV affiliates in New York and Philadelphia, has applied to sponsor one of the debates. State law requires candidates who received public financing to participate in two debates sanctioned by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.
Michael…it doesn’t matter if he had all the money in the world..and the largest and best campaign organization…he will never, ever get elected in a statewide contest. I would think that slamming the LOWV is not a very smart move.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:38 pmRick Shaftan Says:
“It’s great to see how delusional you insiders are. Get out in the real world for a change instead of talking to each other on blogs.”
Says the man..commenting on a blog..who spends most of his days commenting on other blogs and insider websites rather than actually running a legitimate campaign where he himself doesn’t become the story.
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:25 pmLonegans conservative message of family, jobs, education, and prosperity has broad appeal. EVERY election is about the economy. He needs to highlight the closure of TWO auto plants and the loss of thousands of private sector union and non-union jobs. He should highlight how conservative principles are based on economic growth; NJ needs new leadership and sound economic policies of less government to improve job growth and quality of life. Talk about the flight of residents to lower-cost, job-growth states. Keep hammering COAH, ABBOTT, Charter schools, and corruption.
He should ignore Christie and his anti-corruption campaign. Negative campaigns are a turn-off. It means NOTHING if you are the anti-Growth, Party of “no” GOP.
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:34 pmThis is quickly turning into a Pro-Christie site. Love it. If only Mike would get the hint of who the followers of his site are and turn down the anti-Chris rhetoric.
I am looking forward to 7-8 weeks from now when this site is 100% Pro-Chris.
Let’s give Lonegan three more weeks to get some traction, any traction. At that point, it’s time to call of the dogs and start talking about the Dems. For a change.
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:24 pmBrennan:
Have debate dates been set yet?
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:31 pmNo not yet. You know who will take note of the debates? Nobody!!
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:33 pm