Meet Steve Lonegan NJ US Senate Candidate
Steve Lonegan is New Jersey’s number one champion for taxpayers. As a Mayor and as Americans for Prosperity state director, Lonegan has led the fight for the men and women who work hard and pay government’s bills.
Taking over as Mayor, Lonegan immediately cut municipal spending, bringing a “Taxpayers First” philosophy to borough government, leading to the elimination of wasteful and duplicative services, privatization of some functions and a more cost-efficient user-friendly government.
As a result, Bogota’s municipal spending remained constant for the entire twelve years of Steve’s tenure. Mayor Lonegan kept debt and tax increases far below inflation despite massive state mandates and aid reductions to suburban towns like Bogota. None of the other 565 New Jersey Mayors could boast of such a record.
Thanks to Steve’s strong, conservative leadership, Republicans kept council control for eleven straight elections and Steve was reelected in 1999 and 2003 by double digit margins over his Democratic opponent. He did not run for reelection in 2007, keeping a promise not to serve more than three terms.
As Mayor, Lonegan stood up to powerful public employee labor unions by bringing in civilian dispatchers rather than highly paid police officers. Steve Lonegan created the Taxpayer Protection Act requiring a public vote for new municipal debt or public employee contracts that exceed inflation and under Lonegan, Bogota was the first town in New Jersey to pass a ballot initiative restricting Eminent Domain.
As Mayor, Lonegan refused to fill out affirmative action forms and stated that he would not comply with state laws purportedly requiring him to perform Same-Sex Civil Unions, as it violated his Catholic faith.
Steve Lonegan saw that his role as Mayor took him beyond municipal borders. Whether it was fighting the Newark Arena, illegal state bonding, proposed gasoline tax hikes or countless other taxpayer rip-offs, Mayor Lonegan found that his work led him to speak out more and more for frustrated taxpayers all over the state — even taking on Governors and legislators in both parties to do what was right for working families and all taxpayers.
After twelve years as Mayor, Lonegan stepped down to devote full-time to his role as New Jersey Americans for Prosperity state director. He had compiled a record of cutting taxes, spending and debt far below inflation — a record unmatched in any of the other 565 New Jersey municipalities.
Since coming to Americans for Prosperity in 2006, Steve continued his fight for taxpayers by defeating two state ballot questions in 2007. The first would have forced an 8% sales tax for phony property tax “reform” and the second that would have bonded nearly a half billion dollars for taxpayer financed Embryonic Stem Cell “research.”
The Star Ledger’s Paul Mulshine said that “Lonegan single-handedly ignited the biggest taxpayer revolt since the Florio years” by defeating these two questions. With the ink on the results barely dry, Lonegan led the successful fight to stop Governor Corzine’s $38 Billion Toll Hike and Borrowing Scheme. His efforts so perturbed the embattled Governor that his staff even ordered the Mayor arrested for daring to challenge Corzine’s radical proposal. And Lonegan’s AFP efforts led to the defeat of taxpayer-financed legislative elections in the state.
In between all this, Steve published a book Putting Taxpayers First, where he outlines a blueprint for Republican victories in the Garden State.
Since then, Steve worked to get Governor Chris Christie to take New Jersey out of Cap and Trade, stop the Obamacare Exchanges, defeat the destructive Residential Foreclosure Act and fight increases in the State Income Tax.
Steve Lonegan was born in Teaneck’s Holy Name Hospital on April 27, 1956. He grew up and graduated from High School in Ridgefield Park where he set several high school track records. Steve earned a B.A. in Business Administration from William Paterson College where he was Football Team Captain and an All Conference Division Center, later earning an M.B.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Steve built and managed retail, custom homebuilding and manufacturing businesses employing dozens of workers, prior to becoming Americans for Prosperity state director for New Jersey.
Steve and his wife Lorraine (Rossi) live in Bogota and have two adult daughters: Brooke and Katherine (Parany). The Lonegan family attends St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Bogota, where Steve’s daughter was the third generation of Lonegans to be married at the altar of St. Joseph’s Church.
Whether it is speaking out for taxpayers, taking on bureaucrats or fighting for homeowners, no one in New Jersey is as vocal, as active, and as determined to succeed as Steve Lonegan. Tough and independent, Mayor Steve Lonegan is the undisputed champion of New Jersey’s overtaxed and overregulated working families. He will be that champion in the United States Senate.
