Steve Lonegan battling against all odds in N.J. Senate race

Steve Lonegan battling against all odds in N.J. Senate race
Wednesday August 14, 2013, 11:49 PM
By HERB JACKSON
“NJ/DC” COLUMNIST

How confident are Democrats in Washington that Cory Booker will win the Senate seat formerly held by Frank Lautenberg in October?

When asked last month about the absence of black Democrats in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid told a reporter, “Cory Booker’s on the way.”

Political handicappers have already labeled the seat as “solid Democrat,” a notch above the rating given to Sen. Bob Menendez’s seat at this point in his reelection bid last year.

And while some Democratic senators began asking their contributors this week to help Booker, the Newark mayor told the editorial board of The Asbury Park Press that he already has been asked to travel to other states next year to raise money for the party’s candidates.

The Republican nominee, Steve Lonegan, a former mayor of Bogota, is unfazed by these odds. In a victory speech on Tuesday night in which he mentioned Booker 12 times, Lonegan cast himself as a member of Gen. George Washington’s army, and Booker as part of the forces of King George III.

“Mr. Booker — sort of like the British troops that were held up in Trenton on Christmas Day 1776 — they had superior funding, superior everything — they had the whole British crown behind them. But they lost to a ragtag group of rebels, the American Colonies,” Lonegan told the crowd, which included someone holding a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag and someone wearing a tricorn hat.

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