Hot New Tune: "Nazi Trumps Fuck Off"... And Ice Cold Congressional Race In New Jersey

Who remembers the Dead Kennedy's classic punk anthem "Nazi Punks Fuck Off?" Well, Biafra has updated it (above). How about Steve Lonegan? Do you remember him? He's a New Jersey political on the far right GOP fringe. Anything you read about him will always mention he was the mayor of Bogota, New Jersey, a mighty metropolis of 8,000 people. Other than that, he runs for anything nd everything-- and always loses. Because he's certifiably insane. He was the head of the Koch brothers' political operation in New Jersey and he was the chairman of Ted Cruz's presidential campaign there. New Jersey Republicans weren't buying Ted Cruz's neo-fascist message and Lonegan led him to an embarrassing 3rd place finish behind Señor Trumpanzee, Lord of Bedminster (80.6%), and John Kasich (13.3%) with a dismal 6.1% of the Republican vote. Go Ted! Go Steve!

Well, yesterday, after weeks of rumors, Lonegan made it official-- he's running against the worst Democrat in New Jersey's congressional delegation, worthless Blue Dog Josh Gottheimer. If there was ever a congressional race to wish both candidates lose by landslides...! NJ-05 is New Jersey's most conservative district, most of it in Bergen County (and including The Sopranos' Bada Bing strip club). The district sits on the entire northern border of New Jersey with New York, from the Hudson River in the east to just outside of Port Jervis in the west, and the entire northwestern border with Pennsylvania from Milford through the Delaware Water Gap and beyond my old home in Stroudsburg. It's an affluent R+4 district in blue New Jersey. Over 70% of the population is in northern Bergen County's suburbs and towns like Paramus, Hackensack, Teaneck, Mahwah and Lodi (the Bada Bing club town). Politically, this is Chris Christie country although Sen. Bob Menendez won the district with 51% last time he ran. McCain won the district in 2008, 51-48% and Romney won in 2012, 52-49%. Last year Trumpanzee underperformed Romney but still managed to beat Clinton 48.8% to 47.7%.

Gottheimer-- who got more money from the banksters than any other non-incumbent running for the House this year ($889,419), outraised Garrett $4,288,192 to 2,055,513. Garrett, until recently a Wall Street fave (as the anti-regulation sociopath chairman on the House Financial Services Committee's subcommittee on Capital Markets), only got $674,888 from the Finance Sector this cycle, way down from the $1,159,579 he scooped up from them in 2014 or the $1,224,313 he got in 2012. They wanted him to lose this year.

So on November 9, Bergen County residents woke up to some good news and some bad news. The good news was that Scott Garrett was on the losing end of a 156,863 (50.5%) to 146,643 (47.2%) result. It was the Bergen County voters who had finally grown tired of Garrett's extremism and who had turned him out. In 2012 he won Bergen County with 100,874 votes. This time, which far more people voting, only 93,430 in Bergen County went for Garrett. 121,875 voted for Gottheimer. And that's the bad news, of course: Gottheimer won. It looks like this will turn out to be the most expensive House race in New Jersey history. Outside spending was through the roof. Ryan's House Leadership PAC and the NRCC refused to spent a nickel on the widely disliked Garrett. Only another of crooked hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer's PACs, the American Principles Fund, kicked in any substantial money for Garrett-- $309,025. Meanwhile, smelling blood in the water, the DCCC and it's allies, excited to get another slimeball Blue Dog into Congress, spent a gargantuan $6.4 million attacking Garrett and bolstering Gottheimer. It worked. I wonder if they still think it was worth it now that Gottheimer has become a regular supporter of Paul Ryan's agenda.

He promptly joined the New Dems and the Blue Dogs-- the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- and has earned one of the worst "F" scores from ProgressivePunch. His crucial vote score is 30.56, the exact same as "ex"-Republican Tom O'Halleran. Only 3 Democrats-- wretched Blue Dogs Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Collin Peterson (MN) and Henry Cuellar (TX) have worse voting records this year. Yeah Gottheimer is as bad as they come. He was one of only 5 Democrats, for example, to vote for the Great Wall of Trumpanzee. And then there's Lonegan.

Lonegan will be making the case that Gottheimer is still too far to the left of 5th District voters.

“Liberal Josh Gottheimer is not a moderate,” Lonegan said at his Thursday campaign announcement. “He is in step with this big government agenda… We need to stand up and fight that.”

At his campaign launch at a hotel in Paramus, Lonegan said Republicans need to get behind Trump’s policy agenda-- a reversal from his earlier position on the president.

During the 2016 election, Lonegan was one of Trump’s loudest critics in New Jersey. He was the state chairman for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign and called on top party officials to “unbind” delegates to the Republican National Convention so that they could “vote their conscience.” That plan could have deprived Trump of the nomination.

Because of those efforts, Trump once called Lonegan a “loser.”

“Imagine if Republicans were all behind Trump’s agenda right now-- we’d be winning in Washington, D.C.,” Lonegan said, denying that he was ever part of the “never Trump” movement. “When Trump got the nomination I supported him… I am behind this president. I think what we are watching from the left is just absurd.”

Lonegan opposes abortion and leans heavily to the right on social issues. He is also a fiscal hawk in the tea party mold, supporting deep cuts to a range of federal programs. Democrats say electing Lonegan in 2018 would be step backward for the district.

“From opposing choice, even in cases of rape and incest, to his anti-gay and anti-minority bigotry, to working against law enforcement and firefighters, Lonegan’s tea party politics have no place in New Jersey,” said Evan Lukakse, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

On the other hand, some Democrats say they would be glad to have Lonegan as the Republican candidate in next year’s race. The former Bogota mayor has not found success running for higher office over the years.

...“Despite his fundraising prowess, has lost every time — it’s not often that I agree with President Trump, but he hit the nail on the head when he called Lonegan ‘a loser,’” Lukaske said.

Gottheimer is widely considered one of the most Democratic freshmen in Congress. He sells his votes to special interests and "has broken fundraising records this year for a House freshman, reporting almost $1.6 million in fundraising as of June 30." Like I said... the only rational position on NJ-05 this cycle is to wish both candidates fail miserably... or wind up in prison. I wonder which one Trumpanzee will support.