Republican candidate Steve Lonegan, who’s running for the 5th congressional district in New Jersey, is under intense fire from the largest circulated newspaper in the state, the New Jersey Star-Ledger, to drop out of the race over anti-gay and anti-Christian slurs he used in 2006.
Back in 2006, Lonegan, who was mayor of the town of Bogota, turned to Republican councilman George Silos during a meeting and called him a “fundamentalist faggot piece of shit,” according to the councilman. Silos, an evangelical who is married with two children, was even threatened with physical violence by Lonegan in the same meeting. In a separate phone conversation, he told Silos, “I’ll cut your balls off.”
Additionally, Bogota GOP Chairman Andrew Fede testified under oath that he witnessed Lonegan say those words.
The Star-Ledger alleges that Lonegan is only denying the story now that he’s running for Congress. They found no evidence of him denying this verbal attack back in 2006 or even this year. His spokesman confronted the question by saying that he used “some naughty words.”
Although this happened 12 years ago, the Star-Ledger now calls him “radioactive,” saying “He should quit now, and end the drama.” This would cede the Republican nomination to his opponent, John McCann.
With respect to the meeting that took place 12 years ago, Silos believes Lonegan verbally abused and threatened him because he supported “a police officer whom Lonegan had asked for a political favor.”
Lonegan responded to the editorial by comparing the Star-Ledger’s involvement in the Republican primary to “the Russians getting involved in an American election. Only the Star-Ledger is more communist than Russia.”
What got lost in Lonegan’s verbal abuse of Silos, however, and what might have been most important, was his use of the word “fundamentalist.” Yes, he used a vulgar anti-gay slur, but in a context where it doesn’t appear that he was actually attacking anyone for being gay. It looks more like he was attacking at Silos’s Protestant faith. Silos, a practicing evangelical, did say that Lonegan, a Roman Catholic, “doesn’t like my brand of Christianity.”
It really does look like an obscene attack on a group of people who cast a lot of votes in Republican primaries, even in New Jersey. Lonegan needs to clear the air and address this directly. He should also apologize to Silos, evangelical Christians, and gays.
Whatever may have caused Lonegan’s bullyish outburst in 2006, it’s behavior unbecoming of a congressional candidate from either party. In a purplish district that Donald Trump won by one point, but which Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer won by five points, Lonegan needs to rectify this situation, or he risks his party’s ability to compete, to say nothing of his own political future.
