Christie gives GOP’s Lonegan hearty endorsement in quest for U.S. Senate seat

The most popular Republican in New Jersey is lending some of his star power to his party’s U.S. Senate candidate, Steve Lonegan.

Gov. Chris Christie Tuesday pledged to keep working for Lonegan who is running against Democrat Cory Booker in the special October election.

“We’re going to help him raise money. Sen. Chiesa’s going to help him. Lt. Gov. Guadagno is going to help him,” Christie said during a stop in Flemington. “And the apparatus of the Republican Party is going to be behind Steve Lonegan between now and Oct. 16 to bring us to victory. Let there be no doubt in anybody’s mind about that or my energy for this endorsement.”

Tomorrow, interim senator and former State Attorney General Jeff Chiesa is scheduled to endorse Lonegan in Toms River.

Lonegan, the former mayor of the small town Bogota was until recently the state director for the conservative, anti-tax group “Americans for Prosperity.”

This month’s special primary was the first time Lonegan won a state-wide contest. A Republican has not won a U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey since 1972.

The special election was scheduled after the death of longtime U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.