Lonegan: National Senate Committee Kept Campaign Contributions

Republican Steve Lonegan is blasting fellow party members for not giving him enough financial support in his failed Senate bid against Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

In a letter to supporters, posted by Dave Levinthal, senior political reporter at Publicintegrity.org., Lonegan wrote, "It’s been just over a week since the campaign has ended and bills keep coming in, but all the help I was supposed to get from conservatives and Republicans across the country hasn’t."

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He continued, "The National Republican Senatorial Committee, whose job it is to elect Republicans, actually sent out an e mail that asked people to send money to the campaign," adding, "But they kept every penny. And now I’m left holding the bag."

Lonegan made a bold-faced appeal for contributions, writing, "PLEASE HELP ME PAY THE CAMPIAIGN BILLS NATIONAL REPUBLICANS AND CONSERVATIVE GROUPS WOULDN’T PAY WITH AN IMMEDIATE GIFT."

"Losing this election was painful for Lorraine and myself," he continued, he said, referring to his wife. "I want to be able to keep fighting for what you and I believe in, but I just can’t do it until I can pay those bills."

Losing the election apparently was not the only painful thing for Lorraine Lonegan. She told the Star-Ledger later that she was hurt over a video that went viral purportedly showing her husband brush her hand away during his concession speech.

What the video actually shows, she said, is her husband brushing away what he thought was a handler who was attempting to direct him toward the cameras and the crowd.
Lonegan is legally blind and his aides often guide him and use hand signals.

"All throughout this campaign we have been assisting him with different hand signals and we were assisting him greatly during the speech," she said.

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