The New York Times-20080127-Ex-Mayor Resurfaces as a Corzine Antagonist

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Ex-Mayor Resurfaces as a Corzine Antagonist

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STEVEN M. LONEGAN may not be the mayor of Bogota anymore, but he appears to have found a new mission as Gov. Jon S. Corzine's bete noire.

As Mr. Corzine continues his whirlwind tour to convince a skeptical public that sharply increased tolls can help fix New Jersey's fiscal woes, Mr. Lonegan, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in the Republican primary in 2005, has been his constant shadow. At the first three meetings, Mr. Lonegan hardly stood out from the average crowd of about 750 people, casually chatting with local activists and distributing fliers.

But his journey took a surreal turn here last weekend, when he was one of two people arrested outside the Cape May County meeting site, Middle Township High School, for supposedly failing to follow the protest guidelines spelled out by the local police. And though local authorities on Wednesday night asked that the charges be dropped, because they determined that Mr. Lonegan was, in fact, merely exercising his First Amendment rights, the political fallout is still being felt in Trenton.

For Mr. Corzine, the problem is not whether Mr. Lonegan was right or wrong, or whether the local authorities got a little overzealous.

The problem is the perception that Mr. Corzine's staff may have had a hand in pressuring local officials to make the arrest, and therefore stifle dissent.

Given the fact that the polls have indicated that most residents are still skittish about Mr. Corzine's plan, the Cape May incident could hardly have come at a worse time.

From the perspective of this reporter, who was one of only a handful of journalists to actually witness what happened, it appeared as if Corzine staff members, who were not anywhere near Mr. Lonegan at the time, were caught off-guard.

Most were already inside the auditorium, getting ready for the start of Mr. Corzine's meeting, when Mr. Lonegan was arrested outside. The aides came rushing outside, and you could see the stunned reactions in their ashen faces, their tense body language and their nervous thumbs typing out information on their BlackBerrys. This was the last thing they wanted just before meeting a tough and skeptical crowd in a heavily Republican area.

From the perspective of many a political veteran, it would have been stupid for the Corzine administration to actually try to get Mr. Lonegan arrested. After all, allowing an avowed opponent to fade into the background as a permanent part of Mr. Corzine's traveling roadshow would seem to be much more tolerable than ginning up a controversial story and giving Mr. Lonegan free publicity.

And from the perspective of Corzine administration critics, what is the likelihood that an administration not exactly known for being decisive would have the ability, or the foresight, to plan to have Mr. Lonegan arrested?

Of course, now that the arrest has become big news in Trenton, all the parties involved have been in full spin mode.

At first, for instance, Middle Township police and local officials said that the school board had given the orders to remove Mr. Lonegan. Indeed, in a telephone interview on Tuesday, Chief Joseph Evangelista was insistent that it was the school board -- and only the school board -- that directed his officers to act. He also said that the only time his officers had made contact with the Corzine administration was about a week or so earlier, when state troopers, as is the custom, did a security check of the location.

The gentleman from the school board came out, Chief Evangelista said. This was not from the governor, not from the governor's aides, not from the State Police.

But on Wednesday, Chief Evangelista and other township officials said it was the State Police who had actually told them what to do. And Mr. Lonegan, in an interview Thursday, said he believed that Mr. Corzine was ultimately responsible, even if he did not personally give the orders, or even know about what happened until afterward.

Corzine is responsible for his administration and his staff, Mr. Lonegan said. He sets the tone, period. If my group does stupid things, I'm going to be held responsible. So take responsibility, and take charge.

Asked whether his administration had played any role in Mr. Lonegan's arrest, Mr. Corzine told reporters last week, Absolutely not.

Still, Mr. Lonegan is clearly enjoying a political revival, after suffering through an embarrassing episode last year in which he was accused of hiring illegal immigrants to work as day laborers -- assembling political signs -- even though he has been an ardent critic of illegal immigration. First, he helped to defeat a ballot measure in November that would have allowed the state to borrow $450 million for stem cell research. And now, this.

He is so busy, in fact, that he won't have time to go to all 17 remaining town hall meetings. That is because he plans to set up alternative meetings a day or so before Mr. Corzine's in the same locations, to try to crystallize opposition to the plan.

I will be mirroring every single one of his meetings with a live town hall, or a teleconference, he said.

[Illustration]PHOTO: FISCAL CRITIC: Steven Lonegan (PHOTOGRAPH BY RICHARD PERRY/THE NEW YORK TIMES)