We've all be consumed by the GOP-motivated government shutdown, it's sometimes hard to remember that there's a US Senate race next Wednesday in New Jersey to replace the departed 5-term Senator Frank Lautenberg (D). The big stories in the race to replace Senator Lautenberg up to this point have been that Gov. Chris Christie called for the special election to be held less than 3 weeks before the New Jersey general election, in which the governor himself is a candidate for re-election, for the simple self-serving fact that Gov. Christie doesn't want to share a ballot with Cory Booker -- the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat (this decision to hold 2 elections is going to cost the taxpayers of New Jersey some extra bucks, btw).
The story that is now coming forward in national prominence is the Tea Party candidate running on behalf of the GOP for that Senate seat: Steve Lonegan. Yes, the dude's a lunatic in typical Tea Party fashion; even going so far to employ the usual GOP tact and grace with a "dog whistle" signal to his base in his statement in last night's US Senate debate, when he called Mayor Booker's (who happens to be African-American) city of Newark a crime-ridden "big black hole". Classy, right?
Cue the half-term Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, comin' to New Jersey on the Tea Party Express to campaign for Lonegan this weekend. But is this a good idea? Should the Lonegan campaign enlist the help of Palin who is known to be pallin' around with racists?
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