Republican New Jersey Senate candidate Steve Lonegan said Friday he planned to fire his senior staffer Rick Shaftan after Shaftan made several several profanity-filled remarks about Lonegan’s opponent, Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker, earlier in the week.
“Mr. Shaftan’s comments are not reflective of my views or that of my campaign,” Lonegan said in a statement through his campaign spokesman. “His comments are distasteful and offensive, and his contract as a vendor for my campaign will be terminated immediately.”
Shaftan gave an interview to TPM on Thursday in which he described Twitter messages Booker sent to an Oregon stripper as “weird” and “like what a gay guy would say.” A spokeswoman for Booker’s campaign described Shaftan’s remarks as “disgraceful and demeaning.”
