Rick Shaftan, a senior staffer for Republican New Jersey Senate candidate Steve Lonegan, expressed regret Friday evening for comments he made earlier in the week about Lonegan’s opponent, Newark Mayor Cory Booker.
“I shouldn’t be talking anymore,” Shaftan told the Wall Street Journal. He was responding to a story about a profanity-filled interview he gave to TPM on Thursday.
Shaftan also said his comments, which included describing Twitter messages Booker sent to an Oregon stripper as “like what a gay guy would say,” were not “representative” of Lonegan.
“I shouldn’t mouth off like that. It’s not representative of Lonegan, it’s representative of Rick Shaftan,” said Shaftan.
A spokeswoman for Booker called the comments Shaftan made “disgraceful and demeaning.” Shaftan and the Lonegan campaign have not responded to a request for comment from TPM.
