HANOVER – Michael Aron's face appears on a jumbo-sized TV screen and the crowd goes berserk again as Christie signs shake in frenzied fashion.
Still no results, but plenty of energy as Bruce Springsteen's voice guts out yet another local classic.
State Republican Chairman Tom Wilson hops off a stage after giving a television interview.
"If anyone made a radical move to the right in this primary, it was Steve Lonegan," said Wilson. "Consider Chris's endorsements from Steve Forbes and Brett Schundler. Steve was out there calling them liberals. Now, most people wouldconsider them conservatives -clearly. So if Steve is calling them liberals, where does that put him?"
Wilson gave Lonegan credit for the flat tax proposal, but cringed when considering the "dark turn" he said Lonegan took at one point on the campaign trail.
"People were looking for optimism and Steve wasn't providing that, Chris was," said the state chair.
"Chris was Chris all along," he added. "Campaigns are about emphasis. Just because you don't talk about certain things doesn't mean you don't believe those things. Chris was always pro-life, he was always against COAH, and for Abbott reform. Bottom line, conservatives should be happy with him."
Wilson doesn't know what his future will be as chairman of the party.
"If Chris wants me to stick around and finish the job I startedfour years ago against Jon Corzine, I'd be happy to do so, ifnot, I'd be happy to help him in other ways," Wilson said.
