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Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Lonegan speaks to supporters at the Franklin Lakes Tea Party meeting in Franklin Lakes earlier this year.

(Frank H. Conlon/For The Star-Ledger)

By David Giambusso and Brent Johnson/The Star-Ledger

NEWARK — Steve Lonegan, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate with a reputation as an aggressive campaigner, was sharply criticized today after his staff sent out a racially charged tweet aimed at Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the city he leads.

The tweet was quickly removed but was up long enough to set off Newark leaders and others, who said it was “offensive” and “rooted in racist notions.”

The incident unfolded Thursday night as Booker, the front-runner in the race for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, participated in a televised debate with his three opponents.

During the broadcast, a Twitter account run by Lonegan's campaign staff issued a tweet that said, "just leaked — Cory Booker's foreign policy debate prep notes."

Below it was a map of Newark, with the words “West Africa, Guyana, Portugal, Brazil” and “Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, plus Bangladesh and Trinidad” scrawled on top, apparently depicting Newark’s different neighborhoods. The city, New Jersey’s largest, is 52 percent African-American and 26 percent white, according to the 2010 Census.

Rick Shaftan, an adviser for Lonegan, insisted today that “Steve didn’t find it funny or reflective of the way he thinks.”

“He called and said, ‘What is this? Take this down immediately,’ ” Shaftan said of the conservative Lonegan, a former mayor of Bogota and former state director of Americans for Prosperity.

It was too late. The tweet, first reported by Politico.com, set off Lonegan’s critics.

“The Lonegan campaign’s tweet is inappropriate, offensive and fundamentally out of step with New Jersey values,” Booker’s campaign manager, Addisu Demissie, said. “It’s also not surprising.”

Newark Councilman Ron Rice Jr. said, “Steve Lonegan, on his best day, is a right-wing, misinformed clod,” adding that his record “epitomizes” racist undertones in the tea party movement.

Two of the candidates who hope to replace Booker in next year’s mayoral election — Ras Baraka, a Newark councilman, and Shavar Jeffries — also slammed the Lonegan camp.

And Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex), a Booker opponent for the Democratic Senate nomination, said the tweet showed why Lonegan was unfit to hold national office.

“No matter who wins on Tuesday,” Oliver said, “Democrats will join together to show that such racially charged rhetoric has no place in our public discourse.”

It is not the first time Lonegan has been embroiled in controversy over racially tinged incidents. In 2006, he objected to a McDonald’s billboard in Spanish in Bogota and proposed making English the Bergen County borough’s official language. The billboard remained and the proposal was rejected.

The Lonegan campaign emphasized today that the tweet was not issued by the candidate himself.

“It’s not from his personal account,” Shaftan said. “Sometimes things happen in political campaigns. People put things out that are not reflective of what the candidate thinks.”

He declined to say who was responsible for the tweet, noting that the person had been disciplined but probably would not be fired.

“Everyone does stupid things,” Shaftan said. “Steve’s not a believer in throwing people over because they make mistakes.”

Lonegan and Booker are expected to face off against each other in October’s special election for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Frank Lautenberg. They both hold huge leads heading into Tuesday’s primary elections.

Lonegan has largely ignored his primary opponent, Alieta Eck, a doctor from Somerset County, and from the start has been campaigning against Booker.

But today, Eck joined the fray.

“How on Earth is he supposed to represent a state as culturally rich and diverse as New Jersey in the Senate?” Thomas Roberts, her campaign manager, said of Lonegan. “He is completely unviable as a candidate, and I think he owes a lot of people an apology.”

RELATED COVERAGE

• Lonegan campaign deletes racially tinged tweet about Cory Booker, Newark, report says

• Democratic U.S. Senate candidates debate in Newark

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