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Rick Shaftan, an adviser to GOP U.S. Senate candidate Steve Lonegan, is shown in this 2013 file photo. Shaftan gave a profanity-laced interview to a local news site.

(Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger)

NEWARK — Rick Shaftan, a top adviser to Steve Lonegan, may not be known to many outside New Jersey and New York political circles, but he went viral today — and it cost him his job.

Shaftan gave a lengthy, profanity-laced interview with political news site Talking Points Memo, ridiculing Democratic Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Lonegan's opponent in Wednesday's special U.S. Senate election.

Shaftan, a fixture on many state and local conservative campaigns in the metropolitan area, said Booker's online interaction last month with Portland stripper Lynsie Lee was "weird" and suggested the mayor's somewhat vanilla exchange suggested he was gay.

"It was just weird. I mean, to me, you know, hey, if he said, 'Hey, you got really hot breasts, man. ... But, like, he didn't say that," Shaftan said in the interview. "It was like kind of like, I don't know, it was like what a gay guy would say to a stripper."

Hours later, Lonegan fired Shaftan, saying the comments “are not reflective of my views or that of my campaign.

“His comments are distasteful and offensive, and his contract as a vendor for my campaign will be terminated immediately,” Lonegan said.

Booker's sexuality became an issue in the campaign when he refused to answer whether he was gay or straight, saying it should not matter. Booker, 44, is single and has dated several women, including model Veronica Webb, but never married.

Lee, who works at the vegan strip club Casa Diablo in Portland, revealed some seemingly flirtatious tweets between herself and Booker, which were published in September on the news and entertainment site, Buzzfeed.

At the time, Booker said the exchange was no different than any of his other Twitter conversations. Booker is a prolific tweeter and often talks to residents and supporters on the social media site..

"When somebody like this person extends kindness my way, I respond in kind," Booker said of Lee. "It's all about just that. It's about listening to people and engaging people."

Today, Shaftan suggested that because Booker did not comment on Lee's physical attributes, he was hiding something and causing people to question his leadership.

"You can't follow her Twitter page and not know she's got those great breasts. How do you (expletive) not know?" he said. "It's just too odd and people they just wonder, like, who does this guy really want to work for? Who's he representing?"

The Talking Points Memo interviewer, Hunter Walker, gained notoriety recently for publishing another profanity-filled rant by Barbara K. Morgan, a spokeswoman for former Democratic Congressman and New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner.

Asked about his comments, Shaftan said he was quoted accurately.

"I didn’t think it was newsworthy enough to write about," Shaftan told The Star-Ledger hours before he was fired. "On the other hand, any story where Cory Booker is compared to Gary Hart and Larry Craig cannot, by definition, be a good story for Booker."

Lee, reached by phone today, said she questioned whether the Shaftan interview would hurt Lonegan's campaign more than Booker's.

"It sounds weird. He's supposed to be conservative and he's ragging on Cory Booker for acting conservative," Lee said. "He's trying to make Cory Booker look bad, I think it made him look worse."

The Booker campaign was not amused by Shaftan's rant.

"These comments are disgraceful, demeaning and beneath even the incredibly low bar set by the Lonegan campaign thus far," Booker spokeswoman Silvia Alvarez said. "If you want insight into the kind of senator Mr. Lonegan would be, start here."

Troy Stevenson, head of Garden State Equality, the state's largest gay rights group, said Shaftan's "homophobic, misogynistic and pornographic tirade is a disgrace."

"Mr. Lonegan needs to apologize to Mayor Booker, and the people New Jersey," Stevenson said.

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