Conservative businessman Steve Lonegan, a two-time gubernatorial candidate and former Americans for Prosperity adviser, has decided to run in August’s Republican primary for New Jersey’s special Senate election. He is the first candidate to officially announce, and he brings a statewide network of tea-party activists with him. He’ll formally enter the race at a press conference on Thursday in Bogota, N.J., a city he once served as mayor. “I’ll rise to the occasion,” he told me today in a phone interview. “If some moderate Republican gets in, then so be it, but I’m confident that I can galvanize the grassroots.”