DENVILLE — After working on countless political campaigns and promoting concerts around the world for artists such as Bon Jovi and James Brown, Patrick Allocco knows how to get people's attention.

Now he's running for Congress in New Jersey's 11th District Republican primary and promising voters a campaign unlike any seen before.

"You have to trust me in the next few weeks, you're going to see me using tactics I can quite honestly say have never been used in New Jersey," said Allocco, a resident of Denville's Lake Estling section.

He also knows a thing or two about conquering adversity after promoting an ill-fated rap concert in Angola, where he and his son were held under house arrest for 49 days in 2012 when the headliner, Nas, failed to show up. Their eventual release, with an escort from U.S. Navy Seals, made national headlines.

Patrick Allocco of Morris Township and his son, also named Patrick, during their house arrest in Angola in 2012.(Photo: File Photo Courtesy of Patrick Allocco)

"I know things my opponents don't know," he said. "I know how to run a campaign."

Allocco said his campaign strategy was honed by five years working with Roger Stone, the controversial key figure in President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign now under investigation by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, according to several reports.

"I even consulted him before I decided to run," Allocco said. "He said get in the race."

Despite his extensive political experience, Allocco has never run for public office.

"What I've seen since returning from Angola is a very flawed, broken system," he said. "This politics of paralysis, where you've got special interests on the left and right that are corrupting the republic."

Part of his solution is to employ a strategy he used in the concert business to satisfy the wants and needs of the public: poll the district to determine its collective will before he votes in Congress, and present the results to voters in regular public town halls.

"I would do [town halls] regularly, and bring my analytics, and say 'Since our last town hall, this is how we voted, this is how you voted,' " he said.

His votes, he vowed, would represent the majority, regardless of his own views. For example, while he is strongly against abortion, he promises to vote in favor of abortion-rights issues if his district's majority wanted him to.

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NEWARK -- 02/18/2012 -- Patrick Allocco, of Morris Township, addresses the media after stepping off his flight home from Angola where he and his son had spent nearly two months.
Alex Lewis/Special to the Daily Record(Photo: File photo)

Allocco did not comment on the retiring 11th District Congressman, Rodney Frelinghuysen, and whether he had voted the will of the people, but did take him to task for refusing to appear at public town halls.

"Did he vote the will of the people? I think it brings me back to what I'm trying to do," Allocco said of the traditionally Republican district.

"I think 40 percent of the population was disenfranchised for the last 26 years and didn't have a say about how their government was run on the congressional level," he said, tracing a timeline that included Frelinghuysen's predecessor GOP Rep. Dean Gallo. He said he's trying to "assuage that and give everybody an opportunity to be represented."

Arrest in Angola

He did, however, express his gratitude for Frelinghuysen's support during his house arrest in Angola. Nas skipped the New Year's Eve show he had been paid to headline and instead appeared at an event in Miami hosted by NBA star LeBron James, according to several reports.

"A single day did not go by without [Frelinghuysen] calling to check up on us," Allocco said.

The day before the concert, when they realized Nas wasn't going to show, Allocco said they tried to reach the U.S. Embassy, but were stopped by security guards and Angolan police aiming weapons at them.

"The embassy sent a security detail out to get us back after the first day ," he said. "We were taken to a safe house and the first night I was there, I began using social media in a way I had never really done before. I started a blog that turned into a daily diary with about a dozen friends following me. By the time I got out of Angola, we had more than a million followers every day."

"There really is some meaning behind the phrase we the people," he said. "It's a cliche almost, but there really is a substance to the people working together. For instance, even though its a left-wing movement, [Moveon.org] signed over 100,000 people to a petition to get me and my son out of Angola. I have been a Republican all my life."

The ordeal, combined with other concert losses at the time, left his business in tatters.

"Angola was the final straw," he said. "We were in really bad shape when I came back. We were financially destitute at the time. I ended up working as a barista at Starbuck's in Florham Park, just for the health benefits."

He later landed a job with Gov. Chris Christie's administration as a regional director for the privatized New Jersey Lottery before moving to the state Department of Labor, last year, where he works as a business representative.

Also running in the June primary election for Frelinghuysen's seat are:

The 11th District spans parts of Essex, Morris, Passaic and Sussex counties. Running in the June primary election are: