DCCC hits NJ airwaves

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is up with its first television advertisement targeting Republican Leonard Lance, a 30-second spot tying the Flemington state Senator to Trenton.

The ad began running on cable stations in the 7th Congressional District last week, with a media buy totaling about $116,000.

“Watch Leonard Lance do the old Trenton dance,” an announcer says. “Dancing to the tune of big oil, pocketing thousands in campaign cash. Lance has those Trenton moves, voting against property tax relief for us but voting himself a 40 percent pay raise, sponsoring a state budget that gave us nearly $3 billion in new debt that paved the way for higher taxes.

“A new Lance dance in D.C.?” the ad concludes. “No thanks.”

Lance is competing against state Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) for the seat of retiring U.S. Rep. Michael Ferguson (R-New Providence). Democrats have identified the race as a pickup opportunity, with the DCCC reserving about $1.8 million in air time in the district. The committee has already taken Lance to task in mail pieces distributed to residents in the district

“This is a classic political game of misdirection. The DCCC is worried because Linda Stender almost lost her own reelection to the State Assembly just last year because of her abysmal tax-and-spend record,”
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ken Spain said in response to the ad. “Linda Stender is a spender and that is why Democrats in Washington are running to her aid.”

A Stender campaign-commissioned poll released this week showed the Democrat leading Lance 36 percent to 33 percent.