DICK ZIMMER

Six years after endorsing Frank Lautenberg for the United States Senate, The Press of Atlantic City has endorsed the Republican challenger, Dick Zimmer.  

"Zimmer pledged not to make Lautenberg's age an issue in the campaign and has kept that pledge. But Lautenberg himself has made his age an issue by employing a campaign strategy clearly designed to limit face-to-face contact with his opponent and the public," the editorial said.  "Whether that's because of age or arrogance, it is an unacceptable way to campaign in the 21st century.'

Zimmer also won the backing of the Gloucester County Times and the Express-Times.

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A new Strategic Vision poll released today is the second survey in four days to show a tightening race for United States Senator, with Democrat Frank Lautenberg leading Republican Dick Zimmer by 8 percentage points, 49%-41%.  Marist College was at 48%-41% on Friday evening.  

Strategic Vision has Barack Obama leading John McCain 53%-38%, and Governor Jon Corzine's approval rating upside-down at 38%-55%.

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Marist College released a poll Friday evening that U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg has a narrow seven point, 48%-41%, lead among likely voters over Republican Dick Zimmer.  Among all voters, Lautenberg is ahead 47%-37%.  Recent independent polls has Lautenberg way out in front in his bid for a fifth term: he was up 22 points in a Quinnipiac poll, and ahead 16 points in a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll.

The same poll has Barack Obama leading John McCain 56%-39% in New Jersey among likely voters (53%-36% among all voters).

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Dick Zimmer might not be polling well in his bid for United States Senator, but in the land of newspaper endorsements, he's holding his own. Zimmer, a former Republican Congressman, has won the support of the Asbury Park Press, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Courier-Post. Incumbent Frank Lautenberg has been endorsed by the Star-Ledger, the New York Timesand the Home News Tribune.

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"New Jersey voters deserved a better race this year than the nearly invisible contest between Senator Frank Lautenberg and Richard Zimmer, his Republican challenger," begins the New York Times' endorsement of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

Although accurate, a generous interpretation of this seemingly hypocritical charge is that it is in fact a veiled criticism of their own paper's decision to ignore the U.S. Senate race in New Jersey. Not once has the Times written a story about the general election contest between Frank Lautenberg and Dick Zimmer. (By comparison, Cynthia Burton at the Philadelphia Inquirer has written 11 pieces on the race.)

To add insult to injury, Zimmer told PolitickerNJ: "One of the editors of the New York Times who interviewed me for their editorial thought I was still a member of Congress."

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The New York Times endorsed Frank Lautenberg for a sixth term in the U.S. Senate today, lauding him for doubling Amtrak’s annual budget and being an “effective champion of banning smoking on domestic airlines and in other public places.”

The paper, however, did chastise Lautenberg for agreeing to only one televised debate.

“New Jersey voters deserved a better race this year than the nearly invisible contest between Senator Frank Lautenberg and Richard Zimmer, his Republican challenger,” read the first line of the endorsement.

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Even if the New Jersey print media industry was thriving, former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer would still probably be a long-shot in his quest for incumbent Frank Lautenberg’s U.S. Senate seat.

But for a politician whose biggest problem this whole campaign cycle has been has lack of name recognition, the fact that most of the Garden State’s home-grown media outlets are on life support has made getting his name out there that much more difficult, Zimmer said today.

“In previous elections, I’d have Jim Goodman just bugging the hell out of me from The Trenton Times. I don’t believe I’ve been covered by the Trenton Times yet. Maybe the time I campaigned in Hamilton in Septemberfest, but I’m not sure about that,” he said in a phone interview today (Goodman was a casualty of Newhouse’s decision to combine the Statehouse bureaus of The Star-Ledger and Trenton Times last year).

Zimmer, who was plucked out of relative obscurity as a lobbyist in Washington to fill in for the beleaguered and three-week-old candidacy of Goya heir Andy Unanue, is severely trailing in the polls against Lautenberg. But that may have more to do with Zimmer’s visibility than Lautenberg’s winning campaign style. In a Monmouth University/Gannett poll released earlier this week, Lautenberg led 52 percent to 36 percent, but the most telling number with two weeks to the election at the time the poll was taken: 56 percent of voters still didn’t know who Dick Zimmer was.

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This weekend On the Record with Michael Aron will feature U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer and Aron going one-on-on for half an hour. The show airs Sunday at 9 and 11a.m., and on Monday at 6:30 a.m.

On Reporters Roundtable, catch discussion of the financial crisis’s impact on New Jersey, the budget slush fund, voter registration and local congressional races with Star-Ledger reporter Dunstan McNichol, Gannett’s Michael Symons, The Press of Atlantic City’s Derek Harper and WBGO’s Mary Fuchs.

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Incumbent U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) defended his “yes” vote on the Wall Street bailout package in a debate today with his Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer.

“Within the rescue bill, there is a shoring up of some of the companies that would make credit available,” said Lautenberg, sitting beside Zimmer in an editorial forum sponsored by Gannett Newspapers.

The GOP challenger stood by his opposition to the bailout bill.

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A new Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll shows incumbent Frank Lautenberg with a 16 point lead over Dick Zimmer in the race for U.S. Senate -- 52%-36% among likely voters.  A Quinnipiac University poll released this week has Lautenberg ahead by 22 points.  Zimmer, a former Republican Congressman, remains unknown to 56% of voters.

“With just two weeks to go, the incumbent’s stealth campaign appears to be succeeding. Of course, it certainly helps that his challenger has yet to introduce himself to most of the state’s voters,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.  “Given the lack of visible campaign activity, Lautenberg seems to be coasting along on Obama’s coattails.”

Lautenberg has a 48%-28% job approval rating, up from 45%-33% in July.  He has a 45%-24% favorable rating.  Zimmer has a 28%-16% favorable rating.  

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