DICK ZIMMER

Democrat Frank Lautenberg has agreed to participate in a NJ 101.5 FM radio debate this month, but a scheduling conflict may be keeping Republican Dick “I’ll debate anytime, anywhere” Zimmer from taking part in the forum.  If Zimmer doesn’t show up, expect 101.5 to hold the debate anyway: back in 2002, when Lautenberg declined the stations invitation, 101.5 allowed Republican Douglas Forrester to debate am empty chair. 

Update: Zimmer has accepted the 101.5 debate.  'NJ 101.5 is delighted Mr. Zimmer has resolved his scheduling conflict and has agreed to participate in this dialogue with New Jersey voters," said Eric Scott, the news director. "We look forward to a lively discussion on the issues important to New Jersey residents."

Frank Lautenberg leads Dick Zimmer 50%-34% in the race for U.S. Senate: Getty Images Photo
The election is less than a month away, but 71% of New Jersey voters have still not heard of or have no opinion of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll released today.

The poll of 760 likely voters puts incumbent Democrat Frank Lautenberg ahead of Zimmer 50% to 34%. 14% of voters are undecided.

“Zimmer jumped late into a fractious primary and won, but he has gotten no traction since,” said pollster Peter Woolley.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer today held a press conference at the train station that bears incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s name, calling the massive project a billion dollar waste of taxpayer money.

“Welcome to the most extravagant and most wasteful stop on the New Jersey Transit system, the Frank R. Lautenberg Train Station. This $1.4 billion vanity project epitomizes the bankruptcy of Frank Lautenberg’s brand of pork-barrel politics. So it’s entirely appropriate that he had it named after himself,” said Zimmer in a statement.

Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) in Summit on Friday.: Politicker photoSUMMIT - Coming off a train station rally here for presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer and state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) convened a town hall meeting at the high school, where they brandished their fiscally conservative credentials in a room of about 50 voters.

Now in a race with Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) to represent the 7th Congressional District, Lance the veteran legislator underscored his tenacity fighting bloated government, including the administration of disgraced former Gov. Jim McGreevey.Former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer addresses voters in the Summit High School Library as GOP organizer Kelly Hatfield looks on: Politicker photo

"I am the ‘Lance’ of Lance versus McGreevey," the senator said of his suit against the former administration to curb borrowing to balance the state budget.

The New Jersey Supreme Court in 2004 allowed McGreevey to borrow $1.9 billion, or nearly 7 percent of what was then a $28 billion budget, but forbade the governor from borrowing in the future.

Talking to Summit voters Friday evening in the high school library, Lance took pride too in noting how his proposed Constitutional amendment to ban borrowing without voter approval will appear on the Nov. 4th ballot.

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Frank Lautenberg is doing what he's supposed to do: protecting his double-digit lead by not putting himself in a position of blowing his re-election to a fifth term in the United States Senate.  Against Rob Andrews in the Democratic primary, Lautenberg put off a debate until the Friday night before the election, and now against Republican Dick Zimmer, he's holding off until the Saturday night before the election. And the debattes -- primary and general -- air on public television. (No disrespect intended to NJN, but it's not like Lautenberg vs. Zimmer will attract the kind of audience a New York/Philadelphia network would provide. Even if Lautenberg made a horrible gaffe -- which he did not last June -- there would not be enough time (or for Zimmer, enough money) to cost him the election.

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Barack Obama leads John McCain by nine points in New Jersey, according to a Strategic Vision poll set to be released tomorrow. 

That poll comes on the heels of today’s Survey USA poll that showed Obama leading McCain 52% to 42%. 

Survey USA also polled the U.S. Senate race, going as far as to pronounce incumbent U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg the winner in its headline, though probably not intentionally.   

Lautenberg leads Zimmer 51% to 38% in the Garden State.

A Press of Atlantic City/Richard Stockton College poll of South Jersey voters shows Obama leading McCain by 9% in the region, while Democratic U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg leads Republican challenger Dick Zimmer.

The poll is the first non-partisan survey conducted of the 3rd Congressional District race, where State Sen. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) is running neck-and-neck with Republican Medford Mayor Chris Myers.

Myers leads Adler 38.5% to 37.1% -- within the poll’s 4.5% margin of error.