Amy Mallet

District 12 Republicans want 12 debates against their Democratic opponents, but they’re not likely to get all of them.

Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck and her running mates Declan O’Scanlon and Caroline Casagrande sent a letter last week to their Democratic opponents challenging them to debates in 12 different parts of the district. After not receiving a response from their opponents’ campaign, they followed up with another press release today.

The 12th district Republican candidates really would prefer to be in a “Clean Elections” district.

That’s because, had the 12th district been chosen, the Republican and Democratic candidates would almost certainly have gotten equal funds. But since it wasn’t, the Republicans are trailing in fundraising – badly.

Three districts were chosen to participate in the Fair and Clean Elections Pilot Program for the 2007 election: one Republican dominated, one Democrat dominated and one competitive. The 12th was a prime candidate for the “split” district, but it lost out to the 14th in a decision made by a panel headed by former Governor Jim Florio.

“There is absolutely no question that if we spend the same amount of money as our opponents, we will unquestionably beat them,” said Assembly candidate Declan O’Scanlon, who lost his bid for an assembly seat two years ago by under 100 votes. “If this were a fair election from a financial perspective, we’d clean their clocks. It’s only by ensuring that the financial playing field is grossly skewed do they have a shot.”

Assemblyman Michael Panter and his running mate, Amy Mallet, raised more than $60,000 at a Trenton fundraiser last night, according to a source with knowledge of the 12th distrcit campaign. Panter's last individual filing showed almost $200,000 raised since the last cycle. With $100,000 in his warchest, Panter actually has more cash on hand that the combined total of the other five Senate and Assembly candidates in this battleground district.