Bill Bradley

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Top Row: Jon Runyan, Brian Propp and Althea Gibson; Bottom Row: Bill Bradley, Al Leiter, and Phil McConkey

News of ex-Eagles tackle Jon Runyan's interest in running for Congress in the 3rd District brought about some excitement in Republican circles, but it was not universal. 

One South Jersey Republican, skeptical about celebrity candidates, kept his response to two words: Brian Propp.

Propp, who played fifteen seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, was recruited by state Sen. Diane Allen (R-Edgewater Park) to run for State Assembly in her district as a Republican in 2007.  Propp was a promising pick, but buzz about competing down-ticket in the heavily Democratic district fizzled out, and ultimately he and his running mate, Nancy Griffin, did not come close to unseating incumbents Herb Conaway (D-Delanco) and Jack Conners (D-Pennsauken). 

But Propp is only the latest example of professional athletes from the Garden State who ran for office.  While pro athletes who choose to run start out with name recognition that candidates from more traditional backgrounds typically have to spend years building up, their fame is by no means a ticket to a high office. 

In 1977, the late tennis great Althea Gibson - the first black woman to win a Grand Slam tournament - lost a state senate bid in a three-way primary against Frank Dodd  -- who was running on a slate with then-Assemblyman and now Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) -- and then-Assemblyman Eldridge Hawkins. 

In 1990, former New York Giant Phil McConkey came in second in a three-way Republican primary for Congress, losing to Dick Zimmer but beating Rodney Frelinghuysen. 

There have also been flirtations, like when Republicans attempted to recruit Ronald "Jaws" Jaworski - who played with the Eagles in the 1970's and 80's - to run against Rob Andrews in the early 1990s.  And former Major League all-star pitcher Al Leiter's name repeatedly pop up as a potential candidate, even though the Toms River native currently lives in Florida.      

But there is one obvious success story: Bill Bradley, the New York Knick and Rhodes Scholar who became a three-term Democratic senator.

South Jersey Republicans seem genuinely excited that Jon Runyan, the 6'7, 330 lb. former Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle, is considering a bid for Congress against freshman Democrat John Adler next year.  "Our great country is headed in the wrong direction, and it's clearer every day that career politicians are incapable of solving the problems we face," Runyan said in a statement released today.  

Runyan greatest obstacle to winning the Republican nomination in District 3 could be Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore, who became the most powerful party leader in the state last week when Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie won Ocean County by 70,000 votes.  Gilmore has been anxious to see an Ocean County candidate in the race; GOP sources say he might want State Sen. Christopher Connors (R-Lacey) to run.

Adler won the seat in 2008 after twelve-term Republican Jim Saxton (R-Mount Holly) retired.  He beat Medford Mayor Christopher Myers 52%-48% to become the first Democrat to win the seat since 1884.

When another famous ex-football player, Jack Kemp, first ran for Congress in 1969, he told a reporter: "Pro football gave me a good sense of perspective to enter politics: I'd already been booed, cheered, cut, sold, traded and hung in effigy."  If Runyan wins, he would join former NFL quarterback Heath Shuler, a North Carolina Democrat, in the U.S. House of Representatives.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez's new book, Growing American Roots : Why Our Nation Will Thrive as Our Largest Minority Flourishes, has been published by Penguin Group (USA).  Menendez did his first book signing on Sunday in his old home town of Union City, where he broke into politics as a young school board member, Mayor, Assemblyman and State Senator before winning a seat in Congress in 1992. He is now the lone Latino in the United States Senate.

Menendez's book is now at 145,057 on the Barnes & Noble sales rank.  As a matter of comparison, as of this morning: former Gov. James E. McGreevey's book is ranked 119,152, ex-U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli's book on great political speeches is at 190,079, and former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley's most recent book is at 101,309.  Menendez leads another Cuban American Senator, Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), whose book is at 404,504.  He is also in a tight contest with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose boom is at 116,354.

Another tight race: sales of Menendez's book are trailing pre-sales of John Wefing's biography of another prominent New Jersey Democrat. The Life and Times of Richard J. Hughes : The Politics of Civility, a biography of the former two-term Governor and Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.  The Hughes book is at 114,697 and is due to be released on November 15.

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Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama backstage at the IZOD Center on February 4, 2008 -- Kennedy's final campaign visit to New Jersey.

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy's (D-Mass.) last public power performance in New Jersey occured last year on Feb. 4th on the eve of the Democratic Presidential Primary at the Meadowlands.

He appeared onstage at a rally with Barack Obama and other primary backers of the underdog candidate who would go on to seize his party's nomination and the presdiency.

"We have a candidate for the president of the United States that will inspire a new generation of young people, bring our people together, and face the great issues that we should face in this century, at this time," Kennedy said in his introduction of Obama.

Among those onstage with Kennedy and Obama were former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, niece Caroline Kennedy, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, actor Robert DeNiro, and state Sen. President Richard Codey (D-Roseland).

Both of New Jersey's Democratic U.S. Senators have taken a slight dip in the job approval ratings since last month, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) is at 43%-40% among likely voters and 42%-39% among registered voters; he was at 44%-36% in June and at 46%-37% in May. Among Independents, Lautenberg is upside-down at 39%-47%.

Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) has a 40%-37% approval rating among likely voters, and at 39%-37% among registered voters.  He was at 40%-31% in June and 41%-32% in May, among registered voters.  Among Independents, Menendez is upside-down 34%-43%.

In 1990, after then-Gov. Jim Florio raised taxes by $2.4 billion, popular Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Bradley also took a hit with voters: he won re-election with just 50.4% of the vote. 

One factoid that has appeared on PolitickerNJ.com numerous times in recent years is being reprinted in honor of Republican National Chairman Michael Steele's visit to the Garden State: Republicans haven't won a statewide election in New Jersey since 1997; since then, 49 other states have elected a Republican to statewide office.

Despite their winning streak, New Jersey Democrats went fourteen years without re-electing an incumbent to statewide office.  U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) was re-elected in 2008, having last won re-election in 1994.  Besides Lautenberg, the last New Jersey Democrat to win re-election was Bill Bradley in 1990.

Joseph Menza, who has a six vote lead in his bid to become Mayor of Hillside, has a political pedigree: his distant cousin, Alexander Menza, was one of the state's most respected legislators during the six years he spent in Trenton.  Alex Menza began his career when he won a Hillside Township Committee seat in 1966, at age 34.  He was Mayor in 1969, and he won a seat in the State Assembly in 1971.  In 1973, he challenged Republican incumbent Frank McDermott (R-Westfield), 49, who had served as Senate President and run unsuccessfully for the 1969 GOP nomination for Governor.  Menza won 70% of the vote in Hillside (which was politically competitive in those days) and beat McDermott 57%-43% in a Republican-leaning district.

The nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to serve as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court is the secondtop court nomination since Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) joined the United States Senate in early 2006. He voted against the nomination of Samuel Alito in 2006.  The Sotomayor nomination will be eleventh Supreme Court nomination during the 25 years Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) has served in the Senate.

Lautenberg has voted yes on four Supreme Court nominations -- Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Anthony Kennedy, and Antonin Scalia -- and no on six: Alito, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork, William Rehnquist, and David Souter.  Lautenberg was among nine Senators to vote against Souter in 1990.  Souter's retirement created the opening for President Obama to nominate Sotomayor, who will become the first Hispanic and third woman to serve on the nation's top court.

Frank Lautenberg probably didn't expect David Souter to vote with the liberal wing of the U.S. Supreme Court when he was appointed Associate Justice by George H.W. Bush in 1990.   New Jersey's two U.S. Senators at the time, Lautenberg and Bill Bradley, were among the nine Senators who voted against the Souter nomination.

During his 25 years in the Senate, Lautenberg has participated in ten Supreme Court nominations; he has voted yes on four (Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Anthony Kennedy, and Antonin Scalia), and has voted no on six (Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork, William Rehnquist, and Souter).

Jon Corzine voted on one Supreme Court nomination during his five years in the Senate, casting a no vote on Roberts for Chief Justice.  Bradley voted on nine top court nominations while in the Senate from 1979 to 1997, supporting Breyer, Ginsberg, Kennedy, Scalia and Sandra Day O'Connor, and opposing Thomas, Souter, Bork and Rehnquist. 

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Former State Sen. Jerry Fitzgerald English

Two Democratic members of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, who may play a critical role in deciding the fate of Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan, are Trenton veterans who have spent six decades in New Jersey politics.  Both Albert Burstein and Jerry Fitzgerald English have enjoyed successful political careers, although each fell quite short of achieving their full public service ambitions.

 The Texas-born English (D-Summit) moved to New Jersey after law school at Boston College and Harvard when her husband took a job as Bell Labs researcher.  She founded a local conservation group in 1969, and in 1971, at the age of 36, she became the second woman to serve in the New Jersey State Senate.  English won a November 1971 special election to fill the remaining two months of a vacant Union County Senate seat.  She was not a candidate for a full term, and served until January 1972.

In 1972, English decided to run for Congress after eight-term U.S. Rep. Florence Dwyer (R-Elizabeth) announced her retirement.  She beat Richard Samuel, who had played a role in the New Jersey presidential campaigns of Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern, in the Democratic primary.  In the general election, State Sen. Matthew Rinaldo (R-Union) beat English by a wide margin, 64%-36% in a district that went 2-1 for Richard Nixon.  English never ran for office again.