Christopher Myers

Retiring U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton (R-Mount Holly) never had a hard time defeating Democrats in the third congressional district. In fact, no Democrat has held the seat in 124 years. But Saxton isn’t on the ballot this year, leading Democrats to believe that voting trends over the 24 years of Saxton’s tenure no longer apply.

“You have to start with this premise: Jim Saxton won this district by 20 points in every election over the last several years. The district itself went Bush over Kerry 52-48% – that’s district-wide,” said Burlington County Democratic Chairman Rick Perr.

The Bush/Kerry numbers, Perr said, are more representative of the district’s true voting trends than the large margins that Saxton, who had become a known quantity and beloved incumbent, used to win by.

“That is the DNA of the district,” he said. “That’s where they vote when they deal with national issues aside from for some personality. So you erase a 20 point Saxton win.”

With 48 days to go before the race between Democratic state Sen. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) and Republican Medford Mayor Christopher Myers is decided, the great unknown is Perr’s county.

Some good news for Republicans: Dick Zimmer leads Frank Lautenberg 51%-36% in a combined region of Atlantic, Ocean and Monmouth counties, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.  That helps GOP congressional candidate Christopher Myers, who must win a huge plurality in Ocean to beat State Sen. John Adler for the open third district House seat.  It's also helpful to Republican countywide candidates in Atlantic and Monmouth, areas that have been trending Democratic in recent elections.

Republican Christopher Myers has a 33%-29% lead over Democrat John Adler in the race for Jim Saxton’s third district House seat, according to a poll paid for by the Myers campaign and the National Republican Congressional Committee.  The survey, conducted by McLaughlin Associates, a GOP polling firm, shows Myers leading 36%-21% in the Ocean County portion of the district, which also includes parts of Burlington County and Cherry Hill in Camden County.

Medford Mayor Chris Myers last night in Mount Holly debate: Politicker photoThe news tonight that President George W. Bush plans to headline a Colts Neck fundraiser on Monday for Republican Congressional candidates, state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) and Medford Mayor Chris Myers, created an easy opening for the Democrats.

Bush has a 15 percent job approval rating in New Jersey, according to Strategic Vision.

Only too happy to exploit the president’s toxicity here, Mark Warren, spokesman for state Sen. John Adler (D-Camden), Democratic candidate in the 3rd Congressional district, criticized Republican adversary Myers for allowing Bush to come in and raise money for him.State Sen. John Adler (D-Camden) last night in the Veterans for Education debate in Mount Holly: Politicker photo

Still, he said the news didn’t catch him off guard. In the most recent fundraising reports, the Republican candidates trailed their counterparts by wide margins.

"It’s no surprise at all," said Warren. "Mayor Myers has been getting his campaign playbook from George W. Bush and Karl Rove. The principle point of Mayor Myers’s energy policy is extensive tax breaks for big oil companies.

President Bush will come to New Jersey on Monday, September 22 to headline a fundraiser for GOP congressional candidates Leonard Lance and Christopher Myers.  He will attend a high dollar reception at the Colts Neck home of Juan and Marta Guttierez.

One of the reasons Burlington County Republicans picked Christopher Myers, the relatively obscure Mayor of Medford, to succeed Jim Saxton in Congress was his ability to raise money.  When the Lockheed-Martin Vice President entered the race, the buzz among GOP insiders was that he had the ability to compete with State Sen. John Adler in the fundraising department.  Adler has raised $1.9 million in a district where Democrats haven’t won since 1882, and Myers, after a tough primary, has just a little more than $150K on hand.

One of the legendary scams in Bergen County politics came in 1984, when Republicans were considering candidates to take on newly-elected Democratic Congressman Robert Torricelli. Torricelli had won the seat two years earlier, when he ousted three-term GOP incumbent Harold Hollenbeck by a 53%-46% margin. The political climate in 1982 (and congressional redistricting in the 9th) favored Democrats and Torricelli leveraged the national contacts he made working for Vice President Walter Mondale and running Jimmy Carter's 1980 re-election campaign in Illinois to help him raise $266,000 -- about $70,000 more than Hollenbeck had.

It’s not often a congressional seat opens up in New Jersey – so you would think that all editorial eyes would be focused on any and all campaign story angles in the open districts – especially the hometown dailies.

So when the 3rd District (Burlington-Ocean-Camden) campaigns closed their fundraising books for the 2nd quarter and candidates started reporting cash-on-hand, it should have made some news.

Show us the money!

With only $155,000 on hand, Medford Mayor Christopher Myers, is facing the most well-funded open seat challenger in the country: State Sen. John Adler, who has amassed a $1.9 war chest. 

But a potentially huge pool of cash looms on the horizon for Myers.  According to the latest Federal Election Commission filings, Jim Saxton, the retiring 12-term Republican incumbent, has a war chest of a little over $1 million.

Will Saxton help Myers, his protégé and close friend, level the playing field in a district the GOP has held since 1884?

Dennis Shulman, a blind Rabbi and psychologist challenging Rep. Scott Garrett in the fifth district, has raised $585,000 and has $258,000 remaining in his warchest – more  than $100K more than Christopher Myers, the GOP congressional candidate in the third district.  Myers, who faces Democrat John Adler for the seat of retiring Rep. Jim Saxton,has raised $626,549 and has $155,406 cash on hand.  Shulman and Myers each won contested primaries.