Christopher Myers

GOP congressional candidate Christopher Myers won endorsements from the five Republicans on the Tabernacle Township Committee – significant because one of Myers’ primary rivals, Justin Murphy, served with three of the local officials during his three years as Township Committeeman and Tabernacle Deputy Mayor. Mayor Kim Brown and Township Committeemen Joe Yates, Richard Franzen, Kenneth Baranowski and Noble McNaughton announced their support of Myers on Friday.

Third district congressional candidate Christopher Myers has dropped Jamestown Associates as his campaign consultant – just a week after Jamestown scored a major victory in Maryland where their client ousted a seven-term incumbent in a GOP primary.

A must read for political insiders is an Op-Ed written by GOP political consultant Tom Blakely, reprinted with his permission, on the danger of running for re-election as an incumbent in 2008. Blakely's firm, Jamestown Associates, is the consultant to Anne Evans Estabrook's U.S. Senate campaign, and the House campaigns of Leonard Lance in the 7th district and Christopher Myers in the 3rd district. Last week, a Jamestown client ousted a Republican Congressman in the Maryland GOP primary:

Buried in Tuesday's defeat of nine-term incumbent Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.) is a message that should be heeded by incumbents everywhere: You must earn the support of the people you represent.

When Gilchrest was first elected, incumbents were considered nearly unbeatable. But during the 18 years he served in Washington, the world changed and he failed to change with it.

The change is not Fox News, YouTube and text messaging; they are symptoms of the change. The real change is that elected officials can be held more accountable. And if you forget this lesson, someone will remind you.

They're not state Senators or gubernatorial offspring. They don't come from political dynasties and don't have powerful county organizations backing them.

But in the third and seventh congressional districts, there are eight lower-profile Republican candidates, considered second-tier to the likes of state Sen. Leonard Lance, Kate Whitman, Medford Mayor Chris Myers and Ocean County Freeholder Director Jack Kelly. And those candidates want to stress that even without a famous name or a powerful county organization behind them, they can have an impact on these races.

One of the longest shot candidates on the ballot in either district is Suzanne Penna, a 37-year-old nursing student from Bayville who's only been involved in politics for the last year and a half. It won't be her first time facing Kelly in a primary.

The winner of the day in New Jersey is Jamestown Associates, the Princeton-based political consulting firm, for running the successful primary campaign of Andy Harris for Congress in Maryland.  Harris ousted seven-term incumbent Wayne Gilchrest in yesterday’s Republican primary.  Jamestown is also working for U.S. Senate candidate Anne Evans Estabrook and congressional candidates Leonard Lance and Christopher Myers.

Jack Kelly and Chris Myers, the two leading candidates for the Republicans’ third district congressional nomination, have both indicated that they plan to keep their primary contest gentlemanly despite strong pushes from each of their counties’ Republican organizations.

“What you don’t want to turn this into is us against them,” Kelly, an Ocean County Freeholder, told PolitickerNJ.com in November. “We need to assure them that the needs of the district come first. Which one of us becomes a successful candidate comes second.”

But are the candidates merely paying lip service to civility this early in the race, or will they actually be able to live up to the idea?

If the 1984 primary race for the seat is any indication -- the last time there was a competitive primary in the district and Burlington and Ocean Counties went head-to-head – then yes, the contest may very well remain civil.

“We had a gentleman’s primary,” said retiring U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton, who went on to narrowly win that primary and then serve 12 consecutive terms in the House. “We debated the issues. Ronald Reagan was a theme of the campaign. He was very popular at the time.”

Ocean County Freeholder John Kelly 

Ocean County Freeholder Jack Kelly today officially entered the race for U.S. Congress, and presented himself as a pro-life, tough on terror, fiscal conservative who would serve the entire 3rd district.

A six-term freeholder running in the half of the 3rd district that has never had a congressman, Kelly said the press would continue to depict the GOP primary war he plans to wage against Medford Mayor Chris Myers as a county versus county showdown.

Congressman Christopher Smith will endorse Jack Kelly for Congress in the neighboring third district GOP primary, a move that insiders say is bugging his old friend, Jim Saxton.   Smith and Saxton have been allies since 1980, when Smith ousted a 13-term Democratic incumbent in a district that included Saxton’s hometown.  Saxton, an Assemblyman at the time, went to the State Senate in 1981, and after redistricting and the death of longtime GOP Congressman Edwin Forsythe, to Congress in 1984.  Saxton is backing Christopher Myers, the Deputy Mayor of Medford and a Vice President at Lockheed Martin.

After staying low key for the last month and a half, Christopher Myers officially announced his congressional candidacy today, representing Burlington County in a potential primary against upcoming primary against Ocean County Freeholder Jack Kelly.

Whoever wins that primary will probably face state Sen. John Adler, the likely Democratic nominee, in November.

U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton was there today to endorse the 42-year-old Lockheed Martin Vice President and newly sworn in Medford Mayor, who in turn pledged to continue Saxton's legacy, emphasizing his fiscal conservatism and strength on environmental and national defense issues. He also stressed decreasing the national dependence on foreign oil.

"I am running for Congress as a ‘Jim Saxton Republican' -- a conservative on taxes and spending, a supporter of the environment and a friend of working men and women," said Myers.