Frank LoBiondo

Democratic sources say that the front runner to win a special election convention for Cumberland County Freeholder is Nelson Thompson, a leader of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (District Council 711) who has run unsuccessfully for the post in recent years. The Cumberland County Democratic Committee is expected to meet in January to replace Freeholder Douglas Rainear, who was elected Surrogate last week.

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Now it seems trendy to run for Congress, lose, then spend a lot of years in state government before finally making it to Washington.  In 2006, Albio Sires won an open House seat twenty years after his first attempt.  Sires had challenged U.S. Rep. Frank Guarini as a Republican in 1986; he later won local office in West New York, and after switching parties in 1999, he beat an incumbent Assemblyman in the Democratic primary.  He became Assembly Speaker after the 2001 election, and went to Congress after Bob Menendez joined the United States Senate.

Both of New Jersey's freshmen Congressman had previously lost House races.  John Adler ran against Jim Saxton in 1990 and lost 60%-40%.  A year later, despite one of the two biggest Republican landslides in state political history, he ousted four-term GOP State Sen. Lee Laskin.  Leonard Lance first ran for Congress in 1996, when Richard Zimmer gave up his seat to run for U.S. Senate; he finished third in the GOP primary, behind Michael Pappas and John Bennett. Lance moved from the Assembly to the Satate Senate in 2001, and became Minority Leader in 2004.

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Some pundits are wondering whether Democratic State Sen. Jefferson Van Drew made the wrong decision by decling to challenge U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo this year.  LoBiondowas re-elected to his eigth term in the House with 59%, his weakest showing since his unsuccessful 1992 campaign against Bill Hughes.  But LoBiondo didn't need to burn through his warchest in a race with a relatively unknown, underfinanced Democrat, Cape May City Councilman David Kurkowski; a race against Van Drew would have been exponentially more expensive, and LoBiondo would have been more engaged.

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The 3rd district congressional race between Democrat John Adler and Republican Christopher Myers is a statistical dead heat, according to a Zogby International poll conducted by The Press of Atlantic City and The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.  More than 16% of the voters poll remain undecided, with each candidate at 39%.   Adler, a State Senator from Camden County, and Myers, the Mayor of Medford, are seeking the seat of Republican Jim Saxton, who is retiring after 24 years in the House.  Republicans have held this seat since 1884.

Third district voters are also split on races for President and U.S. Senate: Barack Obama, 45%, John McCain, 44%; and Dick Zimmer, 45%, Frank Lautenberg 44%.

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Six years after endorsing Frank Lautenberg for the United States Senate, The Press of Atlantic City has endorsed the Republican challenger, Dick Zimmer.  

"Zimmer pledged not to make Lautenberg's age an issue in the campaign and has kept that pledge. But Lautenberg himself has made his age an issue by employing a campaign strategy clearly designed to limit face-to-face contact with his opponent and the public," the editorial said.  "Whether that's because of age or arrogance, it is an unacceptable way to campaign in the 21st century.'

Zimmer also won the backing of the Gloucester County Times and the Express-Times.

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One Democratic legislator from South Jersey, who asked that his name be withheld to keep him out of trouble, says that State Senator Jefferson Van Drew "screwed up" when he passed up a chance to take on Republican U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo this year.  "Look at the new Democratic voters in the district.  Look at the political environment... (Barack) Obama, the economy, George W. Bush, Iraq, (Sarah) Palin," the legislator told PolitickerNJ.com.  "Democrats are doing well in traditionally Republican areas and Frank is a Bush ally.  This was the best year to pick up the District 2 House seat and Van Drew was the best candidate." Read More >

If John Adler and Linda Stender win their races for Congress, they'll accomplish a feat that rarely occurs in New Jersey -- winning the seat of a retiring Congressman from the other party in a contest unrelated to the drawing of new districts. The last time this happened was in 1994, when Republican Frank LoBiondo won after Democrat William Hughes retired.

The last time the GOP failed to hold the seats of retiring incumbents was in 1964, when Democrat James Howard succeeded Republican James Auchincloss, and Democrat Paul Krebs followed Republican George Wallhauser.

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It’s not exactly a surprise, but the incumbent Congressmen in safe districts who have statewide aspirations tend to have the largest war chests.

Take, for instance, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch).  His Republican opponent, former Judge Robert McLeod, didn’t even raise the $5,000 that would require him to fill out a report with the Federal Election Commission.  But Pallone is raising and spending money anyway, raking in $302,139 last quarter for a total of $2.18 million this election cycle.  He has $3.36 million on hand – the largest war chest in Congress – and spent $304,000 this quarter.

That money is not being spent against McLeod.  The expenditures listed in the FEC report includes a $189,015 cable television ad buy.  The commercial, which began on Tuesday, is playing all over the state north of Interstate 195, in places well beyond Pallone’s district.

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EGG HARBOR TWP - The Knights of Columbus will be sponsoring a 'Meet the Candidates' forum on Thursday, October 16 at 7:00pm.  It will be held at St. Katharine Drexel's Parish Life Center, 6075 West Jersey Ave, Egg Harbor Twp, NJ.  All local, state, and federal candidates have been invited to the forum, including Freeholders Alisa Cooper and Frank Sutton, Constitution Party candidate for the 2nd Congressional district Peter Boyce, Egg Harbor Twp committee members Paul Hodson and John Risley, among others.

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The New Jersey delegation's vote on the bailout bill was close, and did not occur along party lines.

But while there were some odd vote combinations, with liberal Congressmen like U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) voting the same way as his conservative neighbor, Scott Garrett (R-Wantage), they tended to cite different reasons.

Ultimately, New Jersey Congressmen voted against the bill by a 7-6 margin. None, however, enthusiastically supported it. Nor did any of its detractors express glee at its downfall, and some expressed more openness to voting for a new compromise package than others.

By far the most vociferous opponent of the bailout was Garrett, who yesterday took to the floor and excoriated his colleagues who supported it.

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