Jack Kelly

Frank Luna, former campaign manager for 3rd District congressional candidate Jack Kelly, has accepted a paid position with the Ocean County Republican Organization (OCRO) as the political director.  

"I'm excited," said Luna. "After Kelly's race the chairman (George Gilmore) talked to me. It's a wonderful opportunity and we have a lot of work to do."

The 25-year old Luna started his job this week, according to his post on Red Jersey.

Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore’s statement to the Asbury Park Press on the third district Republican congressional primary is extraordinarily significant: "Chris Myers ran a very negative, personal attack against Jack Kelly. I think Mr. Myers has to recognize the consequences of taking such action." If Gilmore, the leader of the state’s Republican County Chairmen and the head of one of just three GOP machines remaining in New Jersey, takes a walk on Myers, then the seat will likely go Democratic.

In the contest between two powerful Republican machines, Burlington County GOP Chairman Bill Layton was the easy winner over Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore in the race for Jim Saxton's House seat in the third district. Layton's organization gave Chris Myers 74% of the vote in Burlington -- a margin of about 5,000 votes -- while Gilmore's team delivered Jack Kelly a margin of just 44%-26% in Ocean County over Myers, with Justin Murphy getting 30% in Ocean.

Third Congressional District Republican candidate Justin Murphy is considered the long shot by most observers in today’s primary, but he said in an interview that he feels "very good.”

Murphy stressed the importance of his base – an alternative group of supporters in Ocean County. He told PolitickerNJ.com that if he doesn’t do well in Ocean County, his campaign will “be recorded as a nice try.” He explained that his strategy is to get enough votes out of Ocean County specifically to get the third he believes he will need to win. According to Murphy, the idea is to balance the votes between the Chris Myers and Jack Kelly campaigns, which he describes as “one machine versus another machine.”

Following the theme of the evening, he was uncertain what the low voter turnout meant. However, Murphy said that there was “such a mud festival between the two machine candidates” that “people got turned off.”

Hours before the end of a contentious primary, Congressional District 3 Republican candidate Jack Kelly told PolitickerNJ.com, "of course I have a shot at winning" but stressed that he knew it was "in the voters' hands."

Kelly said that the winner of the campaign will be the one "who does better within their base."

He said, "Who can bring more of their supporters to the polls - that's who will win."

TOMS RIVER - At one glance, the Jack Kelly (R) headquarters may not resemble the high-tech Myers HQ in many fashions. But Frank Luna, Kelly's campaign manager, doesn't seem to think it needs to. In an interview at the Kelly HQ, Luna told PolitickerNJ.com ,"We're doin it the old fashion way - person to person,  grassroots, very fundamental." He calls his strategy a "typical RNC turnout model."

Russell's thoughts on Kelly's shot at winning have followed a day long theme - few observers are clear which candidate has the best shot at taking home the Congressional District 3 Republican primary.

Luna reiterated the fact that turnout in the district has remained low all day. "As of 2:40 [in the afternoon] there were less than 100 voters in three of the biggest districts in Medford" Luna said.  "I think those numbers are good for us, but at the end of the day I'm sure each camp feels equally as confident."

MOUNT HOLLY - The Chris Myers campaign has gone high-tech with their last-day canvassing efforts in the Congressional District 3 Republican primary against Jack Kelly. According to Chris Russell, Myers campaign manager, the Mount Holly headquarters is equipped with the same technology used to streamline voter contacts during last year's county and district elections.

Russell told PolitickerNJ.com that "it worked very well for us, so the Myers campaign decided to come back and use it here for this primary."

Chris Myers casts his vote in the Republican primary in Congressional District 3: Politicker PhotoMEDFORD - Before stepping into the voting booth at Cranberry Pines Elementary School, Chris Myers jokingly told volunteers that his decision would be tough. The Republican candidate for the 3rd Congressional District is running an incredibly close race against Jack Kelly.

After voting, Myers told PolitickerNJ.com, "The voters will decide. We feel good. I think we've run a good campaign. We've stuck to some key issues on the economy and others and I think we're ready to go here."

Asked if he would endorse Kelly if he lost, Myers said, "We'll come together as Republicans at the end of the day."

He added, "What we can all agree on is John Adler is not the right person to be the Congressman in this district."

Can’t wait until tomorrow night to see who wins the major U.S. Senate and Congressional primary contests?

Below are some predictions from pollsters, political science professors and observers who track Garden State politics.

The observers were unanimous in their predictions for the Democratic Senate primary, foreseeing a relatively easy victory for incumbent Frank Lautenberg. On the Republican end, the outlook was not so clear cut, with observers split between state Sen. Joe Pennacchio and former Rep. Dick Zimmer. Ramapo College Finance Professor Murray Sabrin will have the support of presidential candidate Ron Paul’s fans, and could take some conservative voters away from Pennacchio.

In the heated Republican primary in the 7th congressional district, state Sen. Leonard Lance is the clear favorite. The 3rd district congressional primary, however, is a toss-up. In what has been perhaps the nastiest race of the election cycle, it was tough decide who had the edge between Medford Mayor Chris Myers and Ocean County Freeholder Jack Kelly.

These races will likely be determined by a very small number of voters. Even the most optimistic of outlooks puts voter turnout at approximately 30%, and most say they expect significantly less than that.

At a filling station in Mount Laurel where a gallon of regular gas cost $3.89, 3rd District Congressional candidate state Sen. John Adler stood with House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) to address rising energy costs.

It was type of retail campaign stop Adler has been privileged to engage in so far. While he's unopposed by any Democrats in a primary, he's sitting on a $1.1 million war chest while three Republican rivals with a fraction of his funds slug it out in a primary.