Jack Kelly

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman John Adler has raised $1,159,310 for his congressional campaign, including $529,320 during the first quarter of 2008 – with nearly 75% of his contributions coming from New Jersey residents. Adler is the presumptive Democratic nominee on one of the nation’s most hotly-contested House races, District 3, where twelve-term Republican Congressman Jim Saxton is retiring.

(TOMS RIVER, March 28) – Third District Republican candidate for Congress – Freeholder Jack Kelly – offered the following on the economic crisis many across the nation are facing:

On the day President George W. Bush visited a credit counseling service center in Freehold to address a national housing crisis, Democratic candidates for Congress seized the opportunity to denounce what they see as Bush’s failed economic policies.

"With about 3.5 million foreclosure filings since 2006, the Federal Reserve banks estimates that 2 million more are on the way over the next two years," said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. "Meanwhile, new homes sales are at their lowest point in 13 years tumbling 40.6 percent in the Northeast alone. The President's short term foreclosure 'timeout' is a band-aid approach that does nothing to stimulate the economy or increase homeownership."

TOMS RIVER - If you came to the Ocean County Republican convention hoping for a floor fight tonight for the party nod for U.S. Senate, you were disappointed.

In typical Ocean County Republican fashion, the party awarded its line with efficiency and brevity – easily selecting Goya Foods heir Andy Unanue as its choice for a U.S. Senate candidate. Unanue already had the backing of powerful Republican Chairman George Gilmore, and had won the hearts and minds of the screening committee from his vacation spot in Vail, Colo. via telephone conference.

The committee voted by voice, overwhelmingly ratifying the decision of the screening committee to endorse the man who’s come to be the establishment’s candidate over his two Republican rivals: state Sen. Joe Pennacchio and Ramapo Finance Professor Murray Sabrin.

Pennacchio and Sabrin did not attend.

(TOMS RIVER, March 26) – In light of a government report released this week that projected Medicare and Social Security going into the red in 2019 and 2041 respectively, Third District Republican candidate for Congress – Freeholder Jack Kelly – offered the following:

Republican Chris Myers wants to challenge Jack Kelly, his rival in their primary race in the 3rd Congressional District, to a series of debates, and Kelly wants to accept.

The holdup seems to be the way the challenge is being issued.

Myers' campaign sent a letter to Kelly's campaign about the debates today. It also sent the letter to PolitickerNJ.com, prompting Kelly to pounce on his opponent for being managed in the extreme.

Third district Republican congressional candidates Chris Myers and Jack Kelly traded barbs today over taxes.

Myers issued a press release yesterday decrying the vote of Kelly, an Ocean County Freeholder, to raise spending and taxes in the county’s budget on Wednesday. That, Myers said, contradicted the “Taxpayers Protection Pledge” that Kelly signed for the group Americans for Tax Reform late last month.

GOP congressional candidate Jack Kelly has ticked off the man he wants to replace by suggesting in a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board meeting that retiring twelve-term Republican Congressman Jim Saxton is interfering in the primary campaign.  Saxton says Kelly’s charge is “borderline absurd.”

Medford Township Mayor Chris Myers, GOP candidate in the 3rdChris Myers Congressional district, today demanded that House Democrats stop stalling and re-authorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

"The number one complaint I hear about Congress on the campaign trail is that they’re ineffective do-nothings who continually put politics before the people they are elected to represent," said Myers, who was joined at a press conference outside Fort Dix with U.S. Rep. Charles Dent (R-Pa.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

"The House Democrats’ failure to enact comprehensive (FISA) reform is just another example of this, and another reason why we need real change in Washington," added Myers, a vice-president at Lockheed Martin in Moorestown and decorated service veteran.

The third district Republican congressional candidates are much more candid about their fundraising numbers than their northern counterparts in the seventh district. 

Leading the pack is Lockheed Martin executive Chris Myers, who has raised about $275,000, according to campaign manager Chris Russell. 

“We have an aggressive schedule before the filing deadline, and we think we’re going to happy where we are at that time,” Russell said.

But trailing not too far behind is Ocean County Freeholder Jack Kelly, who said that he’s raised $200,000 despite early doubts from Republican insiders that he would stay in the race until the June primary.