Jim Saxton

Medford Mayor Chris Myers, foreground, stands with Lumberton Mayor Pat Delany: Politicker photo 

MOUNT LAUREL - Standing in the middle of 153 acres of preserved open space, Republican Chris Myers upbraided his 3rd Congressional District opponent today for voting in favor of changing New Jersey’s affordable housing guidelines.

"I’m for affordable housing," said the Medford Mayor, who’s running against state Sen. John Adler (D-Camden) for the right to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton (R-3), "I’m just not for Trenton affordable housing."

The rule changes for the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) in the successfully passed S-1783 last month include the government imposition of fees on non-residential development in order to build an affordable housing fund.

Democrat John Adler’s congressional campaign says that groups that used to support outgoing Rep. Jim Saxton (R-Mount Holly) are falling in line behind Adler as opposed Saxton’s heir apparent, Republican Chris Myers.

The latest group to jump to Adler, according to a press release issued by Adler’s campaign today, is The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Joint Council #73. Adler’s campaign also has the endorsement of three other groups that used to back Saxton: The Fraternal Order of Police, Sierra Club, and the Recreational Fishing Alliance.

State Sen. John Adler (D-Camden) on Monday evening in Mount Laurel: Politicker photo 

MOUNT LAUREL - "It’s the economy, stupid," proved a winning formula for Bill Clinton, and now state Sen. John Adler (D-Camden) runs with the same background theme in this 3rd Congressional District.

It might be a tough slog here for Adler, 48, where a Democrat has not represented the district since 1882. But in the waning Bush era, there is opportunity; and Adler means to make a sagging economy in W’s last months the primary issue as he heads toward his Nov. 4th general election showdown with Medford Mayor Chris Myers.

With 15,000 newly registered Democrats coming out of the Feb. 5th Democratic Primary, the figures embolden Adler and his allies as the long-serving senator hopes to truss a seat vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Jm Saxton (R-3).

Registered Democrats now outnumber Republicans in the 3rd -111,298 to 100,640 - in a year when the presence of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.) at the top of the ticket means Adler’s people are making strategic forays into the district’s bigger blue vote strongholds - Willingboro and Pemberton - to register even more new voters.

Congressional candidate Chris MyersThird Congressional District candidate Chris Myers is taking a leave of absence from his job as a vice-president at Lockheed Martin through the remainder of the campaign season.

The Republican will now be a full-time candidate through Nov. 4th, according to a news release issued by his campaign on Wednesday.

"Anyone who knows me, knows that I have never been one to do things half-way, and this campaign will be no different," said Myers. "The residents of this district deserve nothing less from someone seeking to earn their support, their trust and their vote for Congress."

Sen. John Adler (D-Camden)

TRENTON - The general election race to succeed U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton (R-3) has opened up in earnest now, with GOP Medford Mayor Chris Myers charging his Democratic opponent, state Sen. John Adler (D-Camden) with being part of the Trenton spending beast, and Adler arguing that Myers has been hapless at the local level.

In the face of a letter from Myers urging him to vote "no" on the state budget this evening, Adler defended the $32.9 billion document, and seized the opportunity to criticize Myers for what he sees as the Medford mayor’s failure to harness local spending.

Myers fired first in the letter he mailed to the state senator last week, in advance of the full Senate’s consideration of the budget. He specifically targeted the budget’s spending cuts for small-sized towns.

Bill Layton says he must have been in diapers when the Democrats had a freeholder in Burlington County.

"It was the early 1980s anyway," said the Republican Party chairman, who unanimously won re-election at his party’s re-organization meeting last week and champions GOP Freeholder Aubrey Fenton and his running mate, Stacy Jordan.

The history doesn’t dim the enthusiasm of Layton’s rival, Rick Perr, chair of the Burlington County Democratic Organization, who believes this is the year his candidates for freeholder, Chris Brown and Mary Anne Reinhart, can win.

"Looking back on 2007, it wasn’t a good year for Democrats," admitted Perr. "We assumed the anti-Republican sentiment we saw in 2006 would build up to a crescendo."

It didn’t happen.

New Jersey supporters of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) celebrated their candidate’s courage as they enlivened the crowd here at Burlington County Community College in advance of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s appearance.

McCain is campaigning in New Jersey today for the fourth time in five months, according to state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Mercer), state campaign chair for McCain, who is serving as emcee here in Pemberton.

After receiving a standing ovation from the crowd of 2,000 here packed into the gym, retiring U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton (R-3) made his argument for McCain simple and straightforward.

The two New Jersey House seats most clearly in play next year are the two that have been held by the Republicans for the longest period of time: Democrats have not won the seat now held by Jim Saxton for 126 years, and Mike Ferguson’s district has not elected a Democrat since 1954.

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.