John Adler

Freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) continues to be a fundraising machine.  According to numbers compiled by the National Journal, Adler has the highest cash on hand of any freshman member of the House, with $869275 in his war chest.  Adler was elected with 51% in 2008, becoming the first Democrat to win his district since Thomas Ferrell in 1884.

New Jersey's thirteen incumbent Congressmen, ranked in order of their war chests:

Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to nominate State Sen. Philip Haines (R-Springfield) as a Superior Court Judge within the next two weeks, setting the stage for a special election in the Republican-leaning eighth district this November.  Burlington County Republicans say they expect Haines to be out of the Senate by next month, and are preparing for a special election convention in July.  Former Medford Mayor Christopher Myers, who won 48% of the vote in his 2008 race for Congress against Democrat John Adler, could emerge as a leading candidate for Haines' Senate seat.

These are interesting times in Burlington County politics, where Republicans are defending their control of the Board of Freeholders for the first time in decades.  The GOP now has a 3-2 majority, and two of their seats are up in 2009.  The two Republican incumbents are not seeking re-election.  State Sen. Diane Allen (R-Edgewater Park) is reportedly under consideration to become the GOP candidate for Lt. Governor - something that would likely help Republicans keep control.

One day after appearing with Vice President Joseph Biden to formally kick off his re-election campaign, Gov. Jon Corzine will travel to South Jersey on Wednesday for an appearance with an even bigger celebrity: TV personality Kelly Ripa.  Corzine will administer the oath of office to Ripa's father, Joseph Ripa, as the new Camden County Clerk.

Two Democratic Senators seemed a bit piqued yesterday when the Hudson County Assignment Judge implied that the Senate Judiciary Committee was dragging a Superior Court Judge through the mud as they questioned him during a confirmation hearing that would give Frederick Theemling tenure until he reaches the mandatory retirement age of seventy.  The reaction of State Sens. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) and Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden) sends a signal that the Judiciary Committee, in a change of direction, is prepared to question judicial nominees about their records.

Theemling, a former Hudson County Prosecutor and a candidate for Congress against Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) in 1992, seemed incredibly unprepared for any questions from Senators regarding his nearly seven years on the bench.  Scutari was seeking an explanation for what appeared to be an unusually large number of appeals to his decisions - 114 of his cases were appealed since becoming a Superior Court Judge.

In Trenton to support and defend Theemling, Assignment Judge Maurice Gallipoli accused the Senators of treating Theemling harshly.  "I earnestly suggest to you that this is a good man who should not be dragged through the mud," Gallipoli told the panel.

That bothered Lesniak, who told Gallipoli that the role of the Judiciary Committee was to question nominees about their "qualification, character, ability and record." 

"Asking legitimate questions about that record has nothing to do with dragging a person through the mud," Lesniak said.

One candidate for the Comeback of the Year Award will be James Biggs, who won 63% of the vote yesterday in a special election for Mayor of Island Heights (pop. 1,877).  The 67-year-old Biggs was first elected Mayor in 1974, at age 32, and gave up the job four years later to run for Congress.

In 1978, Democrat William Hughes was a two-term Congressman from a Republican district.  A 41-year-old former Assistant Prosecutor from Cape May County, ousted four-term incumbent Charles Sandman, by a 57%-41% margin in the 1974 Watergate landslide - one year after Sandman beat incumbent William Cahill in the Republican gubernatorial primary and then lost the general election by 721,328 votes.

Republicans believed they would win the seat back in 1976 with an exceptionally strong candidate, five-term Assembly Assistant Minority Leader James Hurley (R-Millville).  But Hughes proved to be a stronger incumbent than Republicans imagined, and Hurley turned out to be a weak general election candidate.  Hughes beat Hurly 68%-32%, running twenty percentage points ahead of the Democratic presidential candidate.

The major upset of the 2009 non-partisan municipal elections was the defeat of Carl Block, who has served as Mayor of Stafford (pop. 25,819) since 1983.  Block lost by fifteen percentage points, 57%-42%, to John McMenamin, a former police lieutenant.  Four incumbent Councilmembers allied with Block also lost their bids for re-election.

This is a stunning defeat for Republicans in a town where John McCain beat Barack Obama with 59% of the vote last year.  Block is also the Ocean County Clerk, and an insider within the Ocean County GOP organization.  McMenamin had the backing of Democrats, who backed GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie's proposal to ban dual officeholding.  Christie attended a fundraiser for Block in Stafford just days after announcing his plan, which would have forced Block to choose between his two jobs.

Moorestown investor John Culbertson said today that he is not interested in running for Congress in 2010.

“I’ve given a lot of thought.   I’ve actually spoken to a number of people and consulted a variety of folks, and I’ve decided that 2010 is not the right time for me to run – primarily for personal reasons,” said Culbertson.  “I am not a candidate for 2010, but I am certainly interested if the time is right in the future.”
 
Although he did not have much of a history with the Republican Party in his native Burlington County, Culbertson was an intriguing candidate to some GOP insiders because of his ability to self-fund. 

Republicans are working hard to recruit a candidate early to take on freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill), who was the first Democrat to win a seat in the 3rd District since the late 19th century.  Adler, obviously aware that national Republicans plan to target his seat next year, raised almost $500,000 last quarter. 

Freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler has $426,587 cash on hand

With news that freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) has raised more money than any other incumbent in a potentially competitive 2010 race during the first quarter of 2009, it is worth noting that Republicans still don't have a candidate to challenge him in a district that they held from 1884 until 2008.  Adler beat Medford Mayor Christopher Myers 52%-48% for the seat of Republican James Saxton, who retired after twelve terms in Congress.

Adler raised $464,125 last quarter and has $426,587 cash on hand. Republicans think they can beat Adler next year, but the National Republican Congressional Committee sent signals earlier this year that they want the candidate in place soon so that he or she can begin fundraising.  That's what Adler did in 2006, before Saxton had announced his intention to retire.  If the third district Republican candidate does not meet certain early fundraising goals, sources say that the NRCC might not become fully engaged in the race, according to one House Republican staffer familiar with NRCC operations.

So far, one candidate has said he expects to run: former Tabernacle Committeeman Justin Murphy, who surprised political observers last year when he won 25.2% of the vote in the Republican primary for Congress.  Murphy finished third, just 37 votes behind Ocean County Freeholder Jack Kelly, who had the powerful organization line in Ocean.

Freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) continues to raise a lot of cash, this time with his eye on defending his seat in 2010.

Adler raised $464,125 last quarter – the most of any candidate in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s 40-member “Frontline” program, which is intended to help incumbents who could be vulnerable in 2010.  He has $426,587 on hand.

Adler’s narrow win last year, for which he spent about $2.74 million, was the first time Democrats have carried his district since the 19th century, making him an obvious target of Republicans going into the next election cycle.  

The Republican National Congressional Committee is already targeting Adler with frequent press releases, and today announced that they are targeting him with robocalls pairing him with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and criticizing him for voting in favor of the stimulus package.  

PolitickerNJ.com has prepared a Casualty List for the New Jersey Legislature for each year since 2001.

Fourteen-term Republican John Rooney, the senior member of the State Assembly, becomes the fifth legislator not seeking re-election in 2009.  Three Assemblymen are seeking another office: Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) is running for Governor; Michael Doherty (R-Washington) is seeking State Senate seat; and L. Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City) is a candidate for Mayor. Assemblywoman Sandra Love (D-Gloucester Township) is retiring. And Eric Munoz (R-Summit) passed away earlier this month at the age of 61.