Phil Haines

John Adams sought a standard for the emerging country's legal system when he represented a British soldier no other lawyer would defend. Adams argued that unless the enemy soldier was subject to a fair trial under the law, there was no sense standing up to the British crown.

"When Adams looked back on his career late in life, he said it was the most honorable thing he had ever done," Justin Loughrey, president of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey (ACDL-NJ).

Loughrey and others in the New Jersey legal community are invoking the second president of the United States and rising to defend due process against what they see as an attack in the district 8 legislative contest.

Republicans have issued campaign mailers that call into question Democrat Tracy Riley's husband's representation of a man charged in a terror conspiracy plot.

Republicans thought they hit op research gold when they realized that the husband of Democratic Assembly candidate Tracy Riley, running in the suddenly competitive eighth district, was the court-appointed lawyer representing one of the men accused on a plan to kill soldiers at Fort Dix.  In a mailer sent out last week, the three GOP candidates said: "Now, Tracy Riley's Family Law Firm is Defending Him … Tracy Riley: Whose values will she represent in Trenton? Ours? Or theirs?"

The Asbury Park Press has endorsed Jennifer Beck over Ellen Karcher, the Press of Atlantic City is backing Jefferson Van Drew and James Whelan over Nicholas Asselta and Sonny McCullough, respectively, The Record wants Joseph Ariyan instead of Gerald Cardinale, and the Courier Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer have endorsed Phil Haines over Francis Bodine.

The two candidates for State Senate in the eighth district have touted endorsements from the other party: Republican-turned-Democrat Francis Bodine has Sean Kennedy, the former Executive Director of the Burlington County Republican Committee, and Republican Phil Haines has former Pemberton Democratic Municipal Chairman Nando Avila, who was the Chief of Staff to ex-State Senator Catherine Costa.

The Courier-Post has endorsed Republican Phil Haines for State Senate, and Republican Dawn Addiego and Democrat Tracy Riley for Assembly in the 8th district.  READ

The Philadelphia Inquirer has endorsed six State Senate candidates: Democratic incumbents Steve Sweeney in District 3, Fred Madden in District 4 and John Adler in District 6, Republican incumbent Diane Allen in District 7, Democrat Dana Redd in District 5, and Republican Phil Haines in District 8.  READ

The race for State Senator in District 2 is a Toss-Up, while Nicholas Asselta and Ellen Karcher could be headed for defeat, according to a new PoliticsNJ.com Battleground '07 analysis.  READ

Medford Mayor Scott Rudder, Republican candidate for the Assembly in district 8, defended the decision made by his running mate Phil Haines to remain silent during the debate portion of last week's campaign forum in Leisuretown.

"The thing about these forums is who wins come down to whoever has more plants in the audience," said Rudder.

Indeed, Republican and Democratic operatives were floating in the crowd in the crowd that night; and the Republicans said they feared hidden cameras, and the blind-siding embarrassing question.

District 8 state Senate candidate Phil Haines visits a farm, and revisits his own roots.

The Republican mail piece hit last week in between two debates in four days, and it was arguably the most controversial of the political season, not just in the contentious 8th district but anywhere.

Next to a photograph of masked men marching in a column with guns at the ready, the words refer to a terror suspect nabbed by authorities in connection with a conspiracy to bomb Fort Dix: "He came to our country illegally. He plotted with other Islamic radicals to kill American soldiers... Now Tracy Riley's family's law firm is defending him... and your tax dollars are paying them to do it."

Riley's husband is the court-appointed attorney representing one of the terror suspects.