U.S. Senate

The New York Times endorsed Frank Lautenberg for a sixth term in the U.S. Senate today, lauding him for doubling Amtrak’s annual budget and being an “effective champion of banning smoking on domestic airlines and in other public places.”

The paper, however, did chastise Lautenberg for agreeing to only one televised debate.

“New Jersey voters deserved a better race this year than the nearly invisible contest between Senator Frank Lautenberg and Richard Zimmer, his Republican challenger,” read the first line of the endorsement.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, with presidential candidate Barack Obama, has a huge lead in his bid for a 5th term

A new Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll shows incumbent Frank Lautenberg with a 16 point lead over Dick Zimmer in the race for U.S. Senate -- 52%-36% among likely voters.  A Quinnipiac University poll released this week has Lautenberg ahead by 22 points.  Zimmer, a former Republican Congressman, remains unknown to 56% of voters.

“With just two weeks to go, the incumbent’s stealth campaign appears to be succeeding. Of course, it certainly helps that his challenger has yet to introduce himself to most of the state’s voters,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.  “Given the lack of visible campaign activity, Lautenberg seems to be coasting along on Obama’s coattails.”

Lautenberg has a 48%-28% job approval rating, up from 45%-33% in July.  He has a 45%-24% favorable rating.  Zimmer has a 28%-16% favorable rating.  

If he's re-elected, Frank Lautenberg would be 90 at the end of his next term: Getty Images Photo
Three months after former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer held a press conference and said he would not make age an issue in his U.S. Senate run against incumbent Democrat Frank Lautenberg, Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson stood in the same State House conference room and brought the issue front and center, making repeated references to the 84-year-old Senator’s senior status.

“If you’re too afraid, too incompetent or too old to campaign, then you’re surely not fit for six more years in the U.S. Senate,” said Wilson. “It’s time to let voters decide whether you’re up to serving in the United States Senate until you’re 90 years old.”

Wilson called the press conference to attack Lautenberg for the way he’s run his campaign – or rather, his lack of a campaign.

Lautenberg, said Wilson, has been missing on the campaign trail, making only a public appearance here and there while giving the media little time for questions and refusing to accept one of the roughly 20 debate invitations that have been issued so far.

By not engaging his opponent or the voters on the issues, Wilson said, Lautenberg has brought attention to his age by raising the question of whether he really is up to the task of serving another six year term, at the end of which he’ll have just turned 91. He contrasted Lautenberg’s public schedule with U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), 78, who although not up for reelection has been holding town hall meetings on behalf of John McCain in every one of his state’s counties.

Two independent polls released today on the race for United States Senator offer conflicting data on the question of Frank Lautenberg's ability, at age 84, to serve another six-year term: more than half the voters polled by Quinnipiac University say yes, while less more than two-thirds of Monmouth University/Gannett poll voters disagree.  Both polls have Lautenberg leading Republican Dick Zimmer by about the same margin.  Patrick Murray, who runs the Monmouth/Gannett poll, offers an explanation in his blog, which is worth the read.

Some good news for Republicans: Dick Zimmer leads Frank Lautenberg 51%-36% in a combined region of Atlantic, Ocean and Monmouth counties, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.  That helps GOP congressional candidate Christopher Myers, who must win a huge plurality in Ocean to beat State Sen. John Adler for the open third district House seat.  It's also helpful to Republican countywide candidates in Atlantic and Monmouth, areas that have been trending Democratic in recent elections.

Two thirds of New Jerey voters don't know who Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer is
A new Quinnipiac University poll released early this morning shows Democrat Frank Lautenberg with a nine-point lead, 48%-39% among likely voters, over Republican Dick Zimmer in the race for U.S. Senate.  Quinnipiac was at 48%-41% last month.  Lautenberg has had double digit leads in several independent polls released over the last week, including a ten-point lead in a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll also released this morning. 

Lautenberg leads despite a "lukewarm" 44%-38% apprival rating, and a feeling by 54% of voters, including half of Democrats, that the 84-year-old Senator is too old to serve six more years.  But voters still don't know Zimmer, who served in Congress from 1991 to 1997.  He has a 24%-8% favorable rating, and two-thirds of the voters don't know who he is.

Just 6% of New Jersey voters are closely following the race for U.S. Senate between Frank Lautenberg and Dick Zimmer: Getty Images Photo
A new  Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll has U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg leading GOP challenger Dick Zimmer 46%-36% -- the latest in a series of polls that show the four-term Democrat with a double digit lead.  The poll shows that just 45% of voters are showing interest in the Senate race, and just 6% are following it closely.  83% of New Jersey voters have a lot of interest in the race for President.

Jon Corzine's approval ratings in an August Quinnipiac poll were upside-down: Getty Images Photo
Quinnipiac University will release results of a new poll tomorrow with head to head numbers in the race for U.S. Senate, and Gov. Jon Corzine's approval rating.  

Last month, Corzine's approvals were upside-down, 42%-48%, and he was in a statistical dead heat with U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie in a 2009 gubernatorial poll.  In the Senate race, Quinnipiac had Democratic incumbent Frank Lautenberg with a seven point lead, 48%-41%, over Republican Dick Zimmer.  Independent polls over the last week from The Record, Marist College, and Fairleigh Dickinson University have shown Lautenberg with double-digit leads in his bid for re-election to a fifth term.

Democrat Frank Lautenberg has an 11 point lead over Republican Dick Zimmer in his bid for a fifth term in the United States Senate and has passed the magic 50% mark, according to a new Marist College Institute for Public Opinion poll released tonight.  Among likely voters and including leaners, Lautenberg is ahead 51%-40%.

Lautenberg also had an 11 point lead, 46%-35%, in a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released two days ago.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama: Getty Images Photo
Evidence of John McCain’s convention bounce might have turned up in New Jersey, but that momentum hasn’t translated to former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer’s U.S. Senate campaign. 

According to a Fairleigh Dickinson PublicMind poll released today, incumbent Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) leads Zimmer 46% to 35%. 

That’s roughly the same margin that Zimmer has trailed Lautenberg by in several other polls taken during the summer. 

“All of the attention has been on the national race,” said FDU pollster Peter Woolley.  “And both of the state’s U.S. Senate candidates have been off-stage in this year’s presidential drama.”