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Share ThisSep 08, 2008
Asbury Park Press - National GOP buys no ads for Myers in 3rd District
Are Republicans doing everything they can to help Medford Mayor Chris Myers become the next distinguished gentleman from New Jersey?
Late last month, the National Republican Congressional Committee purchased media time in 14 congressional races across the country, but the 3rd Congressional District in the Garden State did not make the cut.
Ken Spain, NRCC press secretary, cautioned against making assumptions based on such an observation.
However, the campaign of Democratic candidate state Sen. John Adler of Cherry Hill made sure to point it out, suggesting that the NRCC is demonstrating a lack of confidence in the Myers campaign just two months before Election Day.
"Chris Myers is an incredibly strong candidate, with a compelling biography, who fits the district and its interests very well," Spain countered. "He came out the victor of a very spirited primary and proved his candidacy during that time. He has been campaigning for a good amount of time, and we're confident that he will continue to close the financial gap, while John Adler continues to expose himself as a Trenton politician."
Spain said it is the Adler campaign that is worried about Election Day. He pointed to a shake-up inside that camp over the summer that suggests Adler is not quite ready to uncork the champagne and throw about the balloons and confetti.
"There have been internal signs within his campaign, such as the firing of his campaign manager or what appears to be the mismanagement of campaign funds," Spain said. "He has burned through a lot of his money very quickly with very little to show for it."
At the end of July, Adler replaced his campaign manager — Raiyan Syed — with Mark Warren, his finance director. The Adler campaign also spent $445,574 as of June 30, the last reporting date, though he had just sailed through an uncontested primary race that month. In comparison, Myers, who competed in a bitter fight for the GOP nomination in a three-way race, spent about the same — $471,141 — over the same time period, according to the Federal Election Commission.
The Democrats argue that the Adler camp has been running a much more bigger and sophisticated operation than the Myers campaign. He maintains two offices in the 3rd District, which includes much of Ocean County. As for a change in management, Warren did not go into specifics. Shortly after his appointment, Warren said Syed was no longer with the campaign but remained a good friend.
Adler still has almost $1.5 million in his campaign war chest, compared with the $155,407 Myers had on hand as of June 30.
With limited financial resources, Republicans have yet to conduct a poll, but say they understand Democrats have and that the results show Adler trailing Myers.
"Any polling we do do is for internal strategic assessments, and we don't discuss it," Warren said.
Meanwhile, retiring Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., who as of June 30 had more than $1 million in cash on hand from his own campaign reserve, has done and will do all he can to help Myers, his anointed heir apparent, succeed him, said Jeff Sagnip, a Saxton spokesman.
Saxton wrote a check on Aug. 21 to the NRCC in the amount of $400,000, Sagnip said.
"That's the largest he has made and under FEC (Federal Election Commission) guidelines — which are very strict — it's one of the ways you can disperse contributions," Sagnip said.
"In the last several years, (Saxton) has given $340,000 to the NRCC the same way," Sagnip said. "(But) the contributors can't say: Please spend it on Candidate X or please send a portion of it to Candidate X. There can be no, and there are no, strings attached."
"Friends of Jim Saxton," the congressman's Political Action Committee, also has contributed a total of $4,000 in two separate checks to Myers: $2,000 for the primary campaign, another $2,000 for the general election campaign. Under federal law, candidates can receive a maximum contribution of $2,300 from a single source per election cycle. Primaries and general elections are classified as separate cycles.
"The NRCC is working very hard in a very difficult environment to raise funding for its races nationwide," Spain said. "There are many competitive races, and the NRCC is the main source of assistance for a lot of the candidates out there across the country."
The most single lucrative source of fundraising for Myers — $96,550 — has come from his own colleagues and friends within the defense aerospace industry. Myers is a senior executive for Lockheed Martin Corp. and was a naval operations officer aboard the USS Bunker Hill during the first Gulf War.
Lawyers and law firms have been the most generous to Adler. They have been his single best contributors, bringing in $239,483 for the campaign. Adler is a Harvard-educated lawyer and has served in the Legislature for 16 years.
Among those attorneys are some of the most prominent Democratic lawyers in Ocean County: Guy P. Ryan, $750; Mark Troncone, $500; Valter H. Must, $550; Alison Aaron, $250; John Voynick, $500; Patrick Sheehan, $285; Carluccio Leone Dimon Doyle and Sacks, $500; Stephan Leone, $2,550 (Judith Leone, a retired schoolteacher and wife of Stephan Leone, contributed another $2,300); John Paul Doyle, $500; Edward F. Liston Jr., $750; Michael J. Deem, $250; Nancy C. Secare, $250; and Daniel J. Carluccio, $250.
Gov. Corzine also has maxed out on what he can give to Adler, writing two checks to the Adler campaign for $2,300 each on Dec. 28.
In comparison, Myers had generated just half a dozen contributions from Ocean County and, as of June 30, none from the major Republican players. His biggest single contribution there came from Arthur Barron, who is identified in 2008 FEC records as either retired or chairman of Time-Warner Enterprises. The Beach Haven resident contributed a total of $3,800 over both election cycles.
Sagnip said Saxton intends to hold onto the rest of his war chest and perhaps use the money in the future to help some of his political allies and interests just as other retired elected officials have done. Under federal law, Saxton is not permitted to use the funds for private use or to live on. However, he could use the money to cover the cost of political-related trips such as going to a future Republican National Convention, Sagnip said.
Adler and Myers will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly for the first in a series of debates planned throughout the district this fall. The forum is sponsored by Veterans For Education and is expected to focus only on issues related to veterans.
The debate will be taped for later broadcast on Philadelphia radio station WPHT (1210 AM) and will be moderated by on-air personality Anthony Mazzarelli.
