TRENTON — Fake tea party candidates. Late property tax payments. Donkeys. They’re all campaign issues in the hotly contested race in the 3rd Congressional District, where New Jersey Republicans have their best shot at defeating a sitting Democrat this year. Two years ago, freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler became the first Democrat to represent South-Jersey’s traditionally Republican district since...
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Republican Jon Runyan, left, and U.S. Rep. John Adler, right, a Democrat.TRENTON — Fake tea party candidates. Late property tax payments. Donkeys.
They’re all campaign issues in the hotly contested race in the 3rd Congressional District, where New Jersey Republicans have their best shot at defeating a sitting Democrat this year.
Two years ago, freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler became the first Democrat to represent South-Jersey’s traditionally Republican district since the 19th century, partly because of President Obama’s electoral coattails.
Since then, Adler has distanced himself from the national Democratic Party while raising a huge campaign war chest, and, Republicans charge, fielding a fake tea party candidate to siphon conservative votes from Republican Jon Runyan.
Republicans who hope to make Adler a footnote in political history enlisted Runyan, a 6-foot-7, 330-pound former player the South Jersey-favorite Philadelphia Eagles. The clash between Runyan and the average-sized Adler has taken strange and nasty turns, even by New Jersey’s notorious standards.
Despite Adler’s big advantage in campaign cash raised — $3 million to $1.1 million for Runyan, who lent his campaign $300,000 — polls show a neck-and-neck race. A Sept. 28 Rutgers-Eagleton survey showed Adler leading among likely voters 41 to 39 percent, a statistical tossup.
"We normally see congressional incumbents engaging in a Rose Garden strategy," said Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University. "That’s not case in this campaign, simply because this district is so competitive."
The candidacy of Peter DeStefano, a frame shop owner who is running with the slogan "NJ Tea Party," has dominated the race. Local leaders of the tea party movement disavow the candidate, saying they never heard of him until his name surfaced in an internal Adler campaign poll that was leaked to the media.
"The man is not a real candidate. He is a plant by the Adler campaign to siphon off votes from Runyan," said Bill Haney, president of the West Jersey Tea Party. Haney says he may challenge the election if Adler wins by a smaller margin than DeStafano’s vote total.
Citing unnamed Democratic operatives as sources, the Courier-Post reported Adler’s campaign manager, Geoff Mackler, and South Jersey Democratic consultant Steve Ayscue spearheaded the effort to get DeStefano on the ballot.
DeStefano could not be reached for comment, and Adler did not respond to repeated requests for an interview on the topic. In an Oct. 11 debate in Cherry Hill, Adler said: "As far as I know we have nothing to do with it."
Runyan doesn’t buy that.
"It’s distasteful and unethical," he said.
The race heated up in the summer when Runyan, seeking to head off charges from Adler, disclosed he was late paying property taxes on his Mount Laurel home 33 times and a sports business he ran had a tax lien on it. It’s featured in Adler campaign flyers, along with ads with photos of donkeys to show Runyan housed them on his estate to qualify for a farmland tax break.
Runyan has focused on tying Adler to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Adler has taken pains to assert his independence. He was the only New Jersey Democrat to vote against the new health care reform law, has called for an extension of the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy, and said he opposes a lower Manhattan Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero.
Before serving in Congress, Adler spent 17 years as a state senator, where he represented a heavily Democratic district. He voted with the party on issues such as paid family leave, civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, and ending the death penalty. But Adler spokeswoman Carol Gaskill said always voted independently, noting he was an early opponent to former Gov. Jon Corzine’s toll hike plan and suggested Corzine lay off 2,000 state workers during the 2006 budget crisis.
Runyan said Adler voted with Democrats big issues such as climate change and economic stimulus. "Ultimately, he does have a 90 percent voting record with (Pelosi), and she’s the one that ultimately sets the agenda in the House," he said.
Adler’s positions were also hit by his supporters on the left.
"I grudgingly understand," said Jay Lassiter, a liberal activist and blogger who worked on Adler’s 2008 campaign. "I realized in relatively short order that for me to expect him to be the same John Adler in Washington as he was in the Statehouse, that was my own issue of expectations mismanagement."