John Adler (R-NJ)

by: deciminyan

Sun Sep 19, 2010 at 06:06:16 PM EDT

Cross-posted from deciminyan

Imagine this scenario.  Freshman Democratic Congressman John Adler defeats footballer Jon Runyan in the November election.  This is plausible because even though New Jersey's Third District has been gerrymandered to make it a "safe" district for the GOP, Adler has significantly more money with which to campaign, and Runyan is weak on the important issues.  Now, also imagine that nationally, the Republicans take control of the House.

If this scenario were to come to pass, the best thing John Adler could do is to switch parties and become a Republican.  Certainly, his first term voting record mirrors what would have been the voting pattern of his predecessor, long-term moderate GOP Congressman Jim Saxton.  Like Adler, Saxton would probably have voted against health care and would have supported the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.  Also, given the fact that New Jersey's redistricting based on the 2010 census will be controlled by Chris Christie's cronies, it is a safe bet that this district will once again be gerrymandered favorably for Republicans.  Switching parties would be a safe bet for Adler to retain his seat for several more terms under this scenario.

This sequence of events would not only benefit John Adler, but it would benefit the District as a whole.   With a GOP majority in Congress, a Republican Adler would be better positioned to promote programs and earmarks that would bring jobs, funding, and other benefits to Burlington and Ocean Counties.  He would still be a minority within his own (new) party because even though he votes more like a Republican, he has not partaken of the Tea Party Kool Aid.  The more moderate Republicans who are sent to Congress (as opposed to Tea Party Republicans), the better off we all will be.  And if Mr. Adler does switch parties after the election, it leaves room for a progressive Democrat to run in 2012, giving voters of the Third District a real choice.

I hope Adler wins; after all, he's (barely) the lesser of two evils.  And I hope that the Democrats retain control of the House - otherwise this nation is in deep shit.  But if the Democrats do lose, and Adler does win, we are all better off if he honestly admits that he's a moderate Republican and switches to the GOP.

Quote of the Day: A fairly mean place

by: Jason Springer

Tue Dec 30, 2008 at 08:04:00 PM EST

"I think Washington could be rightly described as a fairly mean place these days," Saxton said. The partisan rancor has persisted since Republicans took the House of Representatives in 1994, he said, and it upended an established system of 40 years. "The Republicans didn't know their place anymore and the Democrats didn't like their place, and so both sides tried very hard to make the other look bad."

Anatomy of a Win & End of an Era

by: Blue Jersey

Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 02:29:24 PM EST

State Senator John Adler announced his campaign for Congress to challenge then sitting Congressman Jim Saxton very early, on September 20, 2007.  From the beginning, Adler waged his campaign on progressive values; his decision to challenge Saxton came shortly after Saxton voted against expanding S-CHIP. This would have been his second time challenging Saxton (Adler ran in the then 13th Congressional district in 1990), but on November 9, 2007 Congressman Saxton announced he would not seek re-election due to health reasons.  Now the race was for an open seat, an easier proposition for Adler.

To understand the political dynamics at play, you first have to understand the geographic composition of the district. The 3rd District includes Cherry Hill in Camden County, most of Burlington County and a sizable chunk of Ocean County.  On the Democratic side, the field cleared for Adler and he received the early support of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.  On the Republican side, many wanted Burlington County native State Senator Diane Allen to run. When she declined, Chris Myers emerged as the Burlington County Candidate.

Much more on the flip.

Quote of the Day: Borrowing

by: Jason Springer

Thu Sep 25, 2008 at 02:28:35 PM EDT

"The Treasury doesn't have 700-billion dollars in a big ol' safe," says New Jersey Representative Jim Saxton. "We have to go borrow it."

Saxton disgraces himself as New Jersey Representatives Vote on Energy Bill

by: Hopeful

Wed Sep 17, 2008 at 04:47:50 AM EDT

What I can't respect is the attempt to disrupt Congress and prevent passage of a bill by calling for motions to adjourn.  Only a few Republicans supported this absurd proposal, but New Jersey's very own Jim Saxton must be looking forward to a permanent vacation as he actually voted to adjourn at noon. This is starting to look like a habit for the lame duck Representative.

What's Left In The Tank?

by: huntsu

Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 09:52:50 AM EDT

Jim Saxton has SAXPAC, which has been closed down with $0 cash on hand after expenditures of $13,000 fro legal fees (anyone know what that's about?), $8,000 to a election compliance specialist (was there an issue that might deal with lawyers and election compliance?), $5,000 to Chris Meyers and $5,000 to Duncan Hunter's run for President.  Really.

Ferguson is a little harder to write out, but we'll try.  His Mike PAC is still open, but only has about $1800 left after a little less than $95,000 in expenditures since the last election.  He's got a lot of $1,000 contributions to local campaigns and out-of-state members of Congress, with only Chris Smith seeing any House money in state.

$20,000 went to the Somerset Republicans, $8500 to the Hunterdon Republicans, and $1,000 to Union County.

On the other hand, Saxton has over a million dollars in the bank and Fergie has about $250,000.

So there's a lot of money in the campaign war chests even if the PACs are dead.  I wonder if they'll use them for anything.

This ain't 2003!!!

by: Thurman Hart

Thu Jun 12, 2008 at 08:38:00 AM EDT

You see, back in 2003, when Republicans controlled the House, Republicans extended unemployment benefits by a vote of 416 to 4.  Only Scott Garrett hated the unemployed enough to vote against extending benefits at that time.  Ferguson, Frelinghuysen, and Saxton voted for the $7.2 billion bill.  That was when the national unemployment rate was 6.0 percent.

Fast forward to this year.  The unemployment rate now stands at 5.5%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  As of last month, New Jersey's unemployment rate was 5.0%.  The bill would cost $11 billion over ten years.

So there are two possible explanations for Ferguson, Frelinghuysen, and Saxton: Either the economy just isn't bad enough or the bill isn't Republican enough.  Either way, they owe it to their constituents to explain their action.  Something that was right in 2003 can't just be wrong in 2008.

New Jersey Republicans try to kill Amtrak

by: Hopeful

Wed Jun 11, 2008 at 09:15:00 PM EDT

"It is no exaggeration to say that rail service is the lifeline from which New Jersey's state economy draws nourishment.  Our region's employers - small, medium, and large - depend upon an integrated rail operation to enable many of their employees to get to and from work," Holt said. "The continued operation of Amtrak is an essential component of easing traffic congestion, reducing wear and tear on roads, protecting our environment and preserving open space in New Jersey and across the country."

That's why all thirteen New Jersey Congressmen voted for the "Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act" -- though unfortunately it faces a Bush veto.  Still, as far as New Jersey is concerned, it's a lovely story of bipartisanship -- we may even read about it in the papers tomorrow.

But it's a happy story only if you just look at House Vote 400.  Moments before, in House Vote 399, all six New Jersey Republicans tried to kill the bill by voting to "recommit with instructions."  

Their names are Mike Ferguson, Rodney Frelinghuysen, Scott Garrett, Frank LoBiondo, Jim Saxton, and Christopher Smith, and when you're not paying attention, they do what Bush says.  

Myers & BurlCo GOP grabbing at Saxton's cash?

by: Scott Weingart

Thu Jun 05, 2008 at 11:28:03 AM EDT

Saxton has $1.06 million sitting in his federal campaign account. Campaign finance law prohibits Saxton from giving more than $2,000 to any individual congressional campaign, but Saxton can give an unlimited amount of money to state or county parties. You bet the Burlington County Republican party wants to get its dirty hands on Saxton's millions, which it can use to help elect Bush cheerleader Chris Myers to Congress.

Saxton tells Myers he's wrong about the economy

by: Jason Springer

Fri May 23, 2008 at 10:52:04 PM EDT

Myers called the economy "basically strong" during an interview on 1210 AM.  

...the associated boom in housing included all the classic signs of a speculative bubble, which now has burst with very damaging effects.

The collapse of the housing bubble has triggered massive losses in mortgage-backed securities amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars, and still climbing.  It has also exposed excessive leverage and poor underwriting standards in many financial institutions.

Garrett wants to leave Congress

by: Hopeful

Mon May 12, 2008 at 11:19:10 PM EDT

Happy Mother's Day!

by: Hopeful

Sun May 11, 2008 at 05:00:00 AM EDT

Once you've done so, also take a moment to remember Rodney Frelinghuysen, Scott Garrett, Frank LoBiondo, Chris Smith, Jim Saxton, and Mike Ferguson, who voted against Celebrating the Role of Mothers in the United States and Supporting the Goals and Ideals of Mother's Day.  If you ask them, they might explain that they are not against mothers at all, but instead are trying to tie up Congress so it can't accomplish anything.  Four of them go before voters in November as they seek to do the same next year.

What will Saxton do with his money?

by: Jason Springer

Fri Apr 18, 2008 at 07:32:41 PM EDT

"Between them, there is a significant amount of money," said Republican Conference Chairman Adam H. Putnam of Florida. "I think that a number of our retirees have been and will be generous to the NRCC upon their retirement."

"We've had some who have been very generous. We've had a few members who kind of slink off in the night," Rep. Tom Cole , chairman of the NRCC, said Thursday.

"I haven't decided yet" what to do with the rest, he said.

Saxton and the Scent of Scandal

by: Church Street

Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 02:35:58 PM EDT

House GOP officials acknowledged on Thursday that the longtime and trusted treasurer of the National Republican Congressional Committee may have skimmed as much as $1 million from the committee. From today's WaPo:

For at least four years, Christopher J. Ward, who is under investigation by the FBI, used wire transfers to funnel money out of the NRCC and into other political committees he controlled, then shifted the funds into his own personal accounts, the committee said.

According to the Federal Election Commission, Ward is treasurer of SAXPAC, Saxton's leadership PAC formed in 2005.

Saxton vs Bush

by: Juan Melli

Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 09:54:30 PM EDT

In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the "burn" rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and co-author Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book.

When Stiglitz testified on Feb. 28 before the congressional Joint Economic Committee, the ranking Republican, New Jersey's Rep. Jim Saxton, complained that such projections are too imprecise to help determine relative costs and benefits of the Iraq war.

Q: What are the administration's latest cost estimates on the war? Are you familiar with the Stiglitz article that came out over the weekend...$12 billion a month he's now estimating.

MS. PERINO: I'm not going to dispute his estimates. [...]

By Defending his Role, Sagnip raises more questions

by: Jason Springer

Mon Mar 03, 2008 at 10:21:33 PM EST

But Sagnip Hollendonner said that he's been working part-time for both Saxton and Myers since January 31st. He added that he generally spends the first part of the day, from 8:15 a.m. until 2:30 p.m., working for the Myers campaign. He spends the rest of the day working as Saxton's legislative spokesman.

"It's a valid question that taxpayers should know, but it's a part-time job that I have with the congressman and the campaign," said Sagnip-Hollendonner, who was on his lunch break. "All the necessary paperwork has been filed with the House committees."

It isn't unusual for a Congressional staffer to take a role in a campaign because their expertise makes them natural resources.  But there must be a complete separation of jobs. A press secretary working for a Member of Congress cannot make campaign statements while on the clock for the Congressional job.  Nor can that same press secretary working for a campaign make statements about the business of Congress (except as it relates to the campaign). Period.

Sagnip says he started part time with the campaign on January 31 leaving us to assume he was full time with Saxton until that date, however on January 11 he played a large role schmoozing with the press and giving Jay Lassiter fashion and etiquette tips during the Myers campaign kickoff.  While "working for Saxton" that day, this was his comment about his new boss...

Sagnip Hollendonner highlighted Myers' local ties, masters in public policy from Cornell University, and fluency with defense issues as strengths that stood out to Saxton. Additionally, 42-year-old Myers is young enough to build the Congressional rapport required to efficiently legislate, a process that took Saxton a decade, Sagnip Hollendonner said.

Activities that May Be Either "Official" or "Political" at the Member's Option. While a Member may not use campaign funds to pay official House expenses, there are a number of activities that may be either "official" or "political" at the option of the Member.

[O]nce the Member makes his determination [on whether an activity is to be official or political], he is bound by it. A single event cannot, for purposes of the House rules, be treated as both political and official.

Conversely, if a Member designates an event (or any other activity) as political by using campaign funds for it, no official resources may then be used. This means that congressional staff should not make arrangements for such an event...

This may just all be a big coincidence, but the questions wouldn't exist if Sagnip and Myers had not created the situation.  The ethics complaint today may truly be a misunderstanding.  I think more importantly the Myers campaign need to clarify who was helping their candidate before Sagnip came on board, particularly at his campaign kickoff.  Like Sagnip himself said, the taxpayers should know.

SCHIP Blocked Again by Republican Minority

by: Hopeful

Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 10:20:55 PM EST

Robert Andrews, Mike Ferguson, Rush Holt, Frank LoBiondo, Frank Pallone, Bill Pascrell, Donald Payne, Steven Rothman, Albio Sires, Christopher Smith

Three Republicans voted against it:

Rodney Frelinghuysen, Scott Garrett, Jim Saxton

As always, all of these House seats are up in this year's election, but this year is a rare opportunity.  Will we replace Saxton's vote in the upcoming open seat election?  Will we allow a Republican even worse than Ferguson to get a vote?

Bad day for Adler's Rivals

by: Jay Lassiter

Tue Jan 22, 2008 at 12:37:28 PM EST

Chris Myers: sweating bullets.

The race to replace Jim Saxton in Congress just got a lot harder for the GOP clowncar down here in NJ-3 as both candidates on the Republican side (BurlCo's Chris Myers and Ocean's Jack Kelly) woke up to see their stock had (figuratively) plummeted.

First was this extremely juicy article from today's AC Press. In a nutshell, Chris Myers hired one of the infamous players from the book How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative to help run his campaign.

Says (potential?) primary rival Justin Murphy (via the article):

Myers needs to explain to voters the association between the staff he has retained and what we now know is a corrupt political operative who served prison time for doing just what his book title suggests. If you're Chris Myers, I think you're having a bad day today and rightfully so. He owes an explanation to the voters

And yet distancing himself from this demi-scandal will be tough. Afterall,

Saxton lent Myers his support; his spokesman - Jeff ["you're not a real reporter"] Sagnip; and apparently his strategists: Jamestown's Web site touts Saxton as a victorious client.

But in this case Myer's poor judgement will also elevate his most serious primary foe Jack Kelly.

It'll admit it, I prefer Kelly in the general simply because he's probably the weaker candidate. First of all, being out in Ocean he's at a historic and geographic disadvantage to Myers, whose powerbase is more centrally located in the district.

Secondly Kelly doesn't have the defen$e industry in his pocket as Myers -- a VP at Lockheed -- does.

And thirdly, and most personally, Jack Kelly's role in the Laurel Hester tragedy makes him a very appealing target. Can't you just imagine all that pink money that will pour in to beat him if he's the candidate?

ACT 2, Oscar Buzz

Now the minute i think to myself how great it would be to take this guy down, I discovered with unbridled glee that Freeheld, the Laurel Hester Story was nominated for an Academy Award in the documentary category!

Now that's good (and surprisingly relevant) news for many reasons, primarily that a wider audience now gets to know Laurel. But I hasten to remind you all what a prominent figure Jack Kelly played in this story, too. Afterall, he was on the board of freeholders that forced Laurel Hester to spend her dying days fighting their bigotry.

So now that the Academy has taken notice, the whole world will see Jack Kelly for what he is: an unsympathetic character.

And now he's running for Congress.

So thanks to Oscar, every glbt blogger on the planet would have an anti-Kelly fundraising widget on their site should he win the primary this spring.

I don't have any idea who's gonna win that one, time will tell. But I do know that Chris Myers and Jack Kelly --the two greatest obstacles to "flipping" Saxton's seat -- each found themselves in a nasty glare of their own tomfoolery.

Which makes the Oscar buzz all the more delicious.

Blogger's Notebook, Congressional edition

by: Jay Lassiter

Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 10:45:52 AM EST

Medford Mayor Myers, Congressman Saxton

Wanted to share a little story with you guys about an incident last week that got lost in the shuffle of a very news-heavy day. As you may recall, I caught the campaign kickoff of GOPer Chris Myers who wants to take Jim Saxton's place representing NJ-3 in Washington.

Thankfully Democrat John Adler has similar designs, as does Republican Jack Kelly -- who Myers will have to vault past for his party's nod. (So given the competition, Myers is hardly an heir apparent.) Anyway, the kickoff was underwhelming, but something from beforehand is still in my craw. Jim Saxton's chief of staff (correction: Communication director) Jeff Sagnip approached the press and introduced himself before hand. First to the reporter on my left, then to my right.

Then he looked at me and declared to everyone within earshot, "Oh Jay Lassiter you're hardly a reporter!" He then threw his head back and laughed derisively.

"Ouch!"

The reporters nearby seemed a little taken aback, too.

"You don't think he was trying to compliment you in some ironic way, do you?" asked the print reporter sitting next to me. Nah, he wanted to embarrass me, and it worked for a nanosecond or two.

But mostly that obnoxious gesture served to ratchet-up the tension in an already overheated room. No big deal, I'm a big boy. But the consequences for his candidate seemed more apparent.

By the time Chris Myers stepped up to the microphone he was so nervous he barely managed to choke out his stump speech.

Now making a huge announcement to a phalanx of press would make anyone a little anxious, I'll give him that much. But it's also reasonable to assume that Chris Myers might never have recognized the blogger from the Man in the Moon had Saxton's staff not shot off flare guns over my head. Don't you all just love it when meanness boomerangs?

This event was announced publicly in local press and billed as a public event. That's why I was there. Well that and to capture a Macaca Moment which never materialized.

Chris Myers is running for Congress as a "Saxton Republican." To me that means more war, higher deficit, fewer insured New Jerseyans, more partisanship and more kowtowing to the right wing of the Republican party.

What's your definition of a "Saxton Republican?" Share your thoughts below!

Saxton annoints Myers

by: Jay Lassiter

Thu Jan 10, 2008 at 05:06:54 PM EST

Yes Mayor, I see you snearing

The race to replace Jim Saxton in Congress continues to evolve.

Today Medford Mayor and Lockheed Veep Chris Myers announced that he's running for the GOP nod. He'll face Ocean County's John Kelly (remember him?) in a primary. The winner of that battle gets a crack at John Adler in November's general election.

Myer's performance today was okay. He managed to avoid a macaca moment, but he did seem pretty nervous. And no i don't begrudge him that. But he'll need plenty of polish to hold up in a debate with John Adler. (With his safe margins, Saxton never bothered to debate so this will be a first for NJ-3 in a long time. How arrogant lame is that?)

The media turnout today was an impressive one, but Myers ducked from the lectern right after making his stump speech. Since no one was taking questions from liberal bloggers, I didn't get a chance to ask him about SCHIP, Iraq or the price of tea in China. (Who Myers calls an "adversary" by the way. Now really, Chris, is that any way to talk about the country we're borrowing from to pay for the wars that make defense exec's rich?) 

I am gonna be timid with a prediction right now and say this much: it's gonna be hardfought. (But you ask me, if Saxton actually thought this race was winable, he'd be in it.)