Jack Kelly

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Yes, there were hard feelings after the brutal 3rd District Republican congressional primary campaign between Medford Mayor Chris Myers and Ocean County Freeholder Jack Kelly. And yes, Ocean County Republicans weren’t immediately lining up to donate to Myers’s cash strapped general election campaign.

But George Gilmore, the powerful chairman of the Ocean County Republican Party, said that he hosted a fundraiser for Myers two weeks ago with former baseball star Al Leiter, who grew up in Ocean County but lives in Florida.  Leiter is on deck for a distant future political run, possibly for statewide office.

If the fences between the Ocean County and Burlington County Republicans weren’t mended a month ago, they are now, according to Gilmore.

Frank Luna, former campaign manager for 3rd District congressional candidate Jack Kelly, has accepted a paid position with the Ocean County Republican Organization (OCRO) as the political director.  

"I'm excited," said Luna. "After Kelly's race the chairman (George Gilmore) talked to me. It's a wonderful opportunity and we have a lot of work to do."

The 25-year old Luna started his job this week, according to his post on Red Jersey.

Can’t wait until tomorrow night to see who wins the major U.S. Senate and Congressional primary contests?

Below are some predictions from pollsters, political science professors and observers who track Garden State politics.

The observers were unanimous in their predictions for the Democratic Senate primary, foreseeing a relatively easy victory for incumbent Frank Lautenberg. On the Republican end, the outlook was not so clear cut, with observers split between state Sen. Joe Pennacchio and former Rep. Dick Zimmer. Ramapo College Finance Professor Murray Sabrin will have the support of presidential candidate Ron Paul’s fans, and could take some conservative voters away from Pennacchio.

In the heated Republican primary in the 7th congressional district, state Sen. Leonard Lance is the clear favorite. The 3rd district congressional primary, however, is a toss-up. In what has been perhaps the nastiest race of the election cycle, it was tough decide who had the edge between Medford Mayor Chris Myers and Ocean County Freeholder Jack Kelly.

These races will likely be determined by a very small number of voters. Even the most optimistic of outlooks puts voter turnout at approximately 30%, and most say they expect significantly less than that.

Third district Republican congressional candidate Jack Kelly announced the endorsement of Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist today.

Gilchrist founded the anti-illegal immigration group whose members monitor the border with Mexico.

In the 3rd congressional district, unopposed Democrat John Adler continues to dominate in fundraising, while Republican Jack Kelly has slightly more cash than rival Chris Myers.

Adler has raised a total of $1.4 million for the cycle and is sitting on $1.1 million cash-on-hand. He raised $240,000 between April 1st and May 15th.

On the Republican end, Kelly raised $59,778 last quarter, bringing his total raised so far to $365,892. He has $134,989 on hand, but is $10,500 in debt.

In the no holds barred contest for the 3rd district Republican congressional nomination, the Chris Myers campaign said today that they have proof that their candidate is winning against rival Jack Kelly: Democrats are attacking Myers.

Myers’s camp today issued a press release along with a copy of a mailer the Democrat State Committee sent to Republican primary voters that notes that Myers, the mayor of Medford Township, missed a quarter of his town council votes, and that he voted to raise taxes in the town.

That’s an attack frequently aired by Myers’s Republican opponent, Ocean County Freeholder Jack Kelly.

The first major policy difference between third district Republican congressional candidates Jack Kelly and Chris Myers emerged today over how the United States should secure its border with Mexico.

Kelly said that Myers’s contention that “building solid walls” along the border “is not the answer,” which was published in a Philadelphia Inquirer story that ran today, puts him in line with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Myers said that high-tech solutions, like cameras and sensors, are a better solution.

“I could not disagree with Chris Myers more about building a fence at the US-Mexican border. While I agree that technology plays a part in securing our border, we must build a physical fence as well,” said Kelly in a press release. Chris is someone that Republicans simply can’t trust. Whether it’s donating to liberal Democrats, missing primary elections, or not supporting building a fence – Chris Myers is wrong.”

In a matter of weeks, the third district congressional contest has gone from gentlemanly to potentially litigious. 

Candidate Chris Myers took extreme offense today to Republican primary opponent Jack Kelly’s new television advertisement, saying that it is “false and defamatory” and having his lawyer write a scalding letter to Kelly.  Kelly, for his part, said Myers crossed the line with a mailer about him that features a pig wearing a crown. 

Although Myers did not explicitly threaten any legal action, his lawyer, Michael P. Madden, sent a stern letter to Kelly demanding that the commercial be “removed from the air waves immediately.”

The 30-second Kelly spot accuses Myers of “influence peddling” and dolling out “special interest money” on Capitol Hill on behalf of defense contractor Lockheed Martin, where he’s an executive.  The commercial notes thousands of dollars that Lockheed Martin gave in campaign contributions to prominent Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and includes a snippet of Myers from a press conference last week saying “that’s part of my job.” 

Medford Mayor Chris Myers 

TOMS RIVER: Two Republican Primary candidates in the 3rd Congressional District engaged in a verbal sidewalk scuffle after Medford Mayor Chris Myers took his frustration over opponent Jack Kelly’s public work record into the heart of Kelly’s home county.

It was a shift in strategy for Myers, who has mostly played defense for the past few weeks as Kelly hurled pointed critiques of Myers’s record across county lines. Today, Kelly, an Ocean County freeholder, was the object of his Burlington opponent’s counter-attack.

Trying to strike a contrasting pose to what he has described as Myers’s propensity to shrink behind surrogates, Kelly went to the Ocean County Courthouse to directly take on Myers’s complaints.

Myers had plenty of them.

South Jersey Democrats threw a punch at Chris Myers today, just as the third district Republican congressional candidate was getting ready to hold a press conference hitting back at Jack Kelly, his Republican rival for the nomination.

Burlington County Democratic Chairman Rick Perr today slammed Myers as a “pawn” of Republican bosses for accepting money from the “Corrupt Burlington County GOP Machine.”

At issue are two donations that show up in Myers’s Federal Election Commission filings: $2,300 from former Burlington County Republican Chairman Glenn Paulsen, and $2,300 former Burlington County Bridge Commission Chairman J. Garfield DeMarco.