Chris Myers

MINNEAPOLIS - The breakfast gathering welcomes U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-Harding) to the podium as a friend of military veterans and longtime supporter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Frelinghuysen stands between the flags of the Untied States and New Jersey and exhorts the small crowd to support congressional candidates Medford Mayor Chris Myers in the 3rd District and state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) in the 7th.

"We need to keep Republicans in the House from New Jersey," he says. "These are tough races. Democrats in those races have raised a considerable amount of money. ...We need to work toward a Republican majority in both the House and Senate."

Applause.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech last night is still bringing smiles to the faces of those in this room, and the congressman seizes on the mood.

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.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- By law, retiring U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton can’t tell the National Republican Congressional Committee what to do with the $400,000 he just donated to them.

But Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson has a good idea of where the money should go: to the cash strapped Chris Myers, who’s running as Saxton’s choice to fill his 3rd Congressional District seat. Myers is running against Democratic State Sen. John Adler, who as of the last filing period had about 10 times Myers’s cash-on-hand.

So far, the NRCC hasn’t made any public commitments to the district. When asked if he would be disappointed if the NRCC didn’t commit any resources to the 3rd District, Wilson was candid.

“If they don’t, I’ll be more than disappointed. I’ll be sickened, and I’ll be pissed,” he said. “I can tell them to. They don’t have to listen to me. Once the money is in their treasury it’s theirs to do what they will with, but hopefully his colleagues will be respectful of his commitment to the caucus and make sure that his seat stays in Republican hands.”

Retiring U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton is giving $400,000 of his roughly $1 million war chest to the cash strapped National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), by far the largest donation he’s ever made to the organization.

If the NRCC chooses, they can pour some or all of that money into ad buys in the 3rd Congressional District, where Saxton’s heir apparent, Medford Mayor Chris Myers, is outfunded by opponent John Adler by a margin of 10-1. As of the last FEC report, Myers had $155,000 on hand to Adler’s nearly $1.5 million.

The problem is that Saxton can’t even suggest to NRCC officials where they should send the money.

“He can’t do that. There are absolutely no strings attached by law,” said Saxton Communications Director Jeff Sagnip, who used to work part-time for the Myers campaign as well. “There’s no guarantee that they could send it here.”

DENVER - Third Congressional District candidates state Sen. John Adler (D-Camden) and Medford Mayor Chris Myers are scheduled to debate on Wednesday, Sept. 10, in a contest sponsored by Veterans for Education, a student organization consisting of military veterans enrolled at Rutgers-Camden.

The free event will be held at Rancocas Valley Regional High School. Anthony Mazzarelli, an on-air personality at 1210 WPHT-AM, will moderate, according to a release issued by Rutgers-Camden.

One of the first - if not the first - elected official to support Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.) for president, Adler is in Denver with the New Jersey delegation.

Republican congressional candidate Chris Myers today demanded that his opponent, State Sen. John Adler, remove a controversial appointee from the state parole board.

Adler is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

State Parole Board member Charles Jones drew scrutiny when he wrote a letter to Judge William J. Martini asking for leniency for Sharpe James, who he used to work for as an aide. Jones was appointed to the board in early 2006, although judiciary committee members at the time questioned whether he was qualified for the position.

Republican 3rd District congressional candidate Chris Myers fired the latest salvo in a war of words with the progressive blog Blue Jersey today, accusing them of engaging in a coordinated effort with rival Democrat John Adler’s campaign to discredit Myers’s military service.

Myers held a press conference in Medford to denounce a Blue Jersey post that questioned whether he should continue to cite himself as a “combat veteran.”

“John Adler’s refusal to publicly and forcefully condemn these liberal bloggers and their vicious, dishonest attacks on me and other veterans is a disgrace,” said Myers in a statement. “John Adler could put an end to these outrageous attacks against me and the veteran’s community if he wanted to; instead chooses to sit by silently in the hopes of scoring cheap political points at my expense. He should be ashamed.”

Acting Mayor/Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic): Politicker photo 

PASSAIC - To be in Trenton, or not to be in Trenton, that is the question for Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), who became the acting mayor of Passaic in May when a federal judge found Mayor Sammy Rivera guilty of corruption.

Initially, Schaer, who received the chief executive’s job by virtue of his position as council president, figured he would serve long enough to hand off to whoever wins a Nov. 4th special election.

But about three weeks into his service as acting mayor - with no stunning personality on the city’s horizon line, by his reckoning - Schaer began mulling the idea of pursuing his own mayoral run. 

"We can’t afford to have a mayor who’s not going to build on some of the positive things we’re doing," said Schaer, who implemented local ethics reforms, imposed a 37% cut to the mayoral salary (from $117,000 to $72,000), and a municipal hiring freeze.

State Sen. John Adler (D-Camden), who’s running for Congress in the Adler in Mount Laurel today3rd District, this morning officially received the endorsement of the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey (PFANJ) at a press conference at Mount Laurel Fire Headquarters.

"I am honored that the firefighters of New Jersey have decided to support my candidacy and stand with me in my campaign to bring common sense solutions and real change to Washington," Adler said in a release.

"Every day the brave men and women who comprise the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey risk their lives to keep us out of harms way," the candidate added. "In Congress, I will fight to make sure that all firefighters have access to affordable health care and the prescription drug coverage that they so rightly deserve."

Medford Mayor Chris Myers challenged his Democratic congressional opponent, State Sen. John Adler, to a debate over new affordable housing mandates today.

Myers has spent a good chunk of his campaign railing against a recently passed bill that bans regional community agreements, where suburban towns would offload their affordable housing requirements on other towns by paying them fees.

Adler backed the reforms in the legislature.