3rd Congressional District
Elect Adler
Published Sunday, October 19, 2008
Voters in the 3rd Congressional District are lucky this year. Two intelligent, knowledgeable, committed candidates are running for the seat being vacated by Republican Rep. James Saxton, who is is retiring.
Both Republican Chris Myers and Democrat John Adler would do a good job in Washington. But Adler appears to be the more thoughtful of the two candidates and the one most deserving of our endorsement.
Myers - the mayor of Medford Township, a Lockheed Martin vice president and a former Navy officer who served in the first Gulf War - is certainly qualified to serve in the House of Representatives, particularly on defense matters.
But he [Myers] has run a disturbingly combative and negative campaign, and too often merely parrots Republican talking points on foreign policy, trickle-down economics and other issues.
Myers also has come close to calling Adler corrupt, which he is not, and has unfairly tried to paint Adler, a state senator since 1992, as a rubber-stamp for Trenton Democrats.
For example, Myers assailed Adler for an estimated $20,000 in grants that Adler obtained for towns in his district from a "slush fund" created by Trenton Democrats. The grant fund was an unacceptable way to dole out public money and has since been eliminated. But when Myers was asked if his criticism meant that he would not have sought the grants - which paid for cameras in police cars in Haddon Heights, bathroom upgrades for a community center in Cherry Hill and traffic improvements in Haddonfield - Myers ducked the question. That's because he knows the answer, and he knows his accusation is unfair: He would have done the same thing he is criticizing Adler for doing. Any politician would have.
But perhaps most important, Adler offers a fresh approach, while Myers simply touts the benefits of trickle-down economics and corporate-friendly policies as a way to reverse the economic downturn.
Adler says bluntly, "Trickle-down clearly has not worked." And he's right.
Myers says Adler is anti-business - but the political action committee associated with the New Jersey Business and Industry Association has endorsed Adler in state legislative elections.
Myers says that, in Trenton, Adler has voted too often to raise taxes, but Adler has joined with Republicans to push for a constitutional convention on property taxes, called for furloughing 2,000 state workers and supported cuts in pensions and health benefits for future state workers. He also bravely pushed for - but was unable to get - a statewide smoking ban that would have included casino floors in Atlantic City.
Myers tries to distance himself from President Bush, noting several issues on which he differs with the unpopular president. But he can't distance himself from Bush that much - the president came to New Jersey to campaign for him.
And on Iraq, while both Myers and Adler favor a careful withdrawal of U.S. troops, Myers is still insisting that the United States "must achieve victory on our terms," that "we can't send the message that the United States is weak," and that he'd "rather fight terrorists overseas than in New Jersey." Please. We have all heard these bromides before - from Bush.
Adler opens his discussion of Iraq by saying, "It's evident to all rational people that we should not have gone into Iraq."
Ultimately, Adler offers the cleanest break from the failed policies of the past eight years. He won't be a rubber-stamp for anyone in Washington. What he is ... is a slightly wonkish lawmaker who studies issues carefully and comes to independent conclusions.
Myers is no slouch. But Adler is the better choice.
This morning, the Press of Atlantic City, one of the district's largest newspapers, endorsed John Adler's campaign for Congress. The editorial calls John "the cleanest break from the failed policies of the last eight years" and trumpets his independence and his "fresh approach".
