MARLTON, N.J. — Before Jon Runyan was elected to Congress two years ago, he was best known as a Philadelphia Eagles star.
But in a twist, it's his challenger, Shelley Adler, who's pushing his football past this time — and using it as a negative — in an election with a deep backstory and with more intrigue than most in the state.
Some analysts believe their 3rd District race is the only one of New Jersey's 12 congressional districts where the challenger has a real shot at winning — though polls indicate it's a slim chance. It's also one of just two New Jersey congressional campaigns that has attracted independent funding from super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, and the only Republican-held seat in New Jersey that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has on its list of priority races.
Adler has been on the offensive, leaving Runyan to defend his record now that he has one.
Runyan said that's the biggest change from his first election two years ago. "The roles get reversed a little bit," he said. "You get attacked for your record. You get attacked for being part of what everybody labels as the problem."
In ads running on cable television, the Adler campaign shows an actor in a business suit and football helmet tackling people while a sportscaster-like narrator says things like, "This guy is trying to hold onto his job and — bam! Runyan supports a tax break that sends his job to India."
The choice of football imagery is intentional, said Brigid Harrison, a Montclair State University political scientist. "There is that characterization of kind of a dumb jock," she said. For his part, Harrison said, Runyan has not lived up to high expectations as someone who could make major changes.
Runyan said the criticisms are based on untruths. Asked whether he believed the portrayal of him in the ad was meant to be malicious, said, "Apparently. I don't know."
Adler spokesman Michael Muller said the ads are meant to be entertaining and memorable, not to portray Runyan as an oaf. But, he said, everyone interprets them differently.
In 2010, Runyan, a Republican newly retired as an NFL offensive lineman, unseated first-term Congressman John Adler, Shelley Adler's husband, in the district that stretches across the middle of the state from the Philadelphia suburbs to the shore. Months after the election, Adler fell ill with a heart infection and then died at 51.
With the exception of John Adler's lone term, most of the area has been represented in Congress by Republicans since the 19th century. District boundaries redrawn last year make it favor Republicans slightly more.
The new lines left Cherry Hill, the reliably Democratic town where Adler lives, outside the district. Runyan suggests that may be a problem for voters, but it's not a legal problem because members of Congress are required to live only in the state where they hold office, not the specific district. Adler says she that because it's the district where she's lived most of her adult life, she identifies with it.
"The people of the 3rd District weren't being represented the way they should be," Adler, 53, a Harvard-educated corporate lawyer, former township council member and ex-PTA president who is now the single mother of four boys, said of her decision to run. "And Washington needed some change."
Adler says Runyan, a 38-year-old father of three who attended but never graduated from the University of Michigan, is dedicated to keeping taxes down on the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.
Runyan, who says he will not serve more than four terms, said the criticism misses some important points.
Lose the tax breaks for oil companies that she bashes, he said, and gas prices would likely rise. Besides, he said, it wouldn't be fair to cut manufacturing subsidies for one sector of the energy industry and leave them for makers of wind turbines.
Adler says she believes Runyan and other Republicans are in a rush to undo the Social Security and Medicaid programs under the guise of preserving them. Runyan voted for a 2011 budget proposal that called for giving senior citizens vouchers to help buy their own health insurance.
Adler says there's not an immediate need for major changes. She said Social Security could be made more sustainable by raising the amount of income subject to payroll taxes. Currently, the limit is $110,100. She said the key to Medicaid's future is finding ways to slow the growth of medical costs.
Runyan says both systems need to be overhauled to ensure they will remain solvent. He said that current promises should be kept to anyone now 55 or older, but that changes should be made for younger people.
He said Social Security changes such as raising the retirement age and giving lower benefits to high earners could work. But he is specific about what fixes he thinks must be made to either program. He said the important thing is that Republicans and Democrats need to come together to hash out the details.
"We have no ideas from the other side," he said of Democrats. "They don't like our ideas. So where are your ideas? Put the bill together and let's sit down in conference committee and get something we can all agree on."
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