Rep. John Adler (D)

The new congressman from the third district is Democrat John Adler, who prevailed in a close and nasty campaign in 2008 to replace retiring Republican Rep. Jim Saxton.

Adler was born in Philadelphia but grew up on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River in Haddonfield, where his family owned a dry cleaner. His father suffered from heart trouble and died when Adler was a teenager. Social Security benefits were crucial in keeping Adler and his widowed mother financially afloat after his father’s death and in allowing Adler to attend Harvard University, where he earned his undergraduate and law degrees. After law school, Adler returned to New Jersey and settled in the Camden suburb of Cherry Hill with his wife, Shelley. In 1987, he won a seat on the Cherry Hill Township Council, where he wrote the township’s ethics ordinance. He ran unsuccessfully against Saxton for the House in 1990.

In 1991, he beat an incumbent Republican to win a seat in the state Senate, and went on to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He sponsored a statewide public-smoking ban that became law in January 2006 and a law to reduce auto emissions. He adroitly secured grant money for Cherry Hill over the course of his tenure, at one point spurring an ethics complaint because his wife sat on the township council. But he also showed some independence from the Democratic establishment and Gov. Jon Corzine, particularly during his House campaign. Adler opposed Corzine’s plan to boost tolls on New Jersey roads and in December 2007, asked the state attorney general to investigate whether Corzine had paid his ex-girlfriend’s brother to step down from a state job.

In September 2007, Adler announced that he would run for a second time against Saxton, who was in his 12th term. His chances got markedly better when Saxton, who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, announced that he would retire at the end of his term. Adler shot to the top of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s list of challengers in the November 2008 election. While Republicans fought out an acrimonious primary, Adler faced no opposition for the Democratic nomination and used his time out of the spotlight to raise money. By the time Lockheed Martin executive Chris Myers emerged from the Republican primary in June, Adler had raised nearly $1.5 million. Myers had only $426,000 and had spent most of it on the primary.

Adler embraced a strategy of tying Myers to the unpopular Republican president and congressional Republicans. Myers responded in kind, labeling Adler a “Trenton insider” and seeking to tie him to what he called a culture of cronyism and scandal in the state capital. But as the campaign wore on, the disparity in campaign funds hurt Myers. The National Republican Congressional Committee spent only $16,500 against Adler, while the DCCC pumped more than $42,000 into the district against Myers. Adler won the backing of the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, an influential lobby in the district that is home to the largely undeveloped Pine Barrens. Saxton, one of the most environmentally friendly Republicans in the House, had consistently enjoyed the Sierra Club’s endorsement.

Adler won, but not by a landslide: 52%-48%. The candidates split their home turf on Election Day, Myers carrying the Republican stronghold of Ocean County with 56% of the vote and Adler winning Democratic Camden County with 65% of the vote. In Burlington County, which cast nearly half of the district’s votes, Adler won with 56 percent.

In the House, Adler got a seat on the House Financial Services Committee and said that oversight of the $700 billion government bailout of the financial industry would be his top priority. He also was assigned to the Veterans Affairs Committee. The first bill he introduced would allocate money from the 2009 economic-stimulus bill to senior citizens and veterans who would not otherwise get a rebate.