Stender vs. Lance seen as ‘dead heat’ in 7th Congressional District

By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
   Entering the final week before Election Day, area voters will decide perhaps the closest major race in the state of New Jersey — that between Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Stender and Republican state Senator Leonard Lance for the 7th Congressional District seat.
   ”It is a dead heat, and can really go any way,” said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rider University’s Rebovitch Institute for New Jersey Politics.
   Ms. Stender has more money to spend in the final days of the election, and will also benefit from being on the same ticket as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and U.S. Senate incumbent Frank Lautenberg, who look like they will win handily in New Jersey, Mr. Dworkin said.
   The 7th Congressional District is Republican-leaning however — it is currently held by Republican Michael Ferguson, who has chosen not to seek re-election, Mr. Dworkin said. “The fact that he is a Republican in a Republican district, whether it was Leonard Lance or any Republican, I think they would have made this a very close race,” Mr. Dworkin said.
   Ms. Stender acknowledged this challenge. “It is a very rough district to run in as a Democrat, because of how it was drawn. It is a very tight race,” she said.
   Representatives for Mr. Lance’s campaign had not responded to requests for comment on the campaign at deadline.
   ”It has been a really vigorous campaign,” said Ingrid Reed, director of the New Jersey Project at Rutgers’ Eagleton Institute of Politics. “The race will probably depend to quite a large extent on what the Democratic turnout is,” Ms. Reed said.
   The race is certainly the closest Congressional race in New Jersey, Ms. Reed said, and may not even be decided on Election Day, with absentee ballots needing to be counted before a winner is announced. “It is that close,” she said.
   Ms. Stender said in the final days before the election, she was concentrating on getting out and meeting as many voters as possible. She said her campaign intended to utilize her fundraising advantage to get out the vote.
   In her Oct. 15 Federal Election Commission filing, Ms. Stender’s campaign stated that it had $602,286 on hand. Her campaign had received $2,159,656 to date, according to its FEC filing. Mr. Lance’s campaign had $258,033 on hand at Oct. 15, according to its FEC filing. His campaign had raised $907,430 to date, according to the filing.
   Ms. Stender said that, in availing himself of President George W. Bush’s help in fundraising, Mr. Lance had hurt his standing with voters because he showed himself to be aligned with President Bush rather than an independent voice as he portrays himself. “My opponent wants to pretend that he is not part of the problem and he is not part of what got us into this mess,” she said.
   Ms. Stender has received criticism for misrepresenting Mr. Lance’s positions in the state Senate, with Mr. Lance receiving endorsement from several newspapers, including the New York Times and the Star-Ledger.
   ”I really think that the negative advertising against Lance may have actually hurt Stender,” said Ms. Reed.
   Ms. Stender denied that her campaign had gone too far in its portrayals of Mr. Lance’s positions, noting that for their part, Mr. Lance’s side had engaged in “childish” tactics.
   Mr. Dworkin said the tenor of the campaign was not out of the ordinary, noting that campaigning is about drawing distinctions. “You go after your opponent’s strengths and try and chip away at them,” he said. “What she is saying is he’s not such a liberal Republican, he is more of a conservative Republican,” Mr. Dworkin said of Ms. Stender.
   ”In the end I think this is going to come down to turnout,” he said.
   Regarding not receiving newspaper endorsements, Ms. Stender replied: “As my family reminded me, last cycle I had all the endorsements and I lost. Endorsements don’t vote.” Ms. Stender narrowly lost to Mr. Ferguson for the 7th District seat two years ago.
   Ms. Stender said she was still upbeat despite the grueling nature of the campaign.
   ”The people in this district, they want a new direction for the country,” she said, noting she was prepared to give that.