Myers alleged that the airport job "clearly was made for him, and there's not a lot of evidence he did anything in the job."

But Kelly said he had worked for his money and his benefits - sometimes 18 hours a day when the airport was snowed in. He added that Myers made a lot more money off taxpayers as an executive at Lockheed Martin, a government defense contractor.

"All I did was earn a living. To call that immoral or wrong - that is political theater," Kelly said.

In a sign of the escalating tensions in their race, Kelly showed up at Myers' news conference yesterday in Toms River, Ocean County. Kelly attacked Myers for giving a $500 contribution to Democratic U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, calling it evidence that Myers was aiding Democrats. He also took on Myers, a member of Medford's Township Committee since 2001, for failing to vote in a handful of GOP primaries since 1997.

Kelly, an Ocean County freeholder since 1993, worked at the airport as an analyst and a business manager from 1999 to 2004. Those years were enough to give him 25 years in the public-employee retirement system, guaranteeing him a pension of about $40,000 a year and lifelong health care.

Because he opted out of the health plan, he receives "waive out" payments. He said they amounted to $1,700 a quarter, or about $23,000 so far.

Kelly stressed that those payments were an earned benefit, and that opting out of the insurance plan saved the airport money. Airport spokeswoman Sharon Gordon confirmed that the program was designed to save health-care money, and that the benefit followed an employee into retirement.

Gordon said she could not confirm how much Kelly got in "waive out" payments. She confirmed his final $74,600 salary, and said the documents that Myers used as the basis of his statements were official airport documents.

Kelly said Myers' comments about his employment made the race "personal."

"The reason Myers upped the ante to a personal attack is because they know their campaign is in trouble," Kelly said. "When a candidate finds that out, they go into panic mode."

The documents from the South Jersey Transportation Authority, which controls the airport in Pomona, indicate that Kelly's jobs as an analyst and later as a manager were created on the day he was appointed to them.

Each job required a college education, but Kelly, a high school graduate, did not attend college. Gordon, the airport spokeswoman, said she did not know whether the requirement had been waived for Kelly.

Egg Harbor Township Mayor James "Sonny" McCullough, who oversaw the maintenance department for the South Jersey Transportation Authority, said of Kelly yesterday: "Every time I was at the airport, he was there."

Yesterday's attack was the latest in a territorial rivalry that stretches back a quarter-century to when Burlington County's candidate, U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton, beat Ocean County's candidate, Dean Haines, in the GOP primary for the House seat.

Saxton, 65, opened the seat this year when he announced he would retire for health reasons.

The survivor of the June 3 primary will likely face Democratic State Sen. John Adler of Cherry Hill.