Adler's widow outraising Jon Runyan for his U.S. House seat

Shelley Adler, widow of former Democratic U.S. Rep. John Adler, has raised $310,000 so far in her bid to unseat the man who bested her husband in 2010, Republican Jon Runyan, in South Jersey's Third Congressional District.

That's more than the former Philadelphia Eagles football tackle raised in the last quarter or in any single quarter of his fledgling political career.

"For an incumbent congressman to be out-raised by a challenger who's been in the race for eight weeks . . . that's a very clear sign that she has the resources to communicate a message this fall of the real differences between herself and the congressman, who we feel is out of sync with the values of this district," Adler campaign spokesman Michael Mullen said.

Runyan, 38, of Mount Laurel, raised $295,000 in the first three months of the year, giving him a total of $735,000, according to his campaign.

"I'm not worried," Chris Russell, Runyan's campaign spokesman, said Friday. "She's out-raised us by a small amount. We're still, at this pace, going to out-raise her."

Adler, a lawyer and former Cherry Hill council member, faces Runyan in a district that has changed in Runyan's favor. The new congressional boundaries eliminated the large, Democratic-rich township of Cherry Hill and tacked on right-leaning Brick Township.

Finance reports are due by Sunday to the Federal Election Commission, but many campaigns released their numbers this week to reporters.

New Jerseyans will also choose one of their U.S. senators in the fall.

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez raised $1.7 million in the first three months of the year, giving him nearly $9.5 million cash on hand for his reelection bid, according to his campaign.

His opponent, State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R., Monmouth), raised nearly $917,000 in the last quarter, giving him $1.75 million total, campaign spokesman Chapin Fay said.

Kyrillos' friendship with Gov. Christie, a national Republican Party darling, is paying off handsomely. The campaign raked in nearly $600,000 in a single mid-March fund-raiser, Fay said.

The hottest primary fight this spring is in North Jersey, where two veteran Democratic congressmen have raised more than a million dollars each to battle over turf that changed hands late last year during redistricting.

Congressional districts are redrawn every 10 years according to population shifts marked by the U.S. Census, and New Jersey's slower comparative growth meant it lost one of its 13 House seats.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman's former hometown, Fairlawn, was pushed into the Republican-leaning Fifth District. The remains of his district were combined with parts of a fellow Democrat's former district to form the new Ninth Congressional District.

Instead of taking his chances in the Fifth, Rothman moved within the boundaries of the Ninth, where he faces U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Paterson Democrat.

Rothman raised nearly $540,000 and has almost $1.8 million cash on hand, according to his campaign.

Pascrell, who, like Rothman, was elected to Congress in 1997, raised $510,000 in the last quarter, but the campaign did not make available the total amount of his campaign cash. Pascrell, according to his latest campaign-finance report, ended 2011 with about $1.5 million cash on hand.