Runyan Takes Lead From Adler in Monmouth Poll

A new poll finds that Republican Jon Runyan has taken the lead from Democratic incumbent John Adler in the race to represent South Jersey's 3rd Congressional District.

The Monmouth University Poll finds Runyan slightly ahead at 48 percent to Adler's 43 percent among likely voters. That's outside the poll's sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

It may not be  too surprising that the Adler-Runyan race is tight. Adler is a first-term representative in a district that has long supported Republicans.
      
His challenge has gotten harder since a newspaper report earlier this month that his campaign helped plant a fake tea party candidate on the ballot to siphon away votes from Runyan, a former Philadelphia Eagles lineman.

Both Adler and the third candidate, Peter DeStefano, have denied they collaborated.

"This is anyone's race,'' said David Redlawsk, director of the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll and professor of political science at Rutgers. "Recent events -- including the news of Democratic Party involvement in putting DeStefano on the ballot -- have moved things more toward Runyan.''

The Rutgers-Eagleton poll released Tuesday found both candidates getting 44 percent of the vote, and one-fourth of the voters saying they might still change their minds.