By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
They hug at the diner and shake hands at the VFW, but don’t be fooled. It’s a dogfight between self-made Republican millionaire Tom MacArthur and Burlington County Freeholder, Democrat Aimee Belgard. She’s pro-choice, champions equal pay for women and a higher minimum wage, but voters mostly recall the attack ads against her opponent.
“And MacArthur opposes a woman’s right to choose, backed by a group that would outlaw abortion, even for rape and incest,” the ad says.
For the record, MacArthur’s pro-life but would make exceptions for rape and incest. He wants to repeal Obamacare, opposes same-sex marriage and would create jobs by eliminating red tape and excess regulation. But mostly voters remember the ads. MacArthur counter-attacked — forced Democrats to yank one of them.
“Politician Aimee Belgard should be ashamed. The personal attack on Tom MacArthur — a lie,” said an ad.
“I don’t want to hear them ripping each other apart. I’d like to hear them discuss the problems that are here and what they’re gonna do to try to fix them,” said one woman.
“Sure, I’m gonna vote. But the problems, they don’t look at the problems. They just look at, ‘What’s right now, in order for me to get in office?'” said one man.
“The campaign, it’s like any other. It gets negative,” said Congressman Jon Runyan.
That’s one reason why Republican Runyan’s getting out of Dodge. His decision not to seek reelection put the Third Congressional District in play. He supports MacArthur.
Both candidates condemn attack ads — blame them on outside political interests.
“I’ve tried to stay focused on the issues. I think the outside money from the Democratic National Committee — which has been focused on a smear campaign — has given the campaign that tone. But I’ve tried to stay focused on things like my job plan,” MacArthur said.
“My ads in this race have always been very much about the issues and who I am,” Belgard said. “We see the struggling middle class — people who are really feeling squeezed right now. And they want a voice in Congress. And that’s exactly what I intend to be.”
New Jersey’s Third Congressional District cinches the state’s mid-section. Recent polls show MacArthur leads in GOP-heavy Ocean County, but Belgard’s apparently not gaining much ground in the more left-leaning Burlington County area.
“This was supposed to be the hottest race in New Jersey and one of the hottest in the country. It just didn’t turn out to be that way,” said Patrick Murray.
Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray says the Washington Democrats managing Belgard’s run lost their focus.
“You know, when you run campaigns, you’ve got to run them about the voters in those districts. And we’ve seen this time and time again, where these national campaigns just don’t take off. I would predict that Tom MacArthur’s actually gonna win this by more than 10 points at the end of the day,” said Murray.
The Third Congressional District’s got loads of lawyers, political top guns and campaign money. But with a big Democratic political PAC shifting its money to a different race, will it hit the political fan for Belgard?