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In one way, Republican Dick Zimmer’s Senate campaign against Frank Lautenberg looks remarkably like Rob Andrews’s ill-fated Democratic primary challenge to the incumbent Senator.

For the second week in a row, Zimmer held a press conference to challenge Lautenberg to televised debates – including two this month.  This time, Zimmer stood with State Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr., who engaged in two June debate with Sen. Bob Menendez during their race in 2006.

“If Senator Menendez could debate then, Senator. Lautenberg can certainly debate now,” said Kean.

But Zimmer’s campaign contrasts with Andrews’s in that Zimmer does not believe that Lautenberg’s age will prove to be his vulnerability.  When asked whether Lautenberg, 84, was too old to effectively serve another term in office, Zimmer said “No, not in terms of years.”

So Democrats are split on whether Frank Lautenberg is too old to serve in the U.S. Senate until he’s nearly 91-years-old: in today’s Quinnipiac poll, 48% of Democrats say he is too old and 49% say he is not.  Those numbers don’t reflect the results of last week’s Democratic primary, where Lautenberg won a landslide victory over Rob Andrews, who made age an issue.

Voters think Frank Lautenberg, who turned 84 last month,is too old to spend another six years in the U.S. Senate: Getty Images PhotoNearly 60% of New Jersey voters say that 84-year-old Frank Lautenberg is “too old to effectively serve another six-year term in the U.S. Senate,” according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released this morning. Lautenberg has a 39%-31% job approval rating, but 40% of voters think he does not deserve re-election; 32% say he should return to the Senate.

An interesting observation on NJN last night from Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky: if the Republicans nominate 71-year-old John McCain, who won the New Jersey GOP presidential primary by a huge margin on Tuesday, does that take the issue of Frank Lautenberg’s age (84) off the table in the race for United States Senator?