Cynthia Burton

"New Jersey voters deserved a better race this year than the nearly invisible contest between Senator Frank Lautenberg and Richard Zimmer, his Republican challenger," begins the New York Times' endorsement of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

Although accurate, a generous interpretation of this seemingly hypocritical charge is that it is in fact a veiled criticism of their own paper's decision to ignore the U.S. Senate race in New Jersey. Not once has the Times written a story about the general election contest between Frank Lautenberg and Dick Zimmer. (By comparison, Cynthia Burton at the Philadelphia Inquirer has written 11 pieces on the race.)

To add insult to injury, Zimmer told PolitickerNJ: "One of the editors of the New York Times who interviewed me for their editorial thought I was still a member of Congress."

John Adler and Chris Myers debate on NJN this weekend. Jim Hooker was the moderator.
Tonight on Reporters Roundtable, NJN political reporter Jim Hooker will host a discussion of the Assembly Economic Relief Bill, Gov. Corzine’s economic stimulus speech, the latest New Jersey presidential polls and Bryant Trial testimony.

Discussing the issues will be Kevin McArdle of Millenium Radio; Cynthia Burton of the Philadelphia Inquierer; The Bergen Record’s John Reitmeyer and The Press of Atlantic City’s Derek Harper. 

On NJN’s Reporters Roundtable with Michael Aron, Matt Friedman (PolitickerNJ.com), John Reitmeyer (The Record), Cynthia Burton (Philadelphia Inquirer) and Jonathan Tamari (Gannett New Jersey) join Jim Hooker to talk abou the U.S. Senate primaries, the higher education budget hearing, and Gov. Jon Corzine.  Sunday at 10AM.

Judging by the pre-election coverage, at least two of the state’s congressional races are expected to be among the most hotly contested House seats in the nation.

Perhaps the big story is the Republican’s financial disadvantage given Jim Saxton's and Mike Ferguson’s retirements in 2008. At least that was the focus of the Inquirer’s recent coverage by Cynthia Burton, GOP retirements could prove crucial, (11/21/07). The story highlighted the Republican Party’s electoral loss of a “$2 million head start on campaign fundraising”.