Runyan owns up to past misdeeds

Former Eagles offensive lineman Jon Runyan, who's running for Congress as a Republican in South Jersey's Third District, staged an unusual news conference Wednesday to admit past mistakes to deflect personal attacks during the campaign.

"I want to be an open book to the press and to the voters," Runyan said, after admitting that he had a 1995 drunken driving arrest while at college, failed to pay franchise and property taxes on time, and once faced copyright infringement charges in a botched book deal on his 2007 NFL season.

Runyan, a newcomer to politics, hopes to face incumbent Democrat John Adler in one of the country's most closely watched U.S. House races in November. He first must win the GOP primary in June.

Runyan went on the offensive, blaming Adler for planting a news story last week about the DUI.

"I don't think he can beat me on the issues," and that's why "he's going to have to smear me," Runyan said.

Adler, a freshman who represents parts of Burlington, Camden and Ocean Counties, could not be reached for comment on whether he was the source for the DUI story on Politickernj.com.

The website attributed the information to an Ann Arbor, Mich., police report, which said Runyan was stopped on March 9, 1995, when an officer observed him weaving, crossing into another lane, and then stopping for more than 20 seconds in the roadway. Runyan was a student athlete at the University of Michigan at the time.

Runyan later pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle while impaired and was placed on probation. He lost his driving privileges and was fined $2,200.

At Wednesday's media "roundtable," Runyan said that he learned a lesson from the arrest and was glad that "no one, fortunately, was hurt." Runyan said that he would use the incident to educate his three young children when they grow up.

Runyan also provided handouts that revealed for the first time that he had been delinquent on roughly $60,000 in property taxes that were owed in quarterly payments on his Mount Laurel home in 2009.

Runyan gets a tax break on his 23-acre homestead partly because he owns four donkeys that qualify the property for a farmland assessment. On about 20 of those acres, he pays only $468 annually in taxes and was late paying installments on that amount in the first two quarters of 2009 and also on the payment due the first quarter of this year.

Finally, Runyan volunteered that he had a 2007 tax lien placed on a franchise football team in San Diego he had owned and that he was sued by Blackwood author Frank Moriarty for breach of contract over a book that was never published. He said the copyright infringement accusation later was dropped, and the two reached a confidential out-of-court settlement last month.

Runyan said that he decided to tackle these issues up front because he wanted to "seriously own up" to these problems and to prevent his opponent from using them in personal attacks dragged out over a period of time.

Ben Dworkin, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said Runyan's move was wise.

"Somewhere in the early pages of the political strategy handbook it tells you to release all the negative things about you on your terms, before your opponent forces you to respond to them by attack," he said.

But Dworkin said that it was rare for a candidate to actually do it.

"Revealing these things is advice widely given, but not widely followed," he said.

Runyan said that he likely would not resort to personal attacks in the campaign because the race should be about issues. But then he backtracked, saying: "I'm not saying I would or would not" use them.

Runyan compared politics to football, saying both are "dirty, physical . . . negative."

On June 8, Runyan faces a primary against Justin Murphy, who ran in a previous primary. Runyan has name recognition because he played for the Eagles for nine years before signing with the San Diego Chargers. He retired this year.

If Runyan wins the primary, he will face Adler in the fall in what promises to be a hotly contested race.