Biden says Adler reelection crucial

Vice President Biden said here yesterday that the administration's ability to make "fundamental change" on health care, energy, and other issues rested on the reelection of freshman Rep. John Adler (D., N.J.) and two dozen other Democrats from competitive House districts.

"This election is in a sense bigger than the last election," Biden said during a breakfast fund-raising reception for Adler at the Sheraton Philadelphia City Center.

In November, Adler became the first Democrat in decades to win the Third District, which stretches across Burlington and Ocean Counties and includes his hometown of Cherry Hill in Camden County. His victory, 51 percent to 48 percent, was five times smaller than President Obama's New Jersey landslide.

Republican officials have made it clear they are targeting Adler in the 2010 midterm elections. Nationally, the political climate has turned chillier for Democrats this summer, with rowdy town halls and polling data that show growing skepticism about Obama administration plans to revamp health care, as well as a spike in concern about the size of the federal deficit.

"If you're on the other side, what do you want to do?" Biden said. "You want to make sure that all those guys who won in close districts last year lose." But if the Republicans "shoot and miss, this is going to be a changed country - not for two years, but for two decades," Biden added.

He urged the 75 people at the reception to dig even deeper for Adler, who had $869,275 on hand as of June 30, according to the latest federal campaign-finance reports.

"Don't let him down - give him the resources he'll need to transform this country," Biden said. Jill Greco, Adler's chief of staff, declined to say how much the event raised.

Biden defended the administration's economic policies, noting recent independent estimates that the stimulus package had created 500,000 to 1,000,000 jobs and ramped up the growth of the gross domestic product by 1.0 to 1.5 percent. He also celebrated yesterday's news that the government made $4 billion on bailout investments in eight banks that have paid the loans back.

Adler invoked his late father, who was a dry cleaner in Haddon Township until a series of heart attacks and medical expenses wiped out the business.

"To think that I can go from having seen my father lose his dry-cleaning business, and we almost lost our family home, to have the chance to stand beside the vice president of the United States . . . as a member of Congress is an extraordinary privilege," Adler said. "It reminds me of the greatness of our country."