Candidates spar over Wall Street overhaul

This week, freshman U.S. Rep. John Adler (D., N.J.) plans to hold a fund-raiser with lobbyists and executives from the financial industry.

Last week, he held a news conference trying to pressure the Senate to pass the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which would regulate banking and derivatives as well as create a consumer-protection agency.

In a statement, he said the bill would "end taxpayer bailouts and implement important, commonsense reforms to bring transparency and accountability to our financial system. Wall Street reform will rein in reckless practices on Wall Street."

The statements in favor of overhauling Wall Street, coupled with taking campaign checks from the industry, make Adler a hypocrite, according to the campaign of Jon Runyan, a Republican candidate in the Third District, which runs through Burlington and Ocean Counties and includes Cherry Hill in Camden County.

But Adler's campaign says Runyan isn't playing fair. The fund-raiser, scheduled for Wednesday night in Washington, was scheduled long before Adler ramped up pressure in support of the Senate bill. Adler opposed the controversial bank bailout and has long supported financial reform, they say.

And they say Runyan's opposition to the current financial-overhaul bill is suspect because Runyan has between $350,000 and $750,000 invested in Goldman Sachs, according to his financial disclosure form. Goldman Sachs is among the banks to be regulated by the bill.

Runyan campaign consultant Chris Russell called Adler's charge "a cheap shot to try and distract attention away from the facts. Adler bashes Wall Street on one hand and takes their money with his other."

He said the nonpartisan OpenSecrets.org reported that Adler was among the top three congressmen in getting donations from mortgage bankers and brokers.

Runyan has said he opposes the financial-overhaul bill because "it has a huge bailout in it," and "it's going too far." But he has said, "I believe financial reform needs to be done," and previously said he favored the consumer-protection agency.

In a statement, the Runyan campaign had sharp words for Adler, calling him "a glaring example of someone who has been in elected office so long that he can't even recognize how big of a hypocrite he has become."

Though both Runyan and Adler have opponents in their respective primaries, they are largely ignoring them. Instead, they're using their front-runner status to take shots at each other and set the groundwork for a general-election battle that promises to be among the most closely watched in the nation.

Both campaigns say they believe the fall race will be expensive because the district is reached by television advertising in New York and Philadelphia - two of the most expensive media markets in the nation.

The fall television ad campaign could cost as much as $1.7 million a week, according to campaign estimates.

Adler is a prodigious fund-raiser. According to his campaign-finance reports, he had raised $2 million as of March 31, and had $1.6 million in cash on hand. In contrast, Runyan's campaign reported he raised $150,000, with $100,000 coming from a loan the former Eagles offensive lineman gave his campaign.