As Election Day approaches, the contest between Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Bill Spadea for New Jersey's 12th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is heating up. Both candidates are trying to reach as many voters as possible in the last days of the campaign.
To accomplish this, Republican nominee Spadea has been walking through the district, planning to cover 200 miles and visit 44 towns before the election. "What [is] key to the walk was that we touch almost a hundred thousand people in local areas," he said. "That personal touch [makes] the difference."
Democrat and three-time incumbent Holt, 55, has been active in the community as well. "Most days are long days in at least three of the five counties" of the district, he said. "I'm out with the constituents whether it's election year or not . . . getting out and around is what I do."
Both men also noted the increasing importance of people to their campaigns.
Holt has worked closely with Princeton's College Democrats, as in years past, to appeal to Princeton students. This year, he feels that his efforts have yielded greater success.
"I'm finding that youth ages 18 to 30 are much more engaged this year than usual," Holt said. "I think they really want to vote, it seems in greater numbers than the past."
Spadea, 35, who served as the first President Bush's national youth director in 1992 and as national chairman of the College Republicans from 1993-1995, has tried to employ students in his campaign as well. "I learned that young people have the energy, enthusiasm and confidence to go above and beyond what normal people might do," Spadea said. "The energy is unbelievable and people really notice."
For Spadea, part of reaching out to young voters has been campaigning alongside Evan Baehr '05, who is running for a seat on the Princeton Borough Council. On Oct. 9, Baehr and the College Republicans hosted Spadea's Princeton stop on his walk through the district. Spadea said his popularity is growing in Princeton Borough due to the "grassroots work" of Baehr's campaign.
Baehr, in turn, praises Spadea's qualifications for office. "I think he is a strong and principled candidate," Baehr said. "He not only has political experience but was a Marine, [and] his business experience really helps him understand the issues."
Spadea served in the U.S. Marine Corps until 1999, when he was honorably discharged as a corporal.
Holt and Spadea named education, homeland security, local job creation and health care reform as pivotal issues of the race.
Holt's platform includes support for an extension of the assault weapons ban, embryonic stem-cell research and a woman's right to choose. He opposes privatization of Social Security and any preemptive military policy, he said.
"These are issues that don't go away for me and for people in this district," Holt said.
During his previous three Congressional terms, Holt served on the Committee on Education and the Workforce and on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
"Underlying everything I do is an effort to try to build trust," he said. "Cynicism runs high, and I devote a lot of my effort to try and repair our self-government."
Spadea lists strong homeland security, reimportation of pharmaceuticals from Canada and empowerment of small businesses as the strongholds of his platform. These are the most important issues to the 15,000 people he has spoken with on his campaign, he said.
Spadea currently serves as vice president of education and career development for a realty firm and lives in Princeton Borough.
Holt was formerly the assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
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