2018 elections: Andy Kim comes under attack from GOP Super PAC in NJ battleground race

Herb Jackson | NorthJersey

Show Caption Hide Caption Rep. Tom MacArthur on health insurance vote Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-Ocean County, describes his reasons for supporting the American Health Care Act, a House Republican alternative to Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act.

WASHINGTON – Democrat Andy Kim is attacked as a liberal "Washington insider" and "not one of us" in a television ad released Wednesday by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Republican leaders that has reserved $1.4 million in TV airtime for Kim's race against Rep. Tom MacArthur.

The ad comes a day after a Monmouth University poll showed Kim in a virtual tie with two-term Republican MacArthur in the 3rd District, which spans parts of Burlington and Ocean counties.

It also follows the release of a different ad attacking Republican Senate candidate Bob Hugin that was funded by Leadership Alliance New Jersey, a group led by Lyndhurst attorney Donald Scarinci. He's a longtime friend of Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who has been getting assailed on the airwaves by Hugin and a super PAC supporting him, Integrity NJ.

The air attacks in mid-August show deep-pocketed groups – unlike candidates, super PACs are not subject to contribution limits – are not waiting until this fall to try to shape voters' opinions about candidates.

And Kim could be vulnerable to being defined negatively early. The Monmouth poll found that despite having the support of 40 percent of potential voters to MacArthur's 41 percent, some 68 percent did not know enough about Kim to have a favorable or unfavorable opinion.

The 3rd District race is one of the many battlegrounds around the country that will decide control of the House, where the loss of 24 Republican seats would give Democrats a majority.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, which had $73 million to spend at the end of June after getting contributions as large as $30 million from casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, has opened a field office in MacArthur's district with paid staff and volunteers working to identify and turn out voters using door-to-door canvassing and phone banks.

"Kim’s spent his adult life in D.C.," the CLF ad says. "In fact, Kim still keeps his home there. Now, Kim wants our Congressional seat, and his campaign is bankrolled by Nancy Pelosi."

Kim's campaign website says he grew up in Marlton — there's a recreation department picture of him as a child in a baseball uniform — but he worked as an adult in Afghanistan as a Defense Department adviser before becoming director of Iraq for the National Security Council during President Barack Obama's administration. He moved back to South Jersey in 2017 and with his wife and two sons now lives in Bordentown.

The ad's reference to Pelosi cites $14,000 in contributions. Kim has raised almost $2.2 million, and has said he will not take contributions from corporations.

He also indicated in June he would not support Pelosi for leader again.

"It’s time we have new leadership on both sides of the aisle in Washington to get the job done,” Kim said in a statement released from his campaign.

MacArthur, who has raised $2.4 million, was criticized as a carpetbagger himself when he moved from Randolph in Morris County to run for an open House seat in 2014. He won that race after spending $5 million of his own on the campaign.

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