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• A Year When Everybody’s Vulnerable
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Since February, Republicans and Harris’ campaign have released polls that indicated the general election will not be competitive, but the national party also appears to be taking the race seriously by sending party bigwigs (such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney) in to raise money for Harris.

It appears that he’ll need the money. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has reserved more than $1 million in airtime in the district and has already begun dropping ads attacking Harris.

Meanwhile, Harris, who was backed strongly by the conservative Club for Growth in his primary, is now reaching out to more moderate groups, such as the Republican Main Street Partnership, as he looks to November.

New Jersey

Senate

Incumbent: Frank Lautenberg (D)
1st term (54 percent; previously served three terms)
Outlook: Safe Democratic

After winning a resounding victory over Rep. Robert Andrews in a nasty Democratic primary, Lautenberg (D) should have an easy time dispatching former Rep. Dick Zimmer (R) in November.

Zimmer was tapped by party leaders after the state’s filing deadline had passed this spring. Republicans are hoping that a deep anti-incumbent sentiment this cycle will help them unseat the long-serving Lautenberg.

But the 84-year-old Senator is well-known and well-funded (he is the seventh wealthiest Member of Congress according to a Roll Call analysis). Though his primary with Andrews was expensive, Lautenberg still enjoyed a massive cash lead over Zimmer at the end of June. Indeed, Lautenberg’s advancing age, which polls have shown voters to be concerned about, may be his only real weakness.

Recent polls have Zimmer down more than 10 points with as many as 40 percent of New Jersey voters indicating that the Republican nominee is unknown to them.

Zimmer was the GOP Senate nominee in 1996, and he lost that race to Democrat Robert Torricelli by 10 points.

House

1st district
Incumbent: Robert Andrews (D)
10th term (unopposed)
Outlook: Safe Democratic

Andrews pulled some fancy footwork in early September to jump back into the race for the House seat that he previously said he would relinquish at the end of his term.

Andrews ran and lost a quixotic primary challenge to Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D) this spring. During that campaign, he repeatedly said he would not run for his House seat again if he lost to Lautenberg.

In the meantime, Andrews’ wife, Camille, an associate dean at Rutgers University law school, won the Democratic primary to succeed him in the House, but she was mostly viewed as a placeholder whose spot on the ballot would allow local party bosses to hand-pick a replacement.

In early September, the Congressman suddenly reversed course and announced he wanted to seek an 11th term. Though Republican nominee Dale Glading and some Democrats in the state were outraged by Andrews’ flip-flop, it doesn’t appear likely to jeopardize his re-election in the heavily Democratic Camden-based district.

3rd district
Open seat: Jim Saxton (R) is retiring
Outlook: Leans Democratic

Saxton proved over the course of 13 terms in Congress that he could keep a battleground district — which President Bush won by about 8,000 votes in 2004 — safely in the GOP column.

But with the Congressman’s retirement, Democrats suddenly found themselves with a huge pickup opportunity in south- central New Jersey.

The Democratic nominee is state Sen. John Adler, who already was in the race before Saxton got out. Besides Adler’s high name recognition stemming from a long career in the New Jersey Legislature, the Democrat entered the race with an enormous campaign account that had grown to $1.5 million in cash on hand at the end of June.