WASHINGTON – A new poll says New Jersey Democrat Frank Lautenberg won’t be hurt by his age – he’ll be 79 in January – but could take a hit over his vote against war with Iraq in 1991.
The Fairleigh Dickinson survey offers some good news for GOP candidate Doug Forrester, who’s been hammering Lautenberg on his Iraq vote and accusing him of weakness on national security.
The poll found that a strong majority of New Jersey voters support military action in Iraq – and those who do prefer Forrester to Lautenberg, 49 percent to 36 percent.
But most voters don’t think Lautenberg’s age is an issue, the poll found, even though the Democratic candidate’s handlers have been careful about how they present him. They’ve agreed to just one debate with Forrester, three days before the election.
A new Democratic ad gives the appearance that Lautenberg is an incumbent senator and neglects to mention that he retired in 2000. It hails Lautenberg as a “serious senator” who’s tough on guns, polluters and terrorists.
Meanwhile, Sen. Robert Torricelli is set to give just a small fraction of his $5 million war chest to Lautenberg, who replaced him on the Democratic ticket two weeks ago, it was reported yesterday.
Instead, the disgraced “Torch” plans to use about $3 million of the campaign fund to pay lawyers who defended him in his federal corruption probe and for campaign expenses, the Bergen Record reported.