This year's U.S. Senate race gives New Jersey voters a choice between two Washington veterans -- an incumbent Democrat who retired from politics then resurrected his political career in his late 70s, and a Republican who left federal politics a dozen years ago and became a Washington lawyer and lobbyist.
Democrat Frank Lautenberg, at 84, is asking New Jersey voters to make him the first in New Jersey history to be elected to five terms in the Senate.
His Republican challenger is Dick Zimmer, 64, a onetime member of Congress who is making his second bid to return to elected politics after relinquishing a safe House seat to run for Senate in 1996, where he came up short.
"Is there a Senate race in New Jersey," asked Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, summing up the lackluster campaign. He said the race has generated little following because Zimmer doesn't have the money for the television ad blitz he'd need to counter the incumbent's built-in edge.
Besides, Murray said, "the presidential election is sucking all the air out of the room."
With Barack Obama widening his double-digit lead over John McCain in New Jersey, Murray expects the Democrat's coattails will be long.
Zimmer is the underdog by almost every measure: Many voters still don't know who he is or what he stands for; he trails in both campaign fund-raising and expenditures; and he's a Republican in a Democratic-leaning state at a time when most independent voters aren't buying the GOP brand.
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Zimmer trails badly in independent polls. Quinnipiac University Polling Institute had him behind by 22 percent in a poll out Tuesday, with two-thirds of voters saying they still don't really know who he is. Lautenberg's name is recognized by the vast majority of likely voters, another poll showed.
In earlier polls, voters expressed concern about Lautenberg's age -- he would be 90 when his next term expires and is already the third oldest member of Congress -- but Zimmer has not pressed the age issue, and Lautenberg himself appears to have mitigated it.
"People don't give a darn about my age, they know I'm vigorous, they know I've got plenty of energy," Lautenberg said after winning a lopsided Democratic primary victory in June. "I enjoy being of service to the people of our country and our state. I'm invigorated by the work."
Zimmer's also gained little traction among donors.
He entered October with less than half as much money as Lautenberg. Federal Election Commission reports show the former congressman had $435,362 cash on hand at the start of the month, compared with Lautenberg's $921,574. Lautenberg raised $526,367 during the quarter than ended Sept. 30; Zimmer raised $343,492 in contributions during the same time and lent his campaign $250,000.
New Jersey hasn't been fertile ground for statewide Republican candidates in recent elections. The last time New Jerseyans elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate was Clifford Case in 1974. The last Republican presidential candidate to carry the state was George H.W. Bush in 1988 and the last Republican governor was Christie Whitman, who won a second term in 1997.
President Bush has also had dismal approval ratings in New Jersey.
Lautenberg, who was born in Paterson and lives in Cliffside Park, is among the most liberal members of the Senate.
