Originally posted by huntsu at Blue Jersey.

Chris Christie is one of the dirtiest US Attorneys around.  After John Ashcroft resigned as USAG, Christie got him a cushy, no-bid contract to the tune of $52 million.  He's done everything but turn over graves in his zeal to investigate Democrats in the state.  And now he's going after Linda Stender.

This isn't great news for Ms. Stender.  After Mike Ferguson announced his intention to retire, Republicans found it difficult to find someone to run for this seat.  All their first choices declined.  Now there could be a real battle for this district.  Stender almost defeated Ferguson in the 2006 election, and would almost certainly have beaten him this year.

Huntzu's original story and a link to contribute to Linda Stender follow after the jump.

How has it come about that some polls are trending red in New Jersey, one of the bluest states in the country? Where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by a large margin?

Cheap shots, that's how.  Tom Kean Jr, once thought to be able to ride high name recognition and the respect accorded his father (the moderate Republican) to an easy win, slipped badly in early polling against Bob Menendez.  So he changed strategy, hiring the least ethical campaign operatives he could find.  Since then, his campaign has been "one never-ending attack ad."  And most of these attacks are completely baseless.

Tom Moran's column in today's Newark Star-Ledger tells the whole sick story.

Kean is surprising a lot of people these days by showing a ruthlessness that never surfaced during his years as a legislator in Trenton.

At 38, he still looks like a choir boy. But he knows he can't win this race on the issues. So he's hired a team of consultants and turned his campaign into a snarling machine that would make Karl Rove proud.

More after the fold...