OT - Runyan running for Congress

...should lead your list.

Maureen Dowd was a favorite of his

I'm not sure where you get that. The district was represented by Jim Saxton from 1984 until he retired in 2008. In a very bad year for Republicans Adler won 52%-48% and Obama carried the district by 52% to 47% against a weak candidate.

CQ Politics says the following:

Freshman incumbent Adler is preparing for a serious challenge in 2010 in this south Jersey district, where Republican H. James Saxton held sway for two dozen years before he decided to retire in 2008. Adler won that year by a relatively narrow margin, even though he had 17 years of experience in the state Senate behind him and outspent Republican nominee Myers by a ratio of more than 2-to-1. Democrats have designated Adler among their potentially vulnerable House incumbents who are receiving additional financial and logistical support for the upcoming elections. And Adler wasted no time rebuilding his campaign treasury, banking a whopping $1.4 million at the end of 2009.Adler this time runs with the benefits of incumbency. His district favored Barack Obama for president by 5 percentpoints — a smidge higher than Adler’s winning margin in his House race — after its voters had favored Republican George W. Bush by 3 points in his 2004 re-election campaign. It took until late November for the first would-be Republican challenger to enter the 2010 race. National Football League veteran Jon Runyan, long a star offensive lineman who played most of his career with the nearby Philadelphia Eagles, threw his helmet into the ring and has the backing of the Republican committees in the district’s two biggest counties.Local Republican officials are determined to avoid an expensive and potentially damaging primary, such as the one the party endured when the 3rd District seat was open in 2008. But that may not be easy to achieve — a conservative activist, Justin Murphy is running and is blasting Runyan’s support for abortion rights — and that could ultimate determine how competitive the GOP actually is in this seat.

That was actually a really funny comment.

Running against an incumbent has a great shot. Congress' approval rating is abysmal across the board.