New Jersey House races: Ad spending hits nearly $35 million as Tuesday nears

Campaign advertising is saturating New Jersey airwaves in the final stretch before Tuesday's election.

The 7th District contest between Republican incumbent Tom Kean Jr. and Democrat Rebecca Bennett has drawn close to $35 million in combined candidate and outside spending, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics. That figure makes it the most expensive House race in state history, with much of the money going to television, digital and direct-mail advertising.

Pro-Bennett groups, including her campaign and House Majority PAC, have centered their closing argument on Kean's record in Congress. Their ads state that Kean missed 140 votes during a four-month absence while trading roughly $600,000 in stocks. Bennett's own late ad, which began running Oct. 26, takes a wider view of his tenure, claiming he doubled his net worth and traded $5.2 million total, linking his holdings in data centers, defense and insurance stocks to votes he cast.

Kean's campaign and the National Republican Congressional Committee have responded with ads tying Bennett to a Pennsylvania pediatrician convicted of sexually abusing children. The pediatrician worked for a company that had a partnership with a health care firm that owned a hospital where she practiced. Kean's latest ad shows two people with Jersey accents discussing the matter over coffee, calling Bennett a "greedy millionaire" and saying she declined to attend church with Republicans.

Neither side's ads include every detail of the underlying events. The anti-Kean spots do not mention that his absence from Congress followed a diagnosis of depression. The pediatrician pleaded guilty before Bennett joined the health care firm.

Ads in the 7th District have stayed focused on the candidates in that race, though pro-Bennett messages have also raised affordability, high gas prices and the war in Iran while attacking Kean.

In the 2nd District, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican, has grouped Zack Mullock, the mayor of Cape May, with "crazy radical socialists" Rep. Alexandria Ocasio of New York and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Van Drew's ads also connect Mullock to electric company executives raising rates. Mullock has raised nearly $1.5 million in support in recent weeks from Project 218 PAC, which funded an ad tying Van Drew to Trump. Mullock's own ad discusses food and gas prices, the war, and contributions Van Drew accepted from data center executives.

Other New Jersey races have drawn little advertising. In the 9th District, Democratic incumbent Nellie Pou is not expected to face a close contest. Her ads, in English and Spanish, focus on her candidacy and do not mention Republican opponent Rosie Pino, who is also running ads in multiple languages to introduce herself.

New Jersey voters head to the polls Tuesday.