The race for the 12th Congressional District seat is a three-way contest with incumbent Rep. Rush Holt, a Democrat, being challenged by Holmdel Deputy Mayor Alan Bateman, a Republican, while independent David Corsi, of Oceanport, has also thrown his hat into the ring.

David Corsi Holt is seeking his sixth term as representative for the 12th District and said he would like to continue working on issues such as education, national security and intelligence, environmental protection and scientific research.

"I am most proud of the fact that most of the time I am dealing with individual questions and problems that people bring to me," Holt said in an Oct. 17 interview.

Holt, of Hopewell, said one of the reasons he is running for re-election is to help constituents who are dealing with the impact of economic turmoil.

"These are difficult times for families, and I think there are things the federal government can do to make the economy effective so people can keep jobs and keep their homes," he said.

According to Holt, who left the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory a decade ago to pursue his political career, he would also like to continue his efforts to protect the environment and ensure high-quality education for New Jersey's children.

Alan Bateman "I would like to continue to work on environmental protection issues and to continue to assist in the education of the next generation and to invest in an opportunity for our future," he said. "I want to keep doing what I have been doing and I am running on my record of what I have done."

Holt said that he has helped draw up legislation impacting college financial aid, open space and property taxes.

For the future, Holt has a broad agenda that includes increasing training for teachers in science and math, increasing research and development with government and private funding and continuing to reform the way national intelligence is collected and used by the government.

Holt said that he is running on his record, which he believes speaks for itself.

"Not only have I been responsible for good legislation, I have a good reputation for being one of the most accessible public officials and for being in touch with people's concerns and needs," Holt said.

Rush Holt Bateman thinks change is needed.

"Washington isn't working," Bateman said. "The incumbents down there have become insiders and have lost touch with the people they represent."

Bateman, a business consultant for healthcare companies and business organizations, said that while campaigning, he has met hundreds of people who are worried about the current state of the economy, job security and just making ends meet.

"These are real issues that concern real people," Bateman said. "I don't see Washington addressing these head on."

"We need to get government spending under control. It would be easiest if they held the budget to a zero percent growth rate and have agency heads live to these limits."

Bateman said that is exactly what was done in Holmdel while he was on the township committee and Holmdel experienced a zero percent tax increase in 2007.

"One of my specific goals is to focus in on the economy and really work to come up with practical solutions to these things that can be implemented in a short amount of time," he said. "The economy needs stability."

Also on Bateman's agenda is energy policy.

"We need a national energy policy that works and that is two-pronged," Bateman said. In the short term, he said, we need to get away from foreign oil and allow exploration and drilling for oil and to pursue energy alternatives.

Bateman noted that the 12th District, which runs from Rumson across the middle of the state to the Delaware River, up as far as Somerset and Hunterdon County, is very diverse.

"The district is very diverse; there are all income levels in this district, but everyone is worried about the economy and concerned about their jobs," Bateman said. "They are concerned about federal and state property taxes; they are concerned about toll hikes. People are worried and there is a lot of concern and uncertainty out there."

Corsi, a resident of Oceanport, is running as an independent and believes tax reform would change all the major issues that are on voters'minds.

"I am in favor of reforming our tax code, Social Security, health care, energy and immigration," Corsi said. "The first thing we need to do is reform our tax code and implement what is known as the Fair Tax. Our current tax code is 65,000 pages long and no one understands them. I am a proponent of the Fair Tax, a national consumption tax that would eliminate income, payroll, excise, inheritance, estate, capital gains and corporate taxes."

As for the issue of health care, Corsi said he believes it should be free from the government control.

"Insurance was meant to be catastrophic," he stated in an Oct. 23 interview. "No family should face financial doom because they can't afford hospitalization. Medical health care should be between an employee and an employer."

Corsi said that employers should pay into an individual account for an employee to purchase a catastrophic coverage plan and then use the rest of the account to pay the rest of their health care the "old-fashioned way," he said, directly to the doctor.

"This way there would be no approvals, no referrals, no second opinions," he said. "You would be making the decisions, not some bureaucrat 50 miles away. Free market and competition would drive health care costs down."

Corsi's position on energy policy is to support offshore drilling while at the same time develop alternative sources of energy, he said.

"We could use the Fair Tax to reward companies looking to develop new technologies to pursue wind, electricity, nuclear and whatever else is out there, but in the meantime, we still need the oil."