Lockheed Martin Vice President Christopher Myers on Tuesday defeated Ocean County Freeholder Jack Kelly and businessman Justin Murphy in the Republican primary race to replace retiring Rep. Jim Saxton (R) in New Jersey’s 3rd district. Myers, who had the support of Saxton and two of the three Republican county parties in the district, had collected 43 percent of the vote with 98 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday night. Kelly and Murphy both had 26 percent. After a bruising campaign in which the Republicans candidates spent heavily to attack each other, GOP leaders will now have the summer to regroup and find a way to beat state Sen. John Adler, the Democratic nominee who did not draw a primary challenger, in the fall. Adler is well-known in the district and has the benefit of running for seat once before in 1990. In that race he lost to Saxton by 19 points, but Adler is sure to do better this year in a district that President Bush won by just 8,000 votes in 2004. Adler has been a much touted recruit of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and reported having more than $1 million in the bank as of March 31. – John McArdle