Former congressman and state senator John Adler, 51, dies

Former U.S. Rep. John Adler, 51, a tireless politician from Cherry Hill who carved out a centrist voting record over nearly two decades in the New Jersey Senate and one term in Congress, died Monday from complications of a bacterial infection.

A natural campaigner well-regarded for his intellect, Mr. Adler arrived in Congress in 2008 on the back of a Democratic wave that brought in President Obama. He knocked on thousands of doors and held countless town hall meetings in an effort to keep his seat in the right-leaning district, only to lose a tough reelection last November to Republican Jon Runyan.

Mr. Adler died from complications related to a staph endocarditis infection that he contracted last month, according to a statement from his family released by the law firm where he worked, Greenberg Traurig. He had had emergency heart surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Adler and his wife, Shelley, a lawyer and former Cherry Hill councilwoman whom he met at Harvard Law School, had four sons - Jeffrey, Alex, Andrew and Oliver - who sometimes tagged along on the campaign trail.

On Monday morning, before he died, his sons were able to tell their father that they were proud of him, said Jeffrey, 22, who is graduating from his father's alma mater in May.

"He was as much fun as any father had ever been," Jeffrey Adler said. "He didn't like anything more than hanging out with us, and playing with us, and sitting at the dinner table long after we should have gone on to do other stuff. And that meant so much to us."

Small in size - particularly next to Runyan, a former Eagles offensive tackle - Mr. Adler had a strong, comfortable presence in front of a crowd and was known for his oratorical skills, positive demeanor, and quick wit.

While he was campaigning one night in Ocean County last fall, a man walked out of his house and angrily spit on his lawn to show his disgust with Obama and the Democrats.

"Ever have a congressman come to your house?" Mr. Adler asked, smiling.

"No, sir."

"It's my pleasure to be your first."

Far from a liberal Democrat, Mr. Adler voted against the Obama health-care bill and worked on legislation with libertarian U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas).

On Monday, gasps rippled through a hearing of the state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee when Chairman Paul Sarlo (D., Bergen) announced Mr. Adler's death.

"I'm a little flustered," Sarlo said. "We just learned one of our former colleagues, John Adler, has just passed away."

Attendees bowed their heads in a moment of silence.

"It's a very sad day in Trenton," Sarlo said.

Mr. Adler was born in Northeast Philadelphia and grew up in Haddonfield, where his father owned a dry cleaning store that Mr. Adler often referenced.

"I would turn the lever, the shirts would go round the carousel. He would yell at me to stop doing that. He would turn his back, and I would do it again, and he would yell again," Mr. Adler said last year. "I think my role was to hang out with my father."

When Mr. Adler was in junior high school, his father had a series of heart attacks that left him unable to work. He soon died.

So Mr. Adler and his mother lived on Social Security benefits - a biographical point he often emphasized to senior citizens in vowing to protect the program for them. Those payments helped send him to Harvard University to earn his undergraduate and law degrees.

"I always felt it was my obligation to create opportunity for others, so others could have their chance to thrive," Mr. Adler said.

In 1987, Mr. Adler was elected to the Cherry Hill council, where he wrote the township's ethics ordinance. In 1991, he became the only candidate that year to beat a Republican incumbent when he won a state Senate seat. He served in that body for 17 years, rising to chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

George E. Norcross III, who ran the Camden County Democrats at the time and helped Mr. Adler to victory, said that even then, Mr. Adler's priorities weren't just politics.

"Nothing interfered with his son's sporting events or family events, and that was consistent from the time I met him well over 25 years ago," Norcross said.

As a senator, Mr. Adler helped pass numerous environmental protection laws, including a "clean car" bill signed in 2004 that imposed tougher pollution limits on all new cars sold in New Jersey.

To that end, the Sierra Club released a statement mourning the loss of an "environmental hero."

"Whenever people see pristine streams or open space, they should remember that John Adler was a leader to make sure that those resources were protected for the people of New Jersey," said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

Mr. Adler's time in the state Legislature may best be remembered for the bipartisan ban on indoor smoking, which he cosponsored with Sen. Thomas H. Kean Jr. (R., Union).

Mr. Adler was "a reminder that it is possible to disagree with one another without being disagreeable," Kean said in a statement.

Joseph J. Roberts Jr., the former Democratic Assembly speaker from Camden, recalled Mr. Adler as a brilliant man with a wicked sense of humor, and said the smoking ban was his greatest achievement.

"He was absolutely relentless," Roberts said of Mr. Adler's work on the bill.

"There were lots of critics when he began, but he began to wear them down one by one, and he was bright enough to develop a strategy and stick to it and work the opponents one at a time."

David Cohen, a friend of the family who recently moved from Cherry Hill, said Mr. Adler's sons - ages 9 to 22 - were the center of his orbit. Mr. Adler and his wife were regulars on the sidelines of Cherry Hill soccer games.

"I know there's a lot that can be said about him, but I hope someone will point out what a great dad he was," Cohen said in an e-mail.

Jeffrey Adler said that his father's interests were surprisingly diverse, and that Mr. Adler exposed his sons to everything from early Beach Boys music to plays by Steve Martin.

"The big takeaway is, he was just one of the kids. He was another brother," Jeffrey Adler said. "We always joked that if a camera crew followed us around, they'd be amazed how much fun we were having."

State Sen. Barbara Buono (D., Middlesex) said that while serving with Mr. Adler, she marveled at his "encyclopedic knowledge of movies."

"I missed his wonderful sense of humor when he left for Washington and will miss it even more now," she said.

The statements wishing Mr. Adler's family well came flowing in from both sides of the political aisle.

Former State Sen. William Gormley (R., Atlantic) worked side by side with Mr. Adler when they cochaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, where would-be state Supreme Court justices sought confirmation.

"He was a person blessed with incredible talent," Gormley said. "But it meant more to him to be called a good husband and father."

Obama, in a statement, called Mr. Adler a "dedicated public servant." He added, "John always stood by his principles, and served with an unwavering energy for the causes he believed in: creating jobs, providing tax relief for New Jersey families, and standing up for seniors and veterans."

Gov. Christie, who campaigned with Runyan last year, called Mr. Adler's death "an awful shock."

"Congressman Adler was a fine public servant and a good person," he said. "Mary Pat and I will be praying for his wife, Shelley, and their four sons during this sad and tragic time."

Mr. Adler won election in 2008 after a former Republican congressman, James Saxton, retired from the Third Congressional District, which stretches from Cherry Hill through Burlington County and into Ocean County.

Mr. Adler's reelection campaign was dogged by accusations, reported anonymously, that the Camden County Democrats enlisted a sham tea party candidate to siphon votes from the neophyte Runyan. Mr. Adler denied being involved in any such shenanigans and said he did not think his campaign workers were involved, either.

But the accusations might have hurt him in the close race.

Runyan released a statement Monday that read in part: "May John rest in peace, and may those he left behind be comforted in the knowledge that his lifetime of public service to our community has left a lasting legacy for which they can be most proud."

Roberts said losing the congressional race was "tough" on Mr. Adler, "but he understood how the game worked, and he was prepared to move on."

Still, said Roberts, "I think he would have indeed run for office in the future."

A funeral will be Wednesday, April 6, at Temple Emanuel, 1101 Springdale Rd., Cherry Hill, where Mr. Adler was a member, according to Platt Memorial Chapel in Cherry Hill. A time had not been confirmed.

The family said contributions could be made to either Cooper University Hospital in Camden or the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, "whose doctors and staff worked heroically to try to save his life."