To move or not to move: "Homeless" wingnut wants to run for Congress (he just doesn't know where)

Last year's 12th Congressional District general election challenger could be next year's 4th District GOP primary challenger. Holmdel businessman Alan Bateman is now mulling a 2010 run against veteran U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton), he told PolitickerNJ.com. The former deputy mayor of Holmdel whose home has been on the market for six months now says he might move into the 4th Congressional District.

Although Republican Mayor Michael Halfacre of Fair Haven earlier this month announced his decision to challenge Rush Holt in the 12th, Bateman said he has not ruled out a primary fight and may yet challenge Halfacre. "I'm looking at both," he said of the 4th and 12th districts. "Certainly Mayor Halfacre's presence in the race has no impact on my decision. I have the grassroots infrastructure in the 12th. I've got a good base with which to begin."

Should he make the move to the 4th and primary the Republican congressman, he anticipates the denunciations of those Smith fans who will immediately brand him as a carpetbagger. "Constitutionally, you need to live in the state," argues Bateman, whose allies charge that Smith, a congressman for three decades, has all but abandoned his home base in Hamilton for the life of a Washington insider. "When you've in a Washington job for that long you become part of the problem," said Bateman.

And part of Bateman's problem is convincing voters he knows what he's doing when he can't even decide where to live.