Ex-Rep. John Adler of New Jersey dies

John Adler, a former New Jersey congressman, has died.

Adler, 51, died Monday of complications from a staph infection, the Asbury Park Press reported.

Adler, who was Jewish, had a long career in Democratic state politics when he won a swing seat in southern New Jersey in his party’s 2008 sweep of the U.S. House of Representatives. Two years later he was ousted in a close election by the Republican candidate Jon Runyan, a former offensive lineman for the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.

Adler, among the first candidates in 2008 to endorse Barack Obama, later got flak from Orthodox Jews in the affluent town of Cherry Hill who believed that Obama had turned on Israel.