Maybe he was just afraid of getting shot in the face?

The guy running as the Republican for a U.S. Senate seat from New Jersey, Tom Kean, Jr., deliberately got “caught” in traffic so he wouldn't be seen with and photographed next to Dick Cheney.

At his own fundraiser!

Kean and his people deny it was deliberate and say it was because he was in Trenton all day, voting as a state legislator, and then, on his way to his own fundraiser, let me remind you, got caught in that darn Jersey traffic. He arrived 15 minutes after Cheney had left the premises.

The senatorial hopeful spoke to The Times, which reports:

As soon as the Senate wrapped up, around 4 p.m., he traveled north “as quickly as I could." But instead of taking the New Jersey Turnpike, like any regular commuter between Trenton and Newark, he and his driver chose Route 1, which is usually crawling with bumper-to-bumper traffic at that hour.

Mr. Kean said he did so because there were delays on the Turnpike in the morning. But at 6 p.m., there were no reported delays between Exit 7A, not far from Trenton, and the George Washington Bridge, according to the Turnpike's Web site.

And Anton Peters, an executive producer at Shadow Traffic, said that Route 1 was relatively trouble-free on Monday afternoon, with the only significant problem a northbound accident near Linden that was cleared up by 2 p.m. "If he was going north, it wouldn't have affected him," Mr. Peters said.

Cheney and Bush are incredibly radioactive in a big swatch of the country these days. In N.J., a pretty reliably blue state, their approval ratings are probably well below that of one of the state's most famous “citizens,” Tony Soprano. Even after he strangled that guy while taking his daughter to check out colleges.

I'm not sure if Tony has ever shot a guy in the face, but we know Dick has. No wonder they're running from him.

UPDATE: Someone quickly reminded me that Tony shot his cousin in the face. But I bet he's still more popular than the Dick.