By Associated Press, 6/27/2003

NEWTON, N.J. — Sussex County Democratic officials want state Senate candidate Jim Morrison to quit the race over a nude photo contest he entered.

But the 32-year-old attorney says he's in to stay.

Party Chairman Charles Cart, who asked Morrison to drop out, said his party has a hard enough time competing in an area where Republicans outnumber Democrats 3 to 1.

While he was a law school student, Morrison posed for nude pictures and twice in 1996 entered a photo contest in New York that featured nudity.

"If people want to know about it, they should know I won the contest," Morrison told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

Cart said Morrison does not reflect northwestern New Jersey's conservative values.

"It's not like you do it when you're an adolescent and you feel like you did something wrong. It's like, `Hey, I won that contest and it's cool,"' Cart said.

Morrison said his candidacy, in the 24th Legislative District, will not hurt the party. He called the photo contest "totally innocuous fun with a bunch of friends" and about "as bad as a wet T-shirt contest."

"I don't shy away or back away from who I am, because I think that's the kind of person voters want," Morrison said.

Morrison, a partner in his parents' law firm, has gotten national attention in the past. He was a runner-up on ABC-TV's reality show "The Mole" in early 2001. That same year, Morrison was named one of People magazine's "50 Most Eligible Bachelors."