Latest From SSW:
Deodorant heir mulling House bid
William G. Mennen, a 41-year old attorney from Tewksbury and a Hunterdon County freeholder-elect, today said he would consider a run for U.S. Congress over a Thanksgiving meal.
"I like most everybody else was surprised," Mennen said of U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson’s decision yesterday not to seek a fifth term. "I was further surprised by a continual stream of subsequent phone calls from a number of Republican officials."
Read More >Clinton camp chats with Hodes about Coniglio
The Record’s Charles Stile reported today that federal agents searched the Paramus home of State Sen. Joseph Coniglio, the target of a federal criminal investigation. That will almost certainly create some chatter at Hillary Clinton’s national campaign headquarters, where a senior campaign official had a “conversation” in recent weeks about the Coniglio probe with lobbyist Harold Hodes, an advisor to the New Jersey Clinton campaign.
The Clinton campaign, sources say, wanted to hear from Hodes about his grand jury appearance, in response to a federal subpoena, regarding allegations that Coniglio obtained state funds for Hackensack University Medical Center while working as a paid consultant. At the time, Hodes’ firm, Public Strategies/Impact, was the HUMC lobbyist. The hospital received over $1 million in state grants while Coniglio was on their payroll.
Read More >Feds search Coniglio’s home, office
Another bad day for State Sen. Joe ConiglioThe Bergen Record’s Charles Stile reports that the home and legislative office of outgoing state Sen. Joseph Conilgio have been searched by the federal agents.
The search is reportedly “the final act of the investigation” into whether Coniglio steered legislative grants to the Hackensack University Medical Center while working for the hospital as a $5,500-per-month plumbing consultant.
Read More >Bramnick says no to run for Congress
The two leading Republican candidates for Mike Ferguson's House seat have declined to run, with Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick saying this morning that he will not be a candidate for Congress in 2008.
State Sen. Thomas Kean, Jr. announced yesterday that he would not run, citing his election less than two weeks ago as the new Senate Minority Leader.
"I spent a sleepless night last night thinking about this. The question is, 'Do you give up the leadership role you've developed in your own state?' I didn't want to make the call. It's logical to move up. But right now, the answer to that question is no," said Bramnick, who was elected Assembly Minority Whip earlier this year.
Read More >Republicans and Stender gear up after out-of-nowhere Ferguson announcement
Linda Stender thought she'd face Mike Ferguson in 2008; now she's seeking a rare open seatU.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson today became the second New Jersey Republican Congressman in as many weeks to announce he would not run for another term.
Amid the smoldering remains of the Bush era, Iraq, the aftershock of Ferguson's life and death struggle in the last election, and news this month that he missed a vote on flood relief, Democrats were convinced they could hear him crying uncle.
Not so, said the 37-year old Ferguson, whose statement today indicated that he wants to spend more time with his growing family.
"Do you have kids?" wondered Somerset County Republican Party Chairman Dale Florio, in deference to the congressman's public rationale for departure.
Read More >Shot & Chase
From Hotline's Last Call:
SHOT . . .
"A schoolteacher by trade, Mike has gone above and beyond for our nation's schoolchildren" -- Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL)'s statement on Rep. Mike Ferguson's (R-NJ) retirement announcement (11/19).
Read More >The Back Room
Source: Dressler still the favorite
A well-connected Democrat close to Bergen County Democratic Party politics said County Surrogate Mike Dressler remains the party favorite to challenge GOP Executive Kathe Donovan in 2014.
Read More >Wake-Up Call
Morning News Digest - May 23, 2013
PolitickerNJ.com interview: Jason O’Donnell Confident he has the votes to be the next Democratic State chairman, Jason O’Donnell said his objective will be to drive the core message of the Democratic Party. “My main objective is to bring Democrats home,” said O’Donnell, 41, an assemblyman from Bayonne. “If we...
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Op-Ed
Time to have the talk we hope to avoid but can’t
By Tedford J. Taylor No topic is a less likely conversation-starter than our eventual deaths. Still, there is a lot to talk about. When polled, about 90 percent of people presented with end-of-life scenarios prefer the prospect of dying at home with... Read More >
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