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.

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.

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.