Kate Whitman

PEAPACK-GLADSTONE - Kate Whitman has been in the seventh district congressional race three months now, but she made her formal entrance announcement today at a kickoff event at the council chambers nestled in the hills of her quiet, semi-rural hometown of Peapack-Gladstone.

The event was a family affair, attended by her mother, former Gov. Christie Whitman, her husband, brother and young twin sons, while a big portion of the audience was made up of young mothers with towheaded toddlers.

At this point in the race, with eight other candidates in the field, it's hard for the 30-year-old Whitman to claim momentum. State Sen. Leonard Lance easily won an endorsement in his home county of Hunterdon last night. The next convention is Union County, where Whitman concedes that the committee vote will likely be split between former Summit Councilwoman P. Kelly Hatfield and Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks. She's hoping that she'll be able to pull off a victory in Somerset, but that's not a given, considering that there are five candidates from the county in the race, while all three of its legislators have endorsed Lance.

But Whitman said that getting the county line isn't everything, and that she has no plans of dropping out, even if she wins no conventions.

"I'm in it until June," she said.

Today is Tuesday, February 26, 2008 – the original early date of the New Jersey Presidential primary after the Legislature moved it up from June and before they moved it to the first Monday in February, Super Tuesday.  At the time it seemed like the right call – the only opponents to the date change were a scattering of John McCain supporters who didn’t want to see Rudy Giuliani score an early victory.  But imagine what today might have been like had the eyes of America been on New Jersey on a day when no other states have primaries scheduled.

State Sen. Leonard Lance makes his case as one of his opponents, Warren Township Mayor Victor Sordillo, looks on.

FLEMINGTON - State Sen. Leonard Lance flattened the other 7th Congressional district primary candidates in his home county tonight at a meeting of the Hunterdon County Republicans, and specifically targeted Kate Whitman in his speech to the county committee.

In his most animated remarks so far on the campaign trail, the former minority leader vowed to fight the terrorists and fight the Taliban, and quoted Lincoln’s "America is still the world’s last best hope on earth."

Joe Pennacchio won the Hunterdon GOP line by 7 votesState Sen. Joseph Pennacchio defeated businesswoman Anne Evans Estabrook to win the endorsement of the Hunterdon County Republican organization tonight. Pennacchio won 42-35, with Ramapo College Professor Murray Sabrin finishing third with 12 votes.

"I am proud to have the support of Hunterdon County's Republicans," Pennacchio said in a statement. "I know
that they stand with me on the most important issues facing New Jersey and
the nation."

GOP congressional candidate Kate Whitman will formally enter the race for Mike Ferguson’s House seat tomorrow.  Her campaign says she will layout her six-point plan to “get America moving.”  Whitman, the daughter of former Governor (and PolitickerNJ.com unpaid columnist) Christine Todd Whitman, faces State Senator Leonard Lance and others in the seventh district Republican primary.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) issued a release today taunting Linda Stender, candidate for New Jersey's 7th Congressional District, on the issue of Congress’ re-authorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

The GOP suggests that the Democratic candidate is pretzeled by campaign contributions she has taken from trial lawyers. Stender, the NRCC contends, "has yet to say where she stands on the recent actions by the Democrats in Washington to play political games instead of protecting America’s security.

They're not state Senators or gubernatorial offspring. They don't come from political dynasties and don't have powerful county organizations backing them.

But in the third and seventh congressional districts, there are eight lower-profile Republican candidates, considered second-tier to the likes of state Sen. Leonard Lance, Kate Whitman, Medford Mayor Chris Myers and Ocean County Freeholder Director Jack Kelly. And those candidates want to stress that even without a famous name or a powerful county organization behind them, they can have an impact on these races.

One of the longest shot candidates on the ballot in either district is Suzanne Penna, a 37-year-old nursing student from Bayville who's only been involved in politics for the last year and a half. It won't be her first time facing Kelly in a primary.

One way of determining which Democrats will oppose asset monetization is to look at who’s on the ballot this year.

Assemblywoman Linda Stender, who’s running for congress in the seventh district, is opposed to the plan. So is State Sen. John Adler, who’s running for congress in the third district. And U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who’s up for reelection this year, announced that he’s against it last week.

There are five Somerset County residents running for congress in the seventh district, but the county’s three native legislators aren’t endorsing any of them.

On Monday, state Sen. Christopher “Kip” Bateman, Assemblyman Peter Biondi and Assemblywoman Denise Coyle will endorse State Sen. Leonard Lance, a Hunterdon County resident, for congress.