Kate Whitman

Former Assemblyman Joel M. Weingarten of Millburn on Wednesday released a statement that he would not run for the 7th district Congressional seat being vacated at the end of next year by U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson.

He said his concerns include homeland security, taxes and the loss of core American values, among them Constituional rights.

"While I have a clear vision for our nation that encompasses these matters," said Weingarten, a Republican, "I have decided not to pursue elective office in 2008."

Right now, it’s looking like a two-candidate race for Mike Ferguson’s seventh district House seat between Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance and Kate Whitman, the 30-year-old daughter of the former Governor. Somerset Republican insiders say that Assemblyman Peter Biondi and Freeholder Jack Ciattarelli will be the next to announce that they won’t run for Congress.

Union County has two candidates who are, at this point, second tier: Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks and former Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield. Both will need to show considerable fundraising success by the end of this month – there won’t be another report due until April – and then one of them will have to dominate the local endorsement game, where Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. is the biggest catch. Kean could stay out of the race – a message to Union County Republicans that Lance and Whitman are stronger candidates – or endorse Lance outright.

Kelly Hatfield is the latest Republican to enter the 7th district House raceThe field of Republican candidates in the seventh congressional is getting more crowded.

Former Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield has decided to run for the Republican nomination to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson.

“I’m running,” said Hatfield, 54, who has a PhD in microbiology. “I’ve been meeting and talking with people not only in this county but throughout the district, and I think the residents of the district want someone who’s familiar with the issues and who has experience to be an effective advocate for them in Washington.”

Peter Biondi says he hopes to decide on a bid for Congress by next weekAssemblyman Minority Conference Leader Peter Biondi really wants to run for Congress. It’s just that he’s not so sure how enthusiastic he is at the prospect of raising millions of dollars.

Biondi is still working the phones, and says he’s gotten a lot of commitments and offers to help out and join finance committee. But he’s frank that raising the money won’t be easy, especially when Democrats hold such a large financial advantage over Republicans.

“We’re starting off at a disadvantage, so it’s really important that you have the ability to raise $3.5 to $4 million, and if you can’t raise that you’re not going to be competitive,” said Biondi. “You won’t win it just knocking on doors or with a couple glossy flyers.”

Fearful that Sen. Leonard Lance's idea of a good fight consists of slapping another man in the face with a glove and then offering him the first choice of dueling pistols, gutfighter Republicans last week were desperately scanning the horizon for a blue-collar primary alternative.

Into the breach stepped 30-year old Kate Whitman, who on Friday announced her designs on the 7th district Congressional seat. Never having held elected office, the daughter of former Governor and millionaire Christie Todd Whitman can at least boast that this is not her first eyelash bat in the direction of elected office.

With mom proudly looking on last spring, the younger Whitman delivered a precocious prose poem homage to Ronald Reagan as part of her effort to woo a roomful of GOP delegates at the Somerset County Party convention. Whitman's object was a shot at county freeholder, and her 1980s flashback prod came at a time when Republicans found invocations of the Gipper particularly useful in the face of walking train wreck - and onetime presidential heir - George W. Bush.

Kate Whitman announced today that she will seek the Republican nomination for Congress in the seventh district. The former congressional aide and GOP operative is the daughter of former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.