Linda Stender

Former Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks will challenge Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield) and Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) as a Republican candidate for the Assembly in District 22, he told PolitickerNJ.com.

“We haven’t made a formal announcement, but there will be a campaign this year,” said Marks, a dentist, who will run on a GOP ticket with Scotch Plains resident Bo Vastine, formerly of Plainfield.

“I have been meeting with quite a few people, and this time out the Republican Party asked me to run,” said Marks, who scrapped with his party in years past over ideological commitment.

A conservative, Marks ran unsuccessfully for the Assembly in 2003 and for Congress last year.

Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) with her running mate, Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield).

EDISON – Short of giving a name for lieutenant governor, Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) told PolitickerNJ.com she would like to see Gov. Jon Corzine select a woman for the job. 

“Women are 52% of the population in New Jersey and when we voted on the lieutenant governor’s position I did so with the idea that this would create an opportunity for women,” Stender said.

The Middlesex County Democratic Organization (MCDO) tonight nominated Stender and her 22nd District running mate Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield) for reelection.

DIEGNAN/STENDER/VAS/JASEY BILL TO REQUIRE LENDERS TO DETAIL PROGRAMS TO STEM FORECLOSURE RELEASED BY ASSEMBLY PANEL

(TRENTON) – Legislation sponsored by Assembly members Patrick J. Diegnan Jr., Linda Stender, Joseph Vas and Mila M. Jasey to require lenders to give homeowners information about programs to cure defaults before initiating a foreclosure proceeding was released today by an Assembly committee.

The bill (A-3767) was released 5-0-1 by the Assembly Financial Institutions Committee and now goes to the Assembly speaker, who decides if and when to post it for a floor vote.

“Having the right information at the right time can keep people in their homes,” said Diegnan (D-Middlesex). “Lenders should be working with homeowners to cure defaults before it’s too late and the damage has been done.”

It continues to look as though Linda Stender won't seek re-election to a fifth term in the State Assembly.

Democratic sources say that Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) is worn out after three campaigns in three years and has decided not to seek re-election to the State Assembly.   She's waiting for party leaders - some say that means State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) -- to help her with an exit strategy (aka a job).  Stender ran for Congress in 2006, losing to incumbent Michael Ferguson by just one percentage point, for re-election to the Assembly in 2007, and again for Congress in 2008 - this time losing by nine points.

But Stender's aide, Ed Oatman, strongly denies that Stender won't run.

"It’s absolutely untrue.  I spoke to her three minutes ago. She is definitely running for reelection. We had a fundraiser last week and we have one for next week," Oatman told PolitickerNJ.com.

The leading contender to replace Stender in the Assembly is Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr, the President of the New Jersey Conference of Mayors.  Republican Martin Marks, the former Mayor of Scotch Plains, has said he was considering a challenge to Stender.

Former Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks, left, gets former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie to autograph Marks's copy of "The Soprano State."

ROSELLE PARK – He said last year he would be the perfect candidate to take on Linda Stender, and former Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks may still believe that, as he mulls over a challenge of the 22nd District Assemblywoman, who also lost her own Congressional bid and now faces reelection to the Assembly.

“I’d say it’s about a 50% percent chance that I’ll run,” said Marks, who served as mayor of Scotch Plains for eight years and failed twice to move up: once in a State Senate bid in 2003 and again in his 2008 Republican Primary bid for Congress.  

“It’s a tough district,” said Marks, remembering how Nicholas Scutari, buried him in the City of Plainfield.

***MULTIMEDIA PACKAGE***

STENDER GOES RED TO SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT WOMEN AND HEART DISEASE

Uses Message to Urge Women to Learn About Heart Health

(TRENTON) – Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Union) today issued a multimedia package featuring a 30-second public service announcement (PSA) in which she “goes red” to urge women to learn more about heart disease.

Stender’s PSA coincides with “American Hearth Month” and the American Heart Association’s “Go Red for Women” campaign that seeks to raise women’s awareness of cardiovascular disease – the number one killer of women in America.

The DCCC is on the air with a radio ad attacking U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance, who has been in Congress about a month.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will begin running a radio advertisement today attacking newly-elected U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton) for voting against President Obama's $89 billion economic stimulus plan.  The DCCC did not disclose how much they are spending on the Lane ads, but Democratic party sources said it was not an expensive media buy.

Lance easily held the 7th district House seat last November (51%-42%) despite substantial financial help from the DCCC for Democrat Linda Stender, a four-term Assemblywoman. 

Bill Palatucci, Chris Christie's former law partner, managed campaigns for Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Tom Kean.

Democrats seem determined to tie former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to President Bush if he becomes the Republican nominee for Governor, but Christie’s allies say that it was the ex-Prosecutor’s friend and top strategist, William Palatucci, who avidly championed Bush when he began running for President in the late 1990’s.

Christie, who was Palatucci’s law partner, raised money for George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign as part of a bigger effort coordinated by Palatucci, a veteran Republican operative who ran campaigns for Ronald Reagan, Thomas Kean and George H.W. Bush.

“It’s hard to imagine the Democrats not using every opportunity possible to highlight the fact that Chris Christie was part of an effort that raised significant money for George W. Bush, one of the most unpopular politicians in a generation” said Ben Dworkin, director of the David Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “He’s had an outstanding career as U.S. Attorney. But the connection is different from the one the Democrats tried to use against U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance.”

Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), the Democratic candidate for Congress against Lance, ran repeated TV ads of Lance’s face interposed with that of Bush.  Lance won by nine percentage points.

“But Christie’s different than Lance because Lance didn’t become an assemblyman and senator because George Bush picked him,” said Dworkin. “Christie became U.S. Attorney because George Bush did.”

The main strand of the Bush-Christie connection hinges on what for Palatucci was a fortuitous encounter with the younger Bush as the then-Texas governor geared up for his 2000 presidential campaign.

At that point, Palatucci’s relationship with the Bushes was already long and recurring, and it was in his role as the New Jersey chief of the presidential campaigns of Bush’s father that he developed a relationship with the younger Bush.

The fate of Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) is in the hands of Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy and State Sen. Sandra Cunningham.

Twelve New Jersey legislators, all from districts that are not especially competitive in general election contests, face potential obstacles in their bid to win party support for another term.

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