Michael Ferguson

Former Hillsborough Mayor Joseph Tricarico, a dentist who works for the state Department of Health, is mulling a bid for the Democratic nomination for Congress against freshman U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton) in the seventh district.  Tricarico briefly considered running in 2006 against then-U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson, but dropped out to support Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood).  

Two Republicans seeking to unseat Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) thought it was an April fool's day joke when they heard she won a seat on the Assembly Appropriations Committee.   This marks the fourth consecutive year Republicans are running a campaign that calls the incumbent "Stender the Spender."  Stender is 1-2 in those races.

Stender lost a close race for Congress in 2006 against incumbent Michael Ferguson, losing by just one percentage point.  She was re-elected to the Assembly in 2007, comfortably but not impressively.  When Ferguson retired in 2008, she was the favorite to win his House seat, but she wound up losing to Republican Leonard Lance (R-Clinton) by seven points.

Former Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks and newcomer Bo Vastine are seeking State Assembly seats in a district that trends Democratic. But they must smell an opportunity because they've hired Jamestown Associates, a GOP political consulting firm, which has made something of a cottage industry out of beating up Linda Stender.  Stender, a four-term Assemblywoman, came close to beating U.S. Rep. Michael Ferguson in 2006 when Jamestown labeled her as “Stender the Spender” and helped Ferguson eke out a one percent victory.  Last year, Jamestown (working for Leonard Lance), beat Stender by nine points, despite being outspent by a 3-1 margin.

Former Woodbridge Council President and Republican Municipal Chairman Kenneth Gardner won a race for Woodbridge Fire Commissioner on Saturday, defeating 23-year-old fireman Ryan Horvath.  Gardner, who has lost several races in recent years, including a 2000 GOP primary bid againat U.S. Rep. Michael Ferguson, used some mail and paid phones to win a traditionally low-turnout February election.  He beat Horvath 647-627, a 50,7%-49.3% margin.

For the record, there were no allegations of voter fraud in the paper-ballot election -- not even anything like the ones in his 2000 congressional race, when a priest spotted him stuffing the ballot box at the Middesex County GOP convention.

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.

Anyone who watched NJN on election night witnessed it: Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), who had been the favorite in the 7th District House race, choking back tears as she attempted to explain -- and no doubt understand -- why she lost to state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Flemington).

It was a particularly bruising moment for Stender, who two years earlier had come within one point of ousting incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-Warren Twp).

"It was really a crushing defeat for me," Stender said today.

It was also a huge political comeback for Lance, who was seen by fellow Republicans during his time as Senate Minority Leader as not partisan or aggressive enough. Facing a potential challenge for that post last year by state Sen. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield), Lance withdrew to become the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Six weeks after her loss, Stender is making the best of it, relishing her first holiday season in the last two election cycles during which she does not have to focus on raising money.

Today, Stender sought to dispel the notion that her campaign failed in large part because of internal divisions and pressure from outside groups to take on out-of-state staff and focus on less pertinent issues like birth control.

"That stuff is nonsense. It's concocting drama in the aftermath," said Stender, referring to contentions that EMILY's List officials had pressured her to put Washington, DC-based staffers in control of the campaign.

U.S. Rep.-elect Leonard Lance

State Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Flemington) defeated Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) in a hotly contested race for Congress in New Jersey's 7th district, keeping the seat of retiring U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson in Republican hands. Lance beat Stender by a 51%-42% margin.

In a Democratic year, State Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Flemington) could win a congressional seat against the front runner, Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood)

With just four days left in the 2008 campaign, Republican Leonard Lance is poised to eke out an upset victory against Democrati Linda Stender, according to James Pindell, the editor of Politicker.com's The Pindell Report, which offers independent analysis of federal- and state-level races.  Pindell today moved New Jersey's 7th district seat from Leans Democratic to Leans Republican.

Pindell says that the decision of Democrats to dispatch their highest profile surrogate, former President Bill Clinton, to campaign for Stender is not something a campaign does when its ahead going into the final hours of a race.  PolitickerNJ.com reported this week that the Stender campaign has an internal poll showing her trailing Lance by four points.

"How did we get to this point?," Pindell asked.  "After a year of national Democrats and aligned organizations dumping millions of dollars behind Stender, the Democrat missed when she spent part of the last stretch of the campaign talking about abortion. If there is anything we learned from this cycle, it’s that social issues didn’t matter much. Other Democrats across the country gained traction by focusing on the economy. Should Stender indeed fall short, it would be a disappointing end to a race that Democrats had invested heavily in."

ISELIN -- If only third graders could vote.

Talking to PolitickerNJ.com before addressing a group of senior citizens with State Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Woodbridge), Stender said that ads run waged by her opponent and the third party groups that support him -- rhyming her last name with "Spender," "truth bender" or putting anti-Stender lyrics to the tune of Yankee Doodle -- are insulting to the voters of the 7th Congressional District.

"I'm very popular amongst the third grade set because of the nursery rhyme nature of the campaign that's been run. The kids are always happy to see me, because they know the ads," she said.

Stender's ads against State Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Flemington) have been primarily negative, drawing parallels Lance to President Bush. She prefers the word "comparative."

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is up with its first television advertisement targeting Republican Leonard Lance, a 30-second spot tying the Flemington state Senator to Trenton.

The ad began running on cable stations in the 7th Congressional District last week, with a media buy totaling about $116,000.

“Watch Leonard Lance do the old Trenton dance,” an announcer says. “Dancing to the tune of big oil, pocketing thousands in campaign cash. Lance has those Trenton moves, voting against property tax relief for us but voting himself a 40 percent pay raise, sponsoring a state budget that gave us nearly $3 billion in new debt that paved the way for higher taxes.

“A new Lance dance in D.C.?” the ad concludes. “No thanks.”

Lance is competing against state Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) for the seat of retiring U.S. Rep. Michael Ferguson (R-New Providence). Democrats have identified the race as a pickup opportunity, with the DCCC reserving about $1.8 million in air time in the district. The committee has already taken Lance to task in mail pieces distributed to residents in the district.