Michael Ferguson

In the race for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th district, the Republican candidate trails an independent in cash on hand.   State Sen. Leonard Lance has just $80,792 in his war chest, as of his most recent Federal Election Commission filing, and Michael Hsing, a Republican Councilman from Bridgewater who briefly challenged Lance for the GOP nomination and is now running as an independent, has $91,637.  Democrat Linda Stender, a State Assemblywoman, has $1.2 million in the bank.

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Bridgewater Councilman Michael Hsing is the latest candidate in the field of Republican candidates for Mike Ferguson’s seventh district House seat.  Hsing, a two-term Councilman, would become New Jersey’s first Asian-American Congressman.

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One week after winning re-election to her Assembly seat by a relatively slim margin, Linda Stender is in Washington, D.C. today, raising money for her ’08 rematch against Republican Congressman Mike Ferguson. Despite her narrow one percent loss, Stender is no longer viewed as the top House race in New Jersey: Democratic insiders say that the open Republican seat in District 3, where Jim Saxton is retiring after 24 years in Congress, appears more winnable that the seventh district seat. That view is evidenced in The Rothenberg Report, which analyzes key House races: the Saxton seat is listed as a toss-up, while Ferguson is in the leans Republican column.

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Four Democratic Assembly seats not expected to be in play turned out to be especially close, including Linda Stender, who won re-election by about the same number of votes Mike Ferguson did in his congressional race against her last year.

Stender defeated Republican Robert Gatto, who spent about $100 and mounted no real campaign, by just 3,327 votes in the 22nd district.  Her running mate, Gerald Green, defeated Bryan Des Roschers by just 3,260 votes.  Gatto and Des Roschers have both lost bids for municipal office.

In the 36th district, Freshman Democratic Assemblyman Gary Schaer, the Passaic City Council President, won by just 2,370 votes over Republican Don Diorio and by only 2,474 votes over Republican Carmen Pio Costa. Democratic Assemblyman Frederick Scalera ran 886 votes ahead of Schaer. 

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The Courier News today endorsed two Democratic incumbents in the 22nd district, but pointedly passed on recommending the re-election of Linda Stender to the State Assembly.  Stender, a three-term incumbent, nearly ousted Congressman Michael Ferguson last year and is running again in 2008.

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Michael Ferguson was re-elected to his 7th district House seat in 2006 by just one percentage point, and now faces a rematch with Democrat Linda Stender, a three-term Assemblywoman.  According to the most recent Federal Election Commission filing, Ferguson has $758,292 in his warchest (and $151,345 in debt), while Stender has $227,244 cash on hand (and no debt).  Stender, who has been campaigning for re-election to the Assembly this year, actually outraised Ferguson in the last quarter.

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In politics, timing is everything, and few politicians had the timing and perennially tough campaigns of Democrat William Halstead Sutphin. Republicans had been trying to unseat Sutphin for twelve years -- often coming close but never able to win. Sutphin had been elected Mayor of Matawan in 1914 at age 27 and quit after less than two years to serve in the military during World War I. He returned to politics in 1926 as a candidate for Mayor and in 1930 ran for the open House seat vacated when two-term Republican Harold Hoffman (who was elected Governor in 1934) gave up his seat to become state Motor Vehicles Commissioner. Back then, the old third congressional district included all of Monmouth and Ocean counties and part of Middlesex County. This was the mid-term election of Republican President Herbert Hoover and in the midst of the Great Depression, the 43-year-old Sutphin defeated Republican Thomas Gopsill, a 35-year-old four-term Assemblyman and Red Bank Commissioner (and the grandson of former Jersey City Mayor James Gopsill) by a 51%-49% margin. Read More >

New Jersey’s thirteen congressional districts could be redrawn for the 2008 general election, although that is not likely to happen.

The Congressional Redistricting Commission appointed in 2001 to reapportion districts after the 2000 census is currently inactive, but has not expired.  A majority of the members of the commission could conceivably call a special meeting and create a new map.

Experts say that because the New Jersey State Constitution is silent regarding the discontinuation of the commission, it is unclear as to legal authority of the mapmakers to meet after the plan is certified.  Since the New Jersey Supreme Court often grants authority even when the law is clear, some insiders believe the map could be redrawn.

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Population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau suggests that there is a chance that New Jersey could lose one congressional seat after the 2010 Census.  That would mean that the population of each district, which was at 647,258 after the last redistricting, could jump to more than 727,000 people per district.

Between 1962 and 1982, New Jersey had fifteen House seats.  The state lost one in 1982 (the old fifth district seat, occupied by Republican Millicent Fenwick, was eliminated; Fenwick was running for the U.S. Senate) and another in 1992 (two Democratic incumbents, Bernard Dwyer and Frank Pallone, were placed in the same district; Dwyer, a 72-year-old six-term Congressman, retired).

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Republican Party officials have missed an opportunity to challenge an embattled State Senator in the 22nd district. And on Wednesday, two days after the primary filing deadline for Legislative races, the GOP leadership collectively offered no stirring endorsement of a candidate who hopes to ward off an Assemblywoman intent on upsetting a Republican Congressman next year.

"There was a mixup with the petitions and we didn’t get the requisite number of signatures," Union County GOP Chairman Phil Morin said of his party’s failure to field a State Senate contestant. "But we intend to write-in a candidate in the June primary."

The state Division of Elections initially listed Bryan DesRochers as a candidate for State Senate -- and a challenger to incumbent Sen. Nicholas Scutari, whom the Democrats nominated in 2003 when Joseph Suliga abruptly ended his re-election bid.

Scutari is one of three legislators served with a subpoena connected to a federal probe of legislators receiving an alleged personal benefit from state budget items. Scutari’s wife works for a non-profit organization that received state funds.

Elections officials admitted they made a mistake when they listed DesRochers as a candidate in the Senate race.

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