Mike Ferguson

Kate Whitman’s controversial attack ad against rival Leonard Lance has drawn the ire of the Congressman they’re both hoping to replace.

Seventh district Rep. Mike Ferguson, who’s retiring after he serves out his current term, has remained neutral despite the crowded field of candidates vying to replace him. But yesterday he told the Bridgewater Courier-News that a recent cable television ad from the Whitman campaign was particularly outlandish.

The ad argues that, during Lance’s time in Trenton, spending and property taxes have increased.

“I was very disappointed to see Kate’s ad, because it’s false, it’s misleading, it’s a complete distortion of Senator Lance’s record,” Ferguson told the newspaper.

Less than a week after entering the Republican U.S. Senate race, former Rep. Dick Zimmer has won the endorsement of half of the state’s GOP congressional delegation.

Representatives Frank LoBiondo, Jim Saxton and Mike Ferguson all announced their support for Zimmer today, citing his fiscal conservatism. 

In determining who among the crowded field of seventh district Republican congressional candidates is the frontrunner, the question may be what counts more: money or county lines.

From the moment state Sen. Leonard Lance entered the race, the conventional wisdom has been that he leads the pack. And, without so much as acknowledging that he is the frontrunner, Lance has done much to reinforce that status, winning the party line in his native Hunterdon County, along with Somerset County.

The combination of those two counties accounts for about 70% of the district’s Republican primary vote, and Lance’s win in Somerset is particularly compelling because it’s home turf for his chief rival, Kate Whitman, along with several other lower-profile candidates.

Whitman has managed to win the line in Middlesex County – which comprises the smallest portion of the district and an even smaller portion of its Republican primary vote.

TRENTON - As Democrats gear up for a bruising senate primary season, unofficial congressional filing results with the state Division of Elections show no same-party challengers to incumbent Democratic congressmen.      

Only in the 1st District, where Democratic U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews is vacating his seat to challenge U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg in the primary, are there several hopefuls battling for what Andrews leaves behind.

Kate Whitman says Linda Stender has voted to raise taxes 94 timesWOODBRIDGE – The Republican congressional candidates vying to succeed Rep. Mike Ferguson last night mostly found common ground by calling for President George W. Bush’s tax cuts to be made permanent, and depicting likely Democratic nominee Assemblywoman Linda Stender as a big government liberal.

A forum sponsored by the Woodbridge Township Republican Organization and held at the Forge, featured Kate Whitman, State Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon), Warren Township Mayor Victor Sordillo, Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks, former Summit Council President Kelly Hatfield, Bridgewater Town Councilman Michael Hsing, Iraq War veteran/ex-Prosecutor Thomas Roughneen, and Seton Hall University business professor A.D. Amar. Of the announced candidates, only former Hillsborough Deputy Mayor Chris Venis was absent.

When Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) announced his retirement last month, Democrats reacted with glee and optimism at the prospect of running a competitive race for the open seat, especially with a candidate, Bob Lord, who had raised $600,000.

That hopefulness was dampened, however, when Shadegg reneged on his decision just 10 days later -- after entreaties from 130 congressional colleagues and letters from conservative supporters who begged him to reconsider.

Two Republicans say that's not going to happen here.

Regardless of the chances that their seats will turn from red to blue, Reps. Jim Saxton and Mike Ferguson say that there's no chance they'll pull a Shadegg.

In the crowded field of Republican primary candidates in the seventh congressional district, one fundraising firm is working for two contenders.

TurnKey Productions is raising money for two of the top GOP candidates to replace Mike Fergsuon. In one corner is T. Robin Visconi, who’s working for State Sen. Leonard Lance. Her partner at TurnKey, Maria Chappa, is signed on with Kate Whitman.

“There’s a firewall between them. Obviously they’re not talking about the campaigns with one another,” said Whitman campaign manager Anthony Attanassio.

But that’s not all. Lance and another candidate, P. Kelly Hatfield, share the same treasurer – Ron Gravino.

In a solidly Republican House district in Illinois, Democrat Bill Foster won a special election to replace ex-House Speaker Dennis Hastert.  He defeated Jim Oberweis by a 52%-48% margin in a race managed by two onetime New Jersey political operatives.  Foster's race was run by Tom Bowen, who managed campaigns for Paul Moriarty and David Mayer in 2003, while the Oberweis campaign was headed by Bill Pascoe, who ran campaigns for Bret Schundler, Douglas Forrester and Nicholas Asselta.

Does Bill Foster’s victory in Illinois District 14 provide insight into the competitive U.S. House races in Districts 3 and 7?

According to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, it does.

Over the last fifty years, Linda Stender was one of just seven challengers – and one of only two Democrats – to come within two percentage points of unseat an incumbent Congressman when she held Michael Ferguson to a 49%-48% win in 2006. If she wins her second bid in 2008 for the seat Ferguson has decided to vacate, Stender would become the first member of the “I almost won” group to actually serve in Congress.