NJ-07

Former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney will hold a press conference with 3rd District Republican Congressional candidate Chris Myers tomorrow night.

The event will take place in downtown Medford at 5:30p.m., where Myers is the mayor. 
Romney is also holding a fundraiser for 7th District Congressional candidate Leonard Lance tomorrow.

Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney will both be making fundraising appearances in New Jersey this week, according to a report in the Star-Ledger.

Clinton will be here today to raise money for Assemblywoman Linda Stender’s (D-Fanwood) congressional bid, while Romney is coming sometime later this week to help her opponent, state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Flemington) with his campaign, according to a report in the Star-Ledger.

The report does not say whether Clinton or Romney will make any public campaign stops for the candidates.

In July, 2005, Acting Gov. Dick Codey appointed Assemblywoman Linda Stender to the New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission.

Since then, the commission has held 13 meetings at Rutgers University’s Piscataway campus -- 12 miles from Stender’s hometown of Fanwood.  Stender, who’s still a member of the commission, has not attended a single one of them. 

The position is unpaid, and other board members sometimes skipped meetings as well, although few as consistently as Stender.  But her opponent for the 7^th Congressional District seat, State Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Flemington), argues that she didn’t do the job that was asked of her – especially in light of the nation’s economic crisis. 

“When elected officials commit to doing a job, they are expected to do it.  Clearly Assemblywoman Stender failed to show up and do the job asked of her,” he said.  “With our economy in crisis and unemployment rising, the work of the State Employment and Training Commission is more important that ever, so it’s extremely unfortunate that Linda Stender failed to attend a single Commission meeting.”

He’s a powerful Congressman from a different state, but House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Chares Rangel (D-N.Y.) is the issue du jour in New Jersey’s two competitive House races.

Rangel helped raise a lot of money for Democrats Linda Stender and John Adler with a fundraiser and PAC donations. Now that he’s under fire for several allegedly unethical practices, cash strapped Republicans Leonard Lance and Chris Myers think their more well-off Democratic counterparts should give the Rangel-related money back.

This isn’t the first time that Republicans have raised Rangel as a campaign issue. But the recent editorial by the New York Times calling for Rangel to step down from his committee chairmanship has made it relevant once again to the Myers and Lance campaigns.

The Pindell Report, an independent analysis of state and federal races edited by Politicker.com's James W. Pindell, today upgraded the 3rd district House race from “Likely Democratic” to “Leans Democratic,” and said that the contest in the 7th district has become more competitive.

The ranking corresponds with more optimistic national prospects for Republicans, with presidential candidate John McCain surging in the two weeks since the Republican National Convention began.  In New Jersey, recent polls put McCain within three points of Barack Obama. 

“These are two longtime Republican seats.  Democrats haven't won the 3rd since 1882 and the 7th since 1956.  Republicans are getting over heated primaries, while Democrats had cleared the field for John Adler and Linda Stender,” said Pindell.  “While the Democrats have much more money, internal polls show this race to be getting a little closer.  If John McCain is getting the base behind him as polls suggest then Lance and Myers might have a shot after all.”

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Former 7th District Republican Congressional candidate P. Kelly Hatfield said that State Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Flemington) understands that if he wants to beat Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), he can’t ignore Union County.

Stender, a microbiologist and former Summit Council president, said she’s seen Lance a lot in her home county, and that he’s studied how Stender managed to get so close to winning in her 2006 campaign.

“He has to win Union County. A lot of the Republican towns went for Linda Stender in 2006, and Leonard knows this. He knows he has to win Summit, Clark and Westfield,” she said.

State Sen. Leonard Lance’s congressional campaign yesterday questioned why his Democratic rival, Assemblywoman Linda Stender, was so quick to give her campaign donations back to former Assemblyman Neil Cohen, but has kept larger donations from U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.).

Rangel has faced scrutiny for leasing four rent stabilized apartments in his Harlem home district—one of which he uses as a campaign office and pays for with campaign funds. Cohen resigned from his Assembly seat on Monday amid allegations that he had child pornography on a legislative office computer.

Voters of the 3rd and 7th Congressional Districts: meet Captain B.J. Hunnicutt.

Blue Jersey reports that a several liberal bloggers have commissioned a retaliatory robocall aimed at two congressional districts in New Jersey that were targeted with calls by Freedom’s Watch, a conservative advocacy group.

The call by Freedom’s Watch blames Democratic congressional candidates John Adler and Linda Stender, both state legislators, for doing nothing to repeal the state’s 14 cent gas tax.

New Jersey has the third lowest gas tax in the country.

The blogger-commissioned call stars actor Mike Farrell, who played the character B.J. Hunnicutt in M*A*S*H, associated the group with the Bush Administration.

Democratic congressional candidate John AdlerJohn Adler is the richest open seat congressional candidate in the nation, according to a report from Congressional Quarterly.

Adler, a Democrat, has approximately $1 million on hand in his quest for the open seat of retiring Republican Rep. Jim Saxton. Adler is unchallenged in the June 3rd Democratic primary, while three Republicans are enmeshed in a tough primary fight to take him on.

Meanwhile, 7th district Democratic candidate Linda Stender is the fourth richest open seat challenger, with about $845,000 on hand. Stender also faces no opposition in the primary, but there are seven Republicans competing for that party’s nomination, the richest of whom has amassed a little over one-third of Stender’s war chest.

Scotch Plains Mayor Marty Marks won the endorsement of New Jersey Right to Life for his 7th district congressional run.

Marks, a dentist who is running to the right of six other candidates in the hotly contested Republican primary, used the pro-life endorsement to bolster his conservative credentials. 

“This endorsement will provide a strong base of voters in both the primary and general election from which he can build for victory.  NRTL-PAC will utilize its various resources to help elect Martin Marks to Congress,” said the group’s director, Marie Tasy.