Thomas Roughneen

MOUTAINSIDE - Sen. Leonard Lance goes for in-the-chamber gravitas inSen. Leonard Lance and his wife, Heidi, on Thursday night after the debate his closing remarks, and goes after Assemblywoman Linda Stender, the Democratic candidate for the 7th Congressional District.

After fielding blows from Roughneen, Whitman and Marks, Lance compliments them all for their various professional qualities, and makes positive comments about the other candidates, including Professor AD Amar and former Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield.

"What I would like to think I bring to this race is experience in Trenton on the transcendent issue of our time - fiscal responsibility," says the state senator, who wants to take a shot at reducing the country’s $10 trillion debt.

MOUNTAINSIDE - With State Sen. Leonard Lance staying out of theState Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) line of fire, Martin Marks and Thomas Roughneen let off some steam.

As part of a two-minute statement, and in a clear diss of Lance, Scotch Plains Mayor Marks says he has been "unafraid" to confront leaders in his own party.

"Anybody in the Legislature is by definition a failure on the critical issue of property taxes," Marks says. "Republicans held it (power) in 90s, Democrats held it in this decade, and I ask you why do we keep going back tot he people who fail us?"

Roughneen piggy-backs on that, but expands the criticism to include Marks.

"I have not been part of this," Roughneen says of the leadership by both parties that has created what he says is a property tax crisis in New Jersey.

Tom Roughneen 

MOUNTAINSIDE - With his campaign manager vigorously shaking her head ‘no,’ Sen. Leonard Lance complies and doesn’t respond to Tom Roughneen’s opening blast in the 7th Congressional District GOP debate.

Roughneen ridicules Lance’s Sierra Club endorsement and criticizes him for mentioning the use of corn husks as an energy alternative.

"We have oil, we need to drill it and we need to take care of ourselves," says Roughneen.

Ignoring the Iraq War veteran, Lance keeps with a question from moderator Fred Rossi about whether he would support making the Bush tax cuts permanent. He responds in the affirmative.

State Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) in Flemington.

FLEMINGTON - Ask a Bush-era Republican to name an American statesman he admires and more times than not he will invoke Ronald Reagan. But State Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) invariably gives a different answer to the question.

"I have self-identified with Dwight Eisenhower as an ideal to which I will strive," says the 7th Congressional District candidate. "Dwight Eisenhower brought people together. He was a uniter not a divider, who strongly believed in balancing the federal budget and not robbing our children and our grandchildren of their future."

The Eisenhower model has particular relevance now, according to Lance, who calls fiscal responsibility the transcendent home-front issue as America stares at a $10 trillion debt. The state senator further praises Eisenhower for extracting American forces from Korea when he did, and for not involving the country in other foreign wars, unlike his successors.

Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks 

SCOTCH PLAINS - There sits Mayor Martin Marks at his desk in Town Hall and he doesn’t look as ruffled as he might.

It’s not that he isn’t in a fight, or unwilling to start a scrap in the lulls that are fewer and fewer now with 14 days to go in this 7th Congressional District Republican Primary. Indeed, the self-described "across the board conservative Republican" seizes every opportunity to bash the record of presumptive frontrunner state Sen. Leonard Lance.

"Nice guy, a gentleman," admits Marks. "But people like Leonard Lance play fast and loose with the term conservative. A moderate? All right. But not conservative. He’s pro choice. And he’s going around bragging that he’s gotten the endorsement of the Sierra Club. That’s not conservative."

Kate Whitman 

BRANCHBURG - Next door to the pizza parlor where Kate Whitman pauses before working the backroom of local Republicans two weeks before Election Day stands a Cryan’s Ale House.

Someone throws the name of the tavern owned by the family of State Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Cryan in her direction, and the 31-year old daughter of former Gov. Christie Todd Whitman smiles with recognition.

"I grew up just up the street, and I went to Cryan’s all the time," says the 7th Congressional District candidate.

But if she pleasantly surprised some of her opponents who thought she would come into the race with riding crop and foxhounds, she also encountered a party that gave her and her family a jolt bordering on disrespect, as she failed to secure party backing based on her mother’s clout and lost three of the district’s four organizational lines in the pre-primary.

Tom Roughneen 

In his dogged fight to stay relevant and competitive against the reality of state Sen. Leonard Lance’s big organizational advantages heading into their 7th Congressional District primary, Thomas Roughneen tonight talked strategy with his allies in a conference call.

The former Essex County prosecutor and Iraq War veteran faces a Thursday night debate with the other competitors in this Republican Primary fight, including businesswoman Kate Whitman, former Summit Council Vice-President Kelly Hatfield, Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks, Seton Hall business professor A.D. Amar, Murray Sabrin-running mate Darren Young, and Lance.

The debate will be the last of the cycle with two weeks to go before Election Day.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), left, and Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Union). 

FANWOOD - Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Union) flexed her party muscles today as she toured a senior care facility here with chief deputy whip in the U.S. House, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), and defended herself against attacks from prospective general election rivals.

Stender, the Democrats’ nominee in the 7th District Congressional District, and Wasserman Schultz, co-chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue program, underscored their commitment to universal health care, Medicare and Social Security.

“We need to elect someone with a conscience, who understands that health care should be a high priority,” said Wasserman Shultz, sitting with Stender in the parlor of the Chelsea at Fanwood. “That’s why I’m here, to highlight Linda’s promising candidacy.”

Thomas RoughneenAn administrative law judge today ruled that Thomas Roughneen’s petitions are in good order, and told the 7th Congressional District candidate he could continue to compete in the Republican primary.

Emilio Dabul of South Plainfield had challenged 79 of Roughneen’s 273 petitions but did not attend court in Elizabeth today, according to Roughneen. Yesterday Dabul would not say if any of the candidates had asked him to challenge Roughneen’s petitions.

Former Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield and Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks said they had nothing to do with the petitions challenge.

Thomas RoughneenThe lovefest Republican forums the candidates in the 7th district Congressional race enjoyed in the pre-primary season have come to an end, as the remaining candidates jockey for power in the lead-up to Election Day on June 3.

The first target appears to be Thomas Roughneen of Watchung.

Hailed as a war hero by his rivals, Roughneen today finds himself before an administrative law judge in the Board of Elections office in Elizabeth on a challenge to his petition signatures made by Emilio Dabul of South Plainfield. Two-hundred signatures are required, and Roughneen has 273. Dabul has called into question 79 of Roughneen’s signatures.