On Monday Daily Kos, MyDD, and Swing State Project, who collaborate on the Actblue Netroots page, added four new candidates. I blogged about
Jim Webb, Chris Bowers about
Jerry McNerney, and DavidNYC about
Paul Hodes. Below is the post Matt Stoller wrote on behalf of Linda Stender in NJ's 7th Congressional District.
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By Matt Stoller
The Northeast is ripe for a change, and by supporting Linda Stender in her campaign against extremist Mike Ferguson, we can make that change happen. 1994 is seen as a bellweather year for the Republican Party, the year that the country rejected Clintonian liberalism, but the reality is that the Republicans didn't shift the country that year so much as they were able to jettison a host of Southern moderate Democrats. If 2006 is going to see a change in who controls the House similar to 1994, the political shift is going to have to take place in moderate Northeastern/mid-Atlantic districts like New Jersey's seventh. Spanning Hunterdon, Somerset, Union, and Middlesex Counties, the seventh district is in the north central areas of the state, and is an economic satellite of ultra-blue New York City.
The district has been held by a Republican since 1956, and was the home of a genuinely moderate Bob Franks until he ran for Senate in 2000, when Ferguson won his seat. Mike Ferguson is the son of incredibly wealthy parents, and is as entitled and creepy as he is right-wing. Bush won the district with 53% of the vote in 2004, and Ferguson beat his underfinanced opponent in 2004 by a 57-41 margin. North Jersey is a difficult area in which to unseat incumbents, sitting in the middle of a very expensive New York media market, but this year, the conditions are ripe.
Enter Linda Stender, and as importantly, the New Jersey netroots. Stender is an experienced progressive politician, and if elected will be the only woman in the New Jersey Congressional delegation. She was first elected as a local Councilwoman in Fanwood in 1988, progressing to Mayor, and then to Union County Freeholder, and finally to the State Assembly in 2001. Stender is a strong progressive and a good candidate who will cause serious problems for Ferguson's undeserved moderate image. She's using her support of stem cell research to highlight his extremism, a tactic that was very effective in the 2005 New Jersey governor's race. Stem cell research and reproductive rights are a clear point of contrast with Mike Ferguson, who not only opposes stem cell research but backs both a constitutional amendment banning abortion and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Stender also backs net neutrality, with Ferguson cosponsoring the awful COPE Act that neuters it.
While Ferguson is a monster on women's rights, Stender can count as one of her legislative accomplishments in the New Jersey Assembly a bill (A992) which prohibits pharmacists from refusing to dispense medication solely for philosophical, moral or religious reasons. Ferguson, who has an anti-choice record that makes Tom Delay proud, is now in a box, trying to pretend like his extremist record fits a moderate district. That's going to be tough against a straight talker like Stender, who doesn't hesitate to say things like 'Bush took us to Iraq on a lie'. It's pretty clear that Stender is with progressives on the big issues, and the small ones.
It's going to be especially tough for Ferguson to paint himself as a moderate because of his legacy of scandals and personal misbehavior. He won his 2000 using money from a trust fund his right-wing tycoon parents had set up for him, which netted him a $210,000 fine from the FEC after the commission determined it was in fact an illegal campaign contribution. Since then, he's worked as Tom Delay's lacky, but my favorite scandal is his drunken appearance at a Georgetown bar hitting on college students.
In his dark suit, knotted tie and official congressional ID pin on his lapel, Republican House member Mike Ferguson looked out of place at the Rhino Bar and Pumphouse, a Georgetown saloon popular with college kids.
"He shouldn't have even been at the bar," 21-year-old Georgetown University junior Michelle Mezoe told us. "He and his group" - two unidentified staffers, also wearing suits - "stuck out like sore thumbs."
Yesterday Mezoe accused the congressman, a 32-year-old married father of three representing New Jersey's 7th District, of grabbing her in the wee hours Wednesday morning. She said Ferguson removed his ID pin and handed it to her, saying she could keep it if she would "come back and have a drink with me." Mezoe said she refused to return it unless Ferguson apologized for his "disrespectful" behavior. ...
A Ferguson staffer tried to change her mind. "This guy in a suit came up and said, 'I'm sorry, it's my fault. I brought him here and got him drunk, and that's why he's behaving like this.' He asked for the pin and started stroking my hand. I told him, 'If you think you're helping the situation, you are sadly mistaken.' "
The whole article is worth reading, but the bottom line is that Ferguson is a rich, creepy, and entitled pervert who has passed as a moderate Republican for way too long.
Linda Stender's campaign is real. After a terrific fundraising quarter, Stender was endorsed by the Sierra Club, EMILY's List, NARAL, Garden State Equality, the Human Rights Campaign, the New Jersey AFL-CIO, and Democracy for America.
And finally, one of the best local blogospheres in the country is located in New Jersey. Bluejersey.net is simply amazing, and DumpMike was the first single district blog. I believe that DumpMike existed before Stender came into the race. This is particularly important in a state like New Jersey that has such an expensive media market.
In Linda Stender, we have a strongly progressive candidate in a blue-trending mid-Atlantic district facing a right-wing out of touch weirdo, with a superb local blogosphere backing her up. If 2006 is going to be our year, it's going to happen because of districts like this, and candidates like Linda Stender.
LindaStenderForCongress.com