GOP Congressman Ferguson Retiring
Yet another Republican incumbent is set to retire from the House — and his seat could potentially be a top target for the Democrats. Four-term Congressman Mike Ferguson (R-NJ) has announced his retirement, releasing a statement saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.
Ferguson's district went for President Bush by a 53%-46% margin in 2004, meaning that Republicans do have a shot to retain it. On the other hand, the Republicans have gone way downhill since then, and 2006 Dem nominee Linda Stender lost by only one point in 2006 — and she is already running again.
PolitickerNJ reports that Republicans might already have a strong candidate in the wings: Tom Kean Jr., who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2006 and has since become the state Senate Minority Leader. Back in 2000, Kean lost to Ferguson in the primary for this very seat.
Late Update: Kean has announced that he is not running. Republicans are now focusing on Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick, while Democrats are closing ranks about Stender.
Tom Kean is going to be a bit conflicted about running because of his recent promotion in the NJ Senate. That being said, he will be a strong candidate if he runs...he's a very nice guy, has a good organization and will benefit greatly from his father's aura.
November 19, 2007 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
No surprise there. Ferguson and his wife had a contract to buy a house on Capitol Hill when 9/11 happened. The wife freaked out & they tried to back out of the contract, but the seller insisted. The Fergusons wound up selling the house at a loss in 2003. This is one case where I'm willing to believe the "more time with family" line, given Maureen Ferguson's desire to be nowhere near DC.
November 19, 2007 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Uh-oh! A GOP Congressman wants to "spend more time with his family"? So was he caught with a prostitute or propsitioning strangers in a men's room? It's kinda hard to keep track of the "family values" crowd without a scorecard.
November 19, 2007 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, his father's aura isn't quite what it used to be and it didn't help Junior too much in his race against Menendez, now did it? Neither did dropping the suffix. And if he's such a nice guy maybe next time he can run a campaign as such.
November 19, 2007 1:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe we need a list of who's left. Sort of like an "elimination list" for people potentially leaving the island.
November 19, 2007 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
NJ-07 was already rated "lean retention" in the latest race-by-race house ratings of Campaign Diaries -- and Kean or not Kean, it will likely soon jump to toss-up.
November 19, 2007 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course, ruminating on WHY repubs do any of the stuff they do (other than white-cronyism and greed) will usually drive you insane. I think the cronyism and greed about covers it.
I have not been able to figger out why so many are retiring. It CANNOT be solely because they smell such a change in the air, so much anti-repub that they are just quitting?
How about....they know something we don't know? I try not to give into such speculation...but what if it is more than just the anti-republican sentiment driving them from their cushy posts. What if they KNOW something is coming that is going to result in martial-law, crackdowns, anti-goverment upswelling in general (the kind that get's your head separated from your body) that has their knees shaking? Perhaps the repub leaders have passed around a "get-out-now-if-you-don't-have-the-stomach-for-what -is-to-come" warning?
I don't just dream this stuff up because I want to. We all know the repubs...they twist arms. They would have kept these people in their safe seats if they could. They would not risk all these open runs at open seats willingly. They have never given up power and the ability to steal americans blind - just so they could spend more time with their family. In fact, you could make a case that their motto IS to ignore family and values and soul in order to be a cog in the wallet fattening ranks of the right wing corporate takeover of government. Congresscritters stepping down of their own volition violates everything repubs stand for.
So why are so many quietly stepping down?
November 19, 2007 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it is very interesting about Ferguson's anouncement to step down. To take a stand on campaign issues visit www.mitchellinteractive.com its a great site!!
November 19, 2007 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, DickTater, I don't think it's anything that nefarious. I think that the Repubs expect an absolute wipeout and really don't want to be the party's sacrificial lambs - looks bad in the history books. I may have gotten my tenses a bit mixed, but I bet you know what I mean.
November 19, 2007 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with mkolb; there are Bad Things coming for America, but it's because of the huge debt and the trashing of the armed forces and the destruction of our international reputation. Whoever's in office when the fecal matter truly hits the fan takes the blame, so the smart ones are bailing now.
November 19, 2007 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I dunno...
On the one hand, DickTater makes a good point, if you view it through the same lens that kept Mark Foley in the House when the Repubs would have been much better off letting him quit. (Of course, that's hindsight, I suppose.)
On the other hand, it might be that they just took all the shackles off of everybody and are planning to make 2008 "a rebuilding year" (as they say in the sports biz).
I'm in the middle. I'm not so sure it's about crackdowns and martial law as perhaps the inevitable coming financial disaster (depression) that they hope to forestall until 2009 and blame on the Democrats. I think Repubs see the coming market meltdown as their One Great Chance to reverse the New Deal. The party in power always gets blamed for a recession, and this next one will likely be a doozy.
-- ARG
November 19, 2007 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the replies. I just have never known these grasping, grinding, squeezing, nose-to-the-grindstone buggers to EVER let a nickel to slip past them.
I am beyond rationalizing their motives and giving them low marks for (mkolb) nefariousness. They have always done splendidly (the corporate class) during dem admins, and then obscenely well during repub admins. I think the mask is off...the corporation takeover is complete and their need to hide the levers of power behind government and the corporate hands that really wield the levers - is gone.
I think a shakeup or end of government (possibly) is on the horizon and these folks want to be well away from it. They are willing to ride out dem admins....in fact they have done very well RUINING dem admins (Carter, Clinton). This is how they erode dem achievements, poison pill the legislation that is passed, and pounce on any wind-changes as soon as they happen. They have not got their dem-ruining skills honed by fleeing the field whenever a dem comes to power.
No, like Melkor(Morgoth) their goals are achieved whenever they can mar OUR goals. The Valar went about making a perfect, wonderful world but Melkor was always there...scorching or freezing, upheaving flat lands, renting asunder the valleys, poisoning the waters, riling the oceans, etc.
Anyways, saying WHOA WHOA DickTater...not so fast... It can't be all that bad...
doesn't hold much water for me. They have proven WORSE than we can imagine at so many levels...and our worst attribute as americans is not seeing how HUGE the stakes are (environment, US Values/Identity) and not waking up from our comfortable illusions. It is definitely as bad as we fear, and most probably much worse.
November 19, 2007 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's an idea: TPM should keep an updated list of who's out and for what reason. I count 17 GOP reps and senators who have resigned or decided not to seek reelection. Are there more?
November 19, 2007 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, Mr. Tater, I would suspect that if the whole martial law thing was coming down, that these scum-sucking democracy-hating Republicans would want to retain their positions in government, so as not to be mistaken for the commoners who would be rounded up and sent to Halliburton-built and Blackwater-staffed domestic Abu Ghraibs. So I don't think that's the reason for the mass retirements. I have to admit, I've wondered, as you have, as to why they're all leaving without a fight. Perhaps being in the minority in Congress just sucks? Hard to believe that it's worse than working for a living.
November 19, 2007 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
It will be interesting if Kean runs in this district. He's already been framed as a stuffed suit during the senate campaign, but he would bring in a flood of cash.
This district is designed to barely lean red, hopefully Stender's momentum from last election can carry through to this race.
November 19, 2007 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
uhm, in case you didn't notice, that whole "Martial Law" thing turns out to be a suicide pact
musharif declared martial law, and now musharif has an expiration date
i think the bushies have figured out that a declaration of martial law in America ends with george's head on a pike
musharif's head is being measured for a spike as we speak
November 19, 2007 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've been wondering if they are retiring because now that there are some Dems in & likely to be more they are hoping that if they get out they won't be swept into a criminal investigation for all the illegal crap they've been involved in the past seven years. I would like a score card too.
November 19, 2007 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
ARG, I'm with you. The biggest current untold story (sadly, even neglected by TPM for the most part) is the meltdown of the world financial system. The financial mandarins behind the scenes are pouring unprecedented amounts of liquidity into the system to keep things floating. The system is groaning under a mountain of debt and worthless paper - SIVs, CDOs, a bevy of inscrutible dirivitive vehicles which are no more than gambling chits. The Fed and Central Banks have dynamited the dams, opened the sluice-gates (pick your own deluge metaphor) and unleashed a torrent of paper that might as well be gasoline being poured directly on the fire. Its not so much to save the GOP (tho its a secondary consideration)as it is to save their own asses. The GOP is just a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Evil Global Financial Oligarchy (TM). I don't discount Dick's worries about martial law, either. A lot can happen, mostly bad, in the wake of a systemic breakdown of the entire world system, which of course is much more inter-connected now than it was in 1929-33. Look what Germany got in '33. Also, there were no nukes back then. There wasn't a bunch of specialty shops like Blackwater in this country itchin' for juicy contracts to "keep order" in the "homeland". Oh, it could get very dystopian-SciFi-futurama-scary fast, especialtivly if we get an authoritarian type such as Benito Ghouliana in there.
November 19, 2007 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ferguson is stepping down because the post just broke the story of him getting drunk and assualting college girls in a gerogetown bar:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23714-2003Apr3?language=printer
My favoreite part is the staffer who told the woman "You have offended the congressman" after she told him she wasnt interested.
November 19, 2007 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ed, Unless he grabbed a SECOND georgetown student, that story has been around for years. Stender even produced a damn effective mailer about it during the 06 campaign.
Luckily for Mikey the event didn't get much press b/c there is so much going on in the local media market.
November 19, 2007 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
The reason they're retiring is because they just do not like life in the minority. Having spent a decade in the majority, and knowing how they treated the Democrats, they don't like it, and don't want to put up with the grief. After all, why work hard to solve problems if you can't get your way. In their defense, the Dems did much the same thing when it was their turn.
November 19, 2007 6:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
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November 19, 2007 7:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Kean Jr. opting out on this race surely helps Linda Stender as I'm sure he was the GOP's strongest candidate for the seat. I'm sure she still could've beaten him but it will be easier without him in the race.
OT: Did the Ohio GOP ever find anybody to run against Mary Jo Kilroy for Deborah Pryce's open seat? I know there was talk about a state senator hopping in but I never heard if he officially made the jump.
November 20, 2007 12:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe they are stepping down to spend more time with their money or their lawyering up etc. But maybe things are so bad and getting worse that you'd have to be a fool to want to get in now! Enviro disaster, economic disaster, terrorist attack on massive scale, IRAQ, Pakistan, China, Russia -- huge problems are distinct possibilities really soon. Anyone with enough sense (Gore?) knows it would be crazy to be in government when the shit hits the fan. Maybe even some of these republican rats can sense it.
Morgoth! the Valar! lol
November 20, 2007 1:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
It CANNOT be solely because they smell such a change in the air, so much anti-repub that they are just quitting?
They've had the "carpet of gold or carpet of bombs" chat with some enforcer out of CheneyInc.
"We need your cooperation, and we have knowledge that could ruin not only your career in government, but effectively destroy your livelihood, reputation, possibly your marriage and family life.
You can cooperate or resign. Either way you'll say nothing to anyone."
It probably wasn't put as baldly as that, but I'm sure the message was clear.
November 20, 2007 8:12 AM | Reply | Permalink