Last week a letter to the editor ran from a 14 year old girl named Lindsey Rosenthal from Belle Mead.  Lindsey has juvenile diabetes, and tried to talk with Mike Ferguson about supporting embryonic stem cell research to find a cure.  Ferguson's staff would not let her, saying that "we cannot even discuss this issue with him because it is against 'pro life.'"

That's right.  He refused to talk with a 14 year old girl about finding a cure for her lifelong disease.  Well, Lindsey recorded a radio ad for Linda Stender, and you can listen to it right now.

After you listen, remember that Ferguson is the same man who told Tricia Riccio that her paralyzed son would never walk again and refused to discuss embryonic stem cell research with her as well.  This race is about a lot of things, but one of the biggest is that Mike Ferguson wants to prevent Lindsey Rosenthal and Carl Riccio from receiving cures to their ailments because of a theory.  When we vote him out, we bring these two young people hope and maybe a cure.

The majority of Mike Ferguson's (R-NJ7) campaign to date has been to say, "Stender is a Spender, Stender is a Spender, Stender is a Spender" over and over and over again.  His campaign manager, who we assume is actually Dr. Seuss, appears to instruct his candidate to run away from President Bush, never talk about embryonic stem cell research and for goodness sake avoid the hell out of talking about abortion, contraceptives and women's rights.

After a long night of hard work and consideration, Campaign Manager Seuss has come up with yet another way to distract the public from Ferguson's right wing record.  And we have a photo!

Last week we learned that Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-NJ7) had taken $3,000 in campaign cash from Rep. Mark Foley, a Congressman who used his power and authority to engage in cybersex with underage teenage boys.

Of course, just taking money from one sexual deviant doesn't mean anything.  I mean, Foley gave money to a lot of different people.

What if it is two?

I have maintained over time that Mike Ferguson is not such a bad guy or father, but an incompetent and weak Congressman who makes wrong choices for his district and our country.  The guy is, I've said, a lightweight who has been propelled forward by rich parents, powerful forces from the religous right, and corrupt DC Republicans like Tom DeLay, Bob Ney and Jack Abramoff.

But sometimes you have to wonder if he is a lightweight or just meanspirited like the rest of the DC Republican leadership.  Check out this from Tom Moran's column in the Star Ledger:

In the past week we have seen two powerful politicians knows for getting things done plead guilty and prepare to go to jail.  One is local Democratic boss John Lynch of Middlesex County who plead guilty to corruption charges for taking money as a consultant in return for taking action as a State Senator.  The other is Republican Congressman Bob Ney (OH), who also plead guilty to corruption charges for taking money as a consultant in return for taking action as a United States Congressman.

Both men chose to betray their constituents and their parties by misusing their power, and both were always ready to spread money around to keep their positions and garner favor with other politicians.

In March 2005, Mike Ferguson announced the following [pdf] in questioning the director of the National Institute of Health:

Of course, the question of when life begins is not a question of someone's personal ethics or their religion or anything else. It is a question of science. I think that is important to note for the record.

I will give Mike $200.00 from my own checkbook for his campaign if he can show me one scientific experiement that proves life begins when an egg is fertilized.  One that conclusively shows that it is that moment, and not when the fertilized egg attaches to the uterus.  Or when the fetus could live on its own outside the womb.  Or at 24 weeks.  Or when you can see fingers on the untrasound.  

Seriously.  $200.00 from my checking account he can report to the Federal Election Commission and use as proof that I have supported his campaign in return for one scientific experiment that proves a fertilized egg is a human being.

If anyone had any worries that Linda Stender was just going to take what Mike Ferguson <R-NJ7) dished out and not fight back hard, the new radio ad she unleashed today should change that notion!  Ferguson tried to be clever in his ads calling his opponent, "Linda Stender is a Spender" but the fact is that in Congress Ferguson has voted for record spending, record deficits and record debt.</p>

Linda isn't afraid to point this out, or the fact that Ferguson is trying to hide his record behind clever attack ads.  And that gas prices and gas company profits have risen while Ferguson gave tax breaks to oil barons.  It's good to hear a competitor like Linda get on the air early and aggressively.

<center>Click to listen to or download the ad!</center>

On Friday we reported that Linda Stender raised an amazing $431,885 in the second quarter.  It's an amazing feat, and really places her in an excellent position to defeat Mike Ferguson in NJ's 7th district.

Today we have even more excellent news: Ferguson filed his numbers for the quarter and Linda out raised him by $87,593.95, or more than 25 percent.  

Ferguson's $344,291.05 in the second quarter is $15,000 less than his first quarter numbers.  Usually the second quarter is much better than the first, especially because Linda did not announce she was running until February, and there was no pressure to raise money in 1Q06.

This leads me to believe that Ferguson is not getting the support he would like from the Republican party and the PACs.  As Charlie Cook and other Chuck Todd continue to rate NJ7 competitive, you would think the right wing supporters of Ferguson would leap to his defense.