Mike Ferguson (New Jersey politician)

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Mike Ferguson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 7th district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Bob Franks
Born	June 22, 1970 (1970-06-22) (age 37) Ridgewood, New Jersey
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Maureen Ferguson
Religion	Roman Catholic

Michael A. "Mike" Ferguson (b. June 22, 1970, Ridgewood, New Jersey) is an American Republican Party politician who has been a member of the United States House of Representatives representing New Jersey's 7th congressional district since 2001.

Ferguson announced on November 19, 2007, that he will not run for re-election in 2008, stating that he wants to spend more time with his family.^[1]

[edit] Early career

Ferguson attended the Delbarton School, the University of Notre Dame and has an M.P.A. from the Georgetown University.

Before running for Congress he worked as a teacher at a private school, and worked as a part time as an instructor at a community college.^[2]

Ferguson was Executive Director of the Catholic Campaign for America, whose board members include William Bennett, Tom Monaghan and Mary Ellen Bork (wife of Robert Bork). Other notable members of the Catholic Campaign for America include Rick Santorum and Pat Buchanan. He also served as the executive director of the Better Schools Foundation, which was founded by Lamar Alexander and whose purpose was to promote the use of school vouchers.

[edit] Congressional career

Ferguson is currently the youngest member of the New Jersey Congressional delegation. Ferguson originally sought office in the 6th Congressional District in 1998, even though he had never lived or voted in the 6th district prior to seeking the Republican nomination. He was defeated by Democratic incumbent Frank Pallone. In 1999, Ferguson moved to the 7th district where Republican incumbent Bob Franks had announced his retirement to run for the United States Senate. Ferguson defeated Thomas Kean Jr. in the 2000 congressional primary. He engaged in a difficult election campaign against the Democratic candidate, former Fanwood mayor Maryanne Connelly but won the election, receiving 50% of the vote.

After the 2000 election, Tom Kean Jr. subsequently sued Mike Ferguson and the Council for Responsible Government (a 527 group headquartered in Virginia). The complaint alleged that Ferguson and the Council illegally coordinated their messaging. The complaint also alleged that the Council funded and distributed a brochure under the guise of a nonpartisan group while acting as a partisan advocacy group on behalf of Ferguson ([1]).

In June 2003, after a three-year dispute with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Congressman Ferguson agreed to pay $210,000 for a loan that he made to his campaign during his first election of $525,000 from a trust established for the Congressman by his parents. The FEC claimed that this loan from the trust equated to a gift from his parents. According to Federal law, the cap on personal contributions from an individual to a candidate is capped at $25,000 per election cycle. The fine was one of the highest ever paid to the FEC. Ferguson maintained that he did nothing wrong.^[3]

Ferguson received the third most money of all recipients of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's ARMPAC campaign contributions. DeLay is being prosecuted on charges of felony money laundering of campaign finances and conspiracy to launder money. To date, Ferguson has not offered to return any of the $54,403 he received from DeLay or ARMPAC, despite calls from Democrats to do so ([2], [3]).

In 2006, Mike Ferguson fought off a tight race with Democratic state legislator Linda Stender. Stender portrayed Ferguson as too conservative for the district and associated him with President Bush, who was extremely unpopular at the time in New Jersey. The Seventh district had a slight Republican lean, and Stender managed to defeat Ferguson in the more liberal suburban counties of Middlesex and Union, but Ferguson held on to the more Conservative areas in Somerset and Hunterdon Counties, and only kept Stender to slim victory in Union County. Nevertheless, he only defeated Stender by just over 3,000 votes and a margin of less than 2%.^[4]

Ferguson's voting record is moderate by national Republican standards. His lifetime American Conservative Union rating is 74, second-highest in the state's congressional delegation.

[edit] Committee Assignments

• Energy and Commerce Committee
  • Subcommittee on Health
  • Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet

[edit] Controversy

• Ferguson was accused of grabbing a young woman by the arm at a local college bar in Georgetown. According to the young woman, 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." Ferguson and witnesses at the bar denied the young woman's version of the event, including the bar manager who stated he witnessed the whole thing and who stated the story and subsequent related Democratic flier were "false and fabricated". The event has been used by his opposition to paint Ferguson negatively, but those tactics have largely backfired.^[5][6]
• Prior to Ferguson's latest election, there were people holding signs in the center of the town Fanwood, New Jersey, when a 16 year old kid with a blue mohawk starts yelling out "Vote Linda Stender" who was his opponent in the race. When Ferguson showed up in a coach bus, the group of people holding signs followed him, and the 16 year old followed them still shouting "Vote Stender" (but now with his shirt off and the name STENDER written across his chest). After having enough of the kid yelling, Ferguson tells the people he is with to "ignore him, he's just an idiot kid."

[edit] Electoral history

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Congressman Mike Ferguson official U.S. House website
• Mike Ferguson for U.S. Congress official campaign website

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Staff salary data at LegiStorm.com
• Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia
• Dump Mike Ferguson anti-Ferguson site