Breaking: Ferguson retiring from Congress

4:50 PM -- Congressman Mike Ferguson announced today he is retiring from Congress and will not seek a fifth term next year.

This is excellent news for Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), who nearly beat Ferguson in the last election and is tooling up for next fall's run.

No doubt the GOP found the challenge daunting. Ferguson has been closely allied with Bush policies throughout both terms -- at one point polling a 97% support rate for Bush policies.

With every indication that he understood this would not be the election to campaign in as a 'good Bushie', Ferguson has recently attempted to re-invent himself as a more moderate, old-fashioned center-right Republican, but without much success it seems.

If the GOP can't pull a rabbit out of the hat, the next important question is who the Union County Dem machine will put up to replace Linda in Trenton.

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On the Web --

• AP: "New Jersey Rep. Ferguson says won't run for re-election"

-- Dan Damon

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