A.D. Amar

The other candidates in the 7th Congressional District GOP primary responded favorably to Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks’s challenge today for four debates.

"We are happy to debate," said Amanda Woloshen, spokeswoman for state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon). "We have actually already accepted a debate from Channel 9. Any opportunity for Leonard to express his record of true fiscal conservatism is always welcome."

Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks 

Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks today sent a letter to his opponents in the Republican 7th Congressional District Primary, challenging them to a series of four debates.

Marks said he wants four candidate debates, one each in Union, Hunterdon, Middlesex, and Somerset counties.

Senate Minority Leader Ton Kean, Jr. (R-Union), and Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon).

State Sen. Leonard Lance won the Somerset County Republican convention tonight, an important victory in his quest for the Republican nomination to succeed Rep. Mike Ferguson in the seventh congressional district.

Lance beat Whitman nearly 2-1, winning 136 votes to her 74 in the second round of balloting.

Hundreds of Somerset Republican County Committee members packed the Elks Lodge in Bridgewater tonight to participate in the event, where they also voted on Senate and freeholder candidates. But the seventh district congressional race was the real contest of the night.

“There were six candidates from Somerset County and I was able to prevail,” said Lance. “I think it shows that the Republican Party in Somerset County recognizes that I will be the agent of change in Washington.”

BRIDGEWATER - The frontrunners like to call it a three-way race.State Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon)

Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon), Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield and businesswoman Kate Whitman each won Hunterdon, Union and Middlesex respectively in their quest to be the Republican nominee in the 7th Congressional District.

Tonight’s Somerset County Republican Convention will likely thin the ranks of contenders and give one of the frontrunners a solid leg up on the rest of the nine-person field.

With only the Somerset convention remaining in a district that encompasses portions of four counties, the pressure to secure the endorsement of this county’s committee is on Whitman, who lives in Peapack-Gladstone.

After all, Lance won his home county of Hunterdon, and Hatfield won her home county of Union.

Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, Assemblyman Eric Munoz, Sen. Thomas Kean, and U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson soak in one of the speeches.

WESTFIELD - The word going into that first round of voting at the Union County Republican Convention on Saturday was that former Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield and Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks would require a second showdown.

"This is going to a runoff between the top two candidates," said John DeSimone, commissioner for the county Board of Elections as he waded into the crowd of delegates. And that’s exactly how it went down at Westfield High School, where Hatfield eventually prevailed over Marks with 60 % of the vote in the Union County GOP’s pre-primary battle for the line in the 7th District Congressional race.

U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson faces the crowd in Hunterdon.

FLEMINGTON- After hearing one of his would-be successors refer dismally to his recent re-election struggles, retiring U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson of the 7thdistrict went to the microphone to offer a good-natured rebuttal.

"When I saw Mike Ferguson going down steadily," Dr. A.D. Amar, a professor of business management at Seton Hall University and low or no-hoper in this GOP primary race, said in his remarks, he felt compelled to get more involved in politics.

"He won with only 3,000 votes," Amar reminded the crowd in Plaza One in Flemington, and there was an uneasy murmuring as people glanced nervously at Ferguson, who stood smiling amid a cluster of other ruffled Republicans.

"Democrats are making huge inroads into the district," said Amar, standing under a portrait of President George W. Bush.

State Sen. Leonard Lance makes his case as one of his opponents, Warren Township Mayor Victor Sordillo, looks on.

FLEMINGTON - State Sen. Leonard Lance flattened the other 7th Congressional district primary candidates in his home county tonight at a meeting of the Hunterdon County Republicans, and specifically targeted Kate Whitman in his speech to the county committee.

In his most animated remarks so far on the campaign trail, the former minority leader vowed to fight the terrorists and fight the Taliban, and quoted Lincoln’s "America is still the world’s last best hope on earth."