Dale Florio

BRIDGEWATER - Citing his disagreement with the political process, Bridgewater Councilman Michael Hsing declined to participate in the Somerset County Republican Convention on Thursday night.

A candidate for Congress in the 7th District, Hsing wrote a letter to Somerset County GOP Chairman Dale Florio before the meeting and told him he would not be in attendance.

Senate candidate Murray Sabrin plans to attend the Somerset County Republican convention tonight, but he may not be allowed to participate.

Republican Chairman Dale Florio told Sabrin spokesman George Ajjan that Sabrin is welcome to take part, but only if he pledges not to run an alternate slate of freeholder candidates.

The convention will formally endorse a U.S. Senate candidate, along with a Congressional candidate in the seventh district -- which is expected to be the real contest of the evening.

“They could not commit to me that they would not run a slate of candidates, so I advised them that they would be unable to participate in our screening process,” said Florio.

Manville Mayor Angelo Corradino lost his bid for re-election to a fifth termA bowling alley named Tenpin Lanes stands in the center of Manville, between a pair of Superfund sites that are the remnants of the town’s bulldozed factory era.

The alley for years has been a source of entertainment and relaxation for the hard luck blue collar work force here, and for Angelo Corradino, the borough’s longest serving mayor who straddled the transition Manville made from factories to shopping malls, and who earlier this month lost by 78 votes in his bid for a fifth term in office.

An old high school linebacker and longsuffering Jets and Mets fan who spent 19 years as an elected official in Manville, the past 16 of those as mayor, Corradino says rumors that he wanted to go full time with an annual salary of $95,000 sank his chances of re-election.

Linda Stender thought she'd face Mike Ferguson in 2008; now she's seeking a rare open seatU.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson today became the second New Jersey Republican Congressman in as many weeks to announce he would not run for another term.

Amid the smoldering remains of the Bush era, Iraq, the aftershock of Ferguson's life and death struggle in the last election, and news this month that he missed a vote on flood relief, Democrats were convinced they could hear him crying uncle.

Not so, said the 37-year old Ferguson, whose statement today indicated that he wants to spend more time with his growing family.

"Do you have kids?" wondered Somerset County Republican Party Chairman Dale Florio, in deference to the congressman's public rationale for departure.

Warren Township Mayor Victor Sordillo is a possible candidate for Congress, says Somerset GOP Chairman Dale FlorioDale Florio, chairman of the Somerset County Republican Party, said he was still stunned by the news today that 7th district U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson would not pursue re-relection in 2008.

Nonetheless, "I respect his decision to care for a growing family," said Florio, who credited Ferguson with being a good watchdog of taxpayers' dollars and a strong advocate for homeland security.

"He is a good friend and a good congressman," Florio added.

The Somerset County chairman said he's sure there will be some horseplay in the coming days as the party considers its stable of would-be successors.

Somerset County hasn’t elected a Democratic Freeholder since 1979, but Democrats think that this year they just might be able to capitalize on Republican misfortune and pull it off.

This year, two women from the small town of Green Brook are battling it out to see whether the county’s five-member freeholder board will remain all Republican, or whether it will be joined by a lone Democratic voice for the first time since 1982, after Christie Whitman took the seat from Michael Ceponis. The Democrats have fielded Green Brook Committeewoman Melonie Marano, while Republican’s have tapped the town’s mayor, Patricia Walsh.

Republican Anne Evans Estabrook will take the next step in her fledgling bid for the 2008 Republican nomination for United States Senate over the next few weeks with the formation of an exploratory committee, according to her campaign consultant, Larry Weitzner.

The 60-year-old millionaire real estate developer and former New Jersey Chamber of Commerce President wants to take on 83-year-old Democrat Frank R. Lautenberg, who wants to run for a fifth term next year.

But although she's contributed heavily to Republican candidates in the past -- and to some Democrats, like Bob Menendez and Linda Stender -- at a time when her party is still shaking off the hurt of recent statewide losses and standing up on shaky legs, Estabrook will face tough questions in a GOP primary.

Her biggest trouble is lack of support.

"I don't even know her," said Morris County GOP Chairman John Sette. "I don't think anybody knows her."