Steny Hoyer

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has bumped Dennis Shulman up a rung on its priorities list.

The committee announced today that Shulman has moved up from being a “targeted race” to an “emerging race,” which means that Shulman is a contender to participate in the organization’s “Red to Blue” fundraising program.

In a sign that national Democrats may actually believe that they have a shot at ousting Republican Rep. E. Scott Garrett, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) will join Democratic congressional candidate Dennis Shulman to meet with labor officials on Monday.

Shulman, a blind rabbi and psychologist, is running a long-shot campaign against Garrett, who’s easily beaten back three previous challenges from Democrats. But Shulman’s fundraising prowess and unconventional life story have raised eyebrows with national Democrats, who will likely make Shulman’s race their third priority after the 3rd and 7th Congressional Districts, where John Adler and Linda Stender are running for open seats vacated by Republicans.
In January, Hoyer swung through the state to stump and fundraise for Adler and Stender.

New Jersey Democrats keep talking about Bob Menendez for Vice President: Getty Images Photo

Hillary Clinton should pick Bob Menendez as her running mate, says Rep. Rob Andrews.  "I think Bob Menendez would be great for the job and I would love to see it happen for New Jersey and for him," said Andrews, a ten-term Congressman and Clinton supporter. 

The Menendez for Vice President campaign was launched last week by John F.X. Graham, a New Jersey Democratic fundraiser and Clinton’s national finance co-chairman.  Several key state Democrats have signed on as supporters of Menendez for a slot on the national ticket, and on Friday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said that the New Jersey Senator would make a strong vice presidential candidate.   

• Conservative activist Steve Lonegan was arrested for protesting at Jon Corzine’s town hall meeting on Saturday.  Lonegan says the Attorney General retaliated by investigating him.
• During her campaign swing through North Jersey, Joe Ferriero endorsed Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s National Finance Co-Chair wants Bob Menendez as Vice President.
• A Quinnipiac New Jersey primary poll shows John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in a dead heat.        And McCain picked Bill Baroni as his N.J. campaign chairman.
• Leonard Lance says he’ll run for Congress, and Kate Whitman says she’s more conservative than her mother.
• The House Majority Leader supports congressional hearings on federal monitors and deferred prosecution agreements.
• Camille Fernicola is won’t seek a fifth term as Middlesex Freeholder, and Burlington Republicans pick Stacy Jordan as their new Freeholder.

U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wants congressional hearings on deferred prosecution agreements, like the one that netted former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft a federal monitor agreement worth as much as $52 million over the next eighteen months.

“I think that’s absolutely essential.  I think this administration has played fast and loose with the public dollars,” said Hoyer.

At the request of Rep. Bill Pascrell, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said earlier this month that he was likely to hold hearings on U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s decision to award lucrative no-bid monitor contracts to Ashcroft and others.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says Bob Menendez for Vice President is "not without some degree of rationality.”: Getty Images Photo
The Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives says that U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez would make a good vice presidential candidate.

“He and I were good friends from his first day in the Congress many years ago, so I’m not objective on that,” Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told PolitickerNJ.com during a campaign swing through New Jersey today on behalf of Democratic congressional candidates. “But I think he brings a lot of unique attributes to that possibility. Now whether that’s going to happen or not, I don’t know. It’s not without some degree of rationality.”

Hillary Clinton’s National Finance Co-Chairman, John F.X. Graham, said yesterday that Clinton should pick Menendez for Vice President.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) was in New Jersey today to hype the upcoming congressional campaigns of Linda Stender and John Adler, emphasizing the need to bring the two in to boost the Democrats’ relatively narrow majority in the House.

“We’ve worked very hard over the last number of years since the republicans took over the house to take back the house – not just for political purposes. Obviously all of us want to be in the majority, but what we really want to do is change the direction that the Republican congress and the Republican president have taken this country,” Hoyer told PolitickerNJ.com. “If we lose 15 people we lose the proposition.”

During Stender’s 2006 congressional campaign, in which she raised about $2 million without a tremendous amount of support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and managed to come within one point of unseating Rep. Mike Ferugson, Hoyer came up to New Jersey to campaign for Stender several times.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer will be in New Jersey today to campaign for congressional candidates John Adler and Linda Stender.  With Republicans Jim Saxton and Mike Ferguson retiring, Democrats view New Jersey’s third and seventh districts as strong pickup opportunities. Republicans have primaries in both districts to pick candidates for the open seats.