Dump Mike Ferguson (NJ7)

After the recent New Jersey floods, we noted that Congressman Ferguson had bragged on his ability to bring $5 million in federal dollars last year to the Green Brook Flood Control project. We also noted that anyone who knows about the federal project run by the Army Corps of Engineers understands that $5 million is a drop in a$430 million bucket,. At the rate Mike Ferguson is "securing funds" it will take 83 years to complete the project and protect North Plainfield, Green Brook, Bound Brook, Manville, South Bound Brook and other communities along the Green Brook from disastrous and potentially deadly funding.

Now just a couple weeks after another horrendous flood that displaced hundreds of families and cost millions of dollars in damage, Mike Ferguson is able to use his 7 years of clout in the House of Representatives to get -- $10 million. And Ferguson admits that this is as much as he can get for his district, saying that someone else will have to do the job if it's going to get done.

Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-7th Dist.) said he hopes the $10 million represents "a floor" for fiscal 2008 funding. But with action in the House of Representatives uncertain, it may be up to the U.S. Senate to add money, he said.

It'll be up to someone else. Perfect attitude for a backbencher Congressman who hasn't the juice or the ability to lobby his colleagues to get what his people need.

Even worse is the attitude of the White House, which admits that they failed to help Bound Brook and Manville, who got the brunt of the flooding in 1996, 1999 and 2007.

The Army Corps of Engineers could complete flood barriers around Bound Brook in two years if funding is "accelerated," according to Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Woodley Jr., who oversees the agency. ...

Prodded by Congress, President Bush has proposed $10 million for flood control in the Green Brook Basin, which includes Bound Brook. But Corps and local officials said roughly $30 million is needed to complete a mile of flood barriers along the Raritan River, which again inundated the downtown during the April 15 nor'easter.

"I've submitted the president's budget and that's what I stand by," said Woodley, whose office directs the Army's civil works projects. But he acknowledged that funding level means work would not be finished for an estimated three years.

So one small portion of the project -- $30 million or 6 percent of the $430 million cost -- could be completed in two years, and the White House is not willing to provide the funding for it. And they admit that "stand by" that decision which could once again cost the federal government far more if their is yet another flood.

And Mike Ferguson can't convince them to put the whole $30 million in the budget to get the work done. He can't convince his colleagues of seven years to provide this funding.

If he can't get this kind of support while pictures are still in the paper, families are still living in shelters and businesses are months from re-opening then how can we expect Ferguson to adequately represent us in Congress?

Posted by admin at 06:32 AM | Permalink

From the April 26 Cranford Chronicle:

To The Chronicle:

I am concerned about the announcement by Congressman Mike Ferguson that the federal Army Corps of Engineers will be doing a study on the Rahway River and flooding.In particular, as I understand it based on what I have read and my conservations with local officials, Cranford would still have to pay for the improvements.That is an incredible outrage. I am not sure whatwill been gained by putting the federal government in the driver's seat.Cranford has a hard-fought five-phase flood control plan underway. We do not need more advice -- we need federal funding.

Until I was criticized last yearby Congressman Ferguson's staff, I had never said an unkind word about his intentions. I do so now because I am worried that we plan to trust another politician who has appeared because he is concerned about re-election.His new moderate stancesseem more designed to get people to forget his continued role in the surge in Iraq and the billions of wasted hard-earned taxpayer dollars and many American lives on an ill-conceived civil war.

What I still do not understandis where has he been?Why has it taken him six years to find Cranford? Six years he has had to recognize this problem.This is not a new problem. Instead of being engaged, he has resorted to telling residents last weekthat this is the first time the key decision-makers have sat down together to discuss this issue.I still remember Republican Township Committee members Phil Morin and Tom Denny'smission to get the Army Corps of Engineers to do something.Theythen met with key officials, yet the Corps said the project wasn't big enough to be on their radar.That was just a few years ago.Now we plan to trust a congressman whotolerated his staffmisrepresenting my actions asmayor,without the courtesy to apologize and express his concern about this problem.In 2003 and again in 2006, Congressman Ferguson was provided a detailed explanation of the problem, and he was invited to come to Cranford last year several times.

I will shut my mouth and be confined to my quarters if I am wrong and results are recorded.Most importantly,I will apologize for this letter and my agitation.But my agitationgrew last week when I saw the damaged neighborhoods in the northeast quadrant.

I debated whether to send this or not because all of us have to be on the same page to get the most funding because Cranford has already stepped up significantly to resolve this problem.But I want to state without a doubt there will be accountability on this problem -- as much as I can ensure. So the test will be the staying power of the federal financial effort, and not the photo-ops in bucket trucks.

DAN ASCHENBACH
Cranford

The writer, a Democrat, is a former mayor and member of the Township Committee.

How is it that things like this don't become news stories, with political leaders attacking members of Congress for incompetence. This blog was started when I was Council President in North Plainfield, and has had a few other elected officials post here and yet the words "Dump Mike blog" have never appeared in the Courier News or Star Ledger except on the letters pages.

You'd think this kind of stuff would be news. Not in this day and age.

hat tip to jfc521 over at Blue Jersey

Posted by admin at 02:42 PM | Permalink

Anyone who reads Dump Mike knows that we've been chronicling Rep. Michael Ferguson's (R-NJ7) connections to disgraced and indicted former Rep. Tom DeLay, and have repeatedly called for Ferguson to return the $54,403 he received direct from DeLay.  [ed note: there's plenty more from DeLay cronies]

Of course, Ferguson has repeatedly refused to do so.  In February 2006, he said it pretty clearly to Newhouse News:

Asked if he would refund the DeLay funding, Ferguson said, "No, I'm not going to. Those contributions were appropriate."

Anyway, DeLay is still under indictment in Texas for violating campaign finance laws (not the appropriate ones, I am sure), and now it looks like the feds are closing in on a no-show job his wife got with Alexander Strategies, a lobby firm started by former DeLay staffers Adam Kidan and Tony Rudy.

FBI agents continue to interview aides to former Rep. DeLay, offering immunity in exchange for testimony, individuals close to the investigation say. Justice officials ask whether former aides paid the Texas Republican's wife $3,200 a month for a no-show job at their lobbying firm. DeLay, who retired last year, is on a book tour.

So, Mike, still think those contributions were "appropriate" or are you going to donate the money to charity like you did with Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney, Duke Cunningham, Tony Rudy, Mark Foley, etc., etc., etc.?

Posted by admin at 08:18 PM | Permalink

This week's flooding provides a window into the relative effectiveness of Congressman Mike Ferguson to advocate and deliver for the people of New Jersey's 7th Congressional District.

The year before Ferguson took office Hurricane Floyd hit our state, and towns like Bound Brook and Manville were devastated, with water rising to third stories of buildings and not falling for days. Other towns like North Plainfield – where I served as a Councilman at the time – had six feet of water rushing through the town. I know because I was one of the volunteers pulling people out of their cars to safety that day.

Now, in Mike Ferguson's seventh year as our DC Representative we have seen another flood provide the same kind of destruction. Added to the 1996 flooding of downtown Bound Brook that is three devastating floods in just over a decade.

I looked at the pictures of boats floating past second floor windows in downtown Bound Brook and thought it was 1999 all over again. The personal and business destruction is horrific, and the worst part is that it should be wholly unnecessary had our federal representatives come through with the funding we need to fix these flooding issues.

Since 1975 the Green Brook Flood Control Project has been studying and planning to make major engineering changes to the Raritan River and its tributaries to increase flow and retention, reducing the chance that such flooding can occur again. But all we have to date is a bridge and two levies, and the Army Corps of engineers estimates it will take $430 million in today's money to finish the deal.

You would think that after Floyd there would have been a major effort to fund this project, to get it going as fast as possible to protect the residents and business owners along this flood path. You would think that there would be some urgency to the work to protect our residents from continued natural disasters.

Mike Ferguson was first elected in 2000, along with a Republican President, a Republican Senate and a Republican House. His colleague, Rodney Frelinghuysen on the neighboring 11th district, was on the House Appropriations committee. Ferguson himself was being groomed by Tom DeLay in a leadership position as minority whip, the Texas House wheeler and dealer who could get anything done.

Add to this the fact that under Republican leadership earmarked funding for districts increased from about 1,000 a year in 1996 to 14,000 in 2005. Some of these earmarks were incredible, including $454 million for a bridge in Alaska that would have served just a few thousand people.

It's an ideal environment for a Representative to represent the needs of his district. His party in control, friendly with leadership, delegation member on the Appropriations committee money handed out hand over fist, and a real desperate need for completion of a project that would affect hundreds of thousands of people. It would take a pretty high level of incompetence to blow this one.

So what did Mike Ferguson get us for the Green Brook Flood Control Project? An average of less than $5 million a year, and some press releases and photo opportunities for the Congressman to show he cares.

At that rate, the project would take 86 years to completely fund, not including inflation and cost overruns.

Here's what Ferguson had to say in the Star Ledger last week:

"They said it was not appropriate to bring it up with the president, but I do not miss an opportunity to advocate for this project," Ferguson said. "I'm not going to take a back seat to anyone when it comes to advocating for this, and frankly the advocacy we've done has paid dividends." …

"It's tragic. It's heartbreaking. It's unacceptable that this project is not completed."

Paid dividends? It's astonishing that he has the gall, after six budget years under Republican control that he is proud of his efforts, and continues to brag in public about getting pittances tossed his way while touring the flood ravaged town.

One early estimate, though emergency management people are still counting, is that this flood will cost more than $70 million to recover from. Somerset County's taxpayers have already put aside one million dollars for cleanup and recovery from this year's story, money that didn't have to be spent. Millions more will be provided in grants from local, county, state and the federal government.

These short term costs in the millions don't even take into account long increased financial burden for insurance, which will be even worse than it was before for homeowners, renters and businesses. That's assuming they can get insurance.

All told our governments, business owners, insurers, renters and homeowners will be paying far more than $100 million to recover from this flood. We can assume that similar costs were associated with the floods in 1971, 1973, 1996 and 1999 -- adding up to far more than the $430 million it would cost to fix this problem and reduce the flooding along the Raritan River basin.

It's frankly ridiculous that we have to read in the papers about how Mike Ferguson and his colleagues are bragging on getting us $5 million a year when these floods are costing us an average of $25 million a year in recovery since Ferguson took office.

We've already run through 30 years, and two major floods in the past seven years. We need our Representative to deliver for us now to avoid the next one, or the next one.

But now Mike Ferguson is in the minority, Tom DeLay is gone and earmarks are under fire from all directions. Ferguson had a chance to make a difference, a nearly unprecedented chance, and he blew it.

Posted by admin at 08:41 PM | Permalink

We were all a little disappointed when the DCCC's support didn't materialize at the levels we though appropriate in 2006, and were very disappointed when Linda Stender came within 1.5 percent of beating Michael Ferguson (R-NJ7) on election day. We busted our humps here in the 7th, and know that with just a little money of the money thrown to some races that lost big we could have a Democrat representing us in Congress today.

Today the DCCC announced that Mike Ferguson is among their top 10 targeted Republican House members. Karl Rove also suggested that Ferguson was vulnerable, so maybe there is a chance for us again in 2008.

Well, I don't want to get my hopes up because we were left waiting for the D-Trip to show up in 2000, 2002 and 2004 also. But 2008 may be a little different, especially because we came so damnably close in 2006. Add that to the Democratic majority and the fundraising benefits that gives, and maybe they'll come through for us this time.

But we can't rely on that. We have to do it on our own this time, just like last time. The reason Blue 7th exists is because we wanted to show the national Democrats that there was a groundswell here in New Jersey's 7th. We proved it in 2006, but not soon enough to get them in. We will have to prove it again in 2008, along with our friends at DfA, Garden State Equality, Blue Jersey, etc., etc., etc.

Posted by admin at 02:14 PM | Permalink

Star Ledger reporter Ed Silverman has a personal blog called Pharmalot, and today he notes that with the Democrats running the House our good Representative Mike Ferguson may have a little harder time raising all that pharma money he's relied on in the past.

Generally, the pharmaceutical industry hasn't been one of Pascrell's biggest backers, although his home district includes Roche's US headquarters, a large facility in Nutley, a 30-minute ride from the Lincoln Tunnel. So such a gathering shouldn't come as a total surprise, given that Democrats now control Congress.

What is interesting, however, is this suggests the influence of Pascrell's Republican counterpart, Mike Ferguson, may be waning. Thel industry has given him tremendous backing and viewed him as the go-to guy among the Garden State delegation, since he sits on the House and Energy Commerce committee, which has jurisdicdtion [sic] over the FDA.

Mike won't go hungry, though. His dad founded a well-known healthcare ad agency that did business with drugmakers and was later sold to a larger advertising conglomerate.

First he loses Tom DeLay, then the majority House, and now will get less from the pharmaceutical industry?

Looks like the playing field may be a little more level in 2008.

Posted by admin at 08:52 PM | Permalink

I'm not sure what to make of this one, but if the New York Times accurately captured Michael Ferguson's feelings then he prefers having a Democratic majority in Congress.

If the Democratic ascendance on Capitol Hill was supposed to usher in dark days for Republicans, it is hard to tell from talking to moderate ones like Mike Ferguson, who represents a suburban district in central New Jersey.

As the new Democrat-led House rushed to complete its business before adjourning for spring break this week, Representative Ferguson was marveling at the many bills that had been passed in Congress’s first 100 days, including one that would make it easier for unions to organize and another that would increase the minimum wage.

“Under the Republican majority, those bills would have never gotten to the floor,” he explained before heading back to his district. “Now they have been brought to the floor, and I’ve voted for them.”

Mr. Ferguson’s enthusiasm captures a peculiar political reality in the Capitol: many Republicans from swing districts in the Northeast are finding that life under Democratic rule has its advantages.

During the 12 years that Republicans controlled the House, moderate Republicans were the stepchildren of their party, expected to vote with their conservative leadership on crucial issues, even if it meant taking positions that could anger centrist voters back home.

He's gone from Tom DeLay's (R-TX) favorite campaign check casher to a lover of the House under Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

If Ferguson really prefers a Democratic majority maybe we can help him along in November 2008?

Posted by admin at 06:47 AM | Permalink