Jim Courter

New Jersey has eighteen living former Congressmen -- that number should go to twenty next year with the retirements of Jim Saxton and Michael Ferguson:

This week's Winners & Losers: Click here

Former Rep. Jim Courter has quit his post as a National Finance Co-Chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign after his telecommunications company was fined $1.3 million by the Federal Communications Commission, according to a Portfolio.com report.  The FCC found that IDT, where Courter is the Chief Executive Officer, failed to properly disclose a contract with the government of Haiti. 

Over the last fifty years, Linda Stender was one of just seven challengers – and one of only two Democrats – to come within two percentage points of unseat an incumbent Congressman when she held Michael Ferguson to a 49%-48% win in 2006. If she wins her second bid in 2008 for the seat Ferguson has decided to vacate, Stender would become the first member of the “I almost won” group to actually serve in Congress.

Five New Jerseyans have contributed $8,000 to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's 2006 re-election campaign in Texas' 22nd district, including $2,000 from former GOP Congressman Jim Courter and $1,000 from Lionel Kaplan, a Democratic fundraiser from Princeton who served on the panel that drew new congressional districts after the 2000 census. Courter and Kaplan also gave to DeLay's 2004 re-election. DeLay's other New Jersey donors: Jeffrey Citron of Brielle, Joy Levin of Manalapan, and Andrew Schechtel of Princeton.