Mike Ferguson (New Jersey politician)

Life and early career

Ferguson was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Ferguson is the son of Thomas Ferguson, former chairman and CEO of CommonHealth USA, a healthcare marketing and communications group. He attended the Delbarton School, the University of Notre Dame, and has an M.P.P. from the Georgetown University.

Before running for Congress he worked as a teacher at a private school, and worked as a part-time as an instructor at a community college.

Congressional career

Ferguson originally sought office in the 6th Congressional District in 1998, but was defeated by Democratic incumbent Frank Pallone. In 1999, Ferguson moved to the 7th district where Republican incumbent Bob Franks had announced his retirement to run for the United States Senate. Ferguson defeated Thomas Kean Jr. in the 2000 congressional primary. He engaged in a difficult election campaign against the Democratic candidate, former Fanwood mayor Maryanne Connelly but won the election, receiving 50% of the vote. At 30 years old, Ferguson was the youngest member of the New Jersey Congressional delegation.

Ferguson initially was a Member of the House Financial Services Committee, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the Small Business Committee. Early in his career he played an active role in committee hearings on corporate accounting scandals at Enron and Worldcom, and cosponsored the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. He also served on the House-Senate conference committee which produced the first terrorism risk insurance law in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In his second term, Ferguson joined the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he served as Vice Chairman of the Health Subcommittee, and also served on the Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee and the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. During his time on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Ferguson became a key Republican Member on health care issues broadly and a champion for the life sciences industry which employed large numbers of his constituents. This included working with his colleagues to ensure passage of the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit.

In 2002 and 2004, Ferguson defeated challenges from Democrats Tim Carden and Steve Brozak by comparatively large margins.

In 2005, citing his family’s own experience in providing care to his mother as she fought cancer, Ferguson sponsored the Lifespan Respite Care Act, which authorized $289 million in grants to states to train volunteers and provide respite care services to sick and elderly family members or children with special needs. President George W. Bush signed Ferguson’s legislation into law December 21, 2006.

In 2006, Mike Ferguson fought off a tight race with Democratic state legislator Linda Stender. Stender portrayed Ferguson as too conservative for the district and associated him with President Bush, who was extremely unpopular at the time in New Jersey. The 7th district had a slight Republican lean, and Stender managed to defeat Ferguson in the more liberal suburban counties of Middlesex and Union, but Ferguson held on to the more conservative areas in Somerset and Hunterdon counties, and kept Stender to a small lead in Union County. Nevertheless, he defeated Stender by just over 3,000 votes and a margin of less than 2 percentage points.

Ferguson announced on November 19, 2007, that he would not run for re-election in 2008, stating that he wanted to spend more time with his family. Ferguson and his wife Maureen have five children.

Ferguson was the recipient of the 2005 Outstanding Legislator of the Year award from the New Jersey Veterans of Foreign Wars, the 2006 Legislator of the Year Award from the National Visiting Nurses Association, and the 2007 Congressional Award from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Overall, Ferguson's voting record is moderate by national Republican standards. He was known as a social conservative and staunch advocate for pro-life causes, obtaining a 100% rating by the National Right to Life Committee.

Post-congressional career

Upon his retirement from Congress effective January 3, 2009, Ferguson became chairman and CEO of Ferguson Strategies LLC, a government affairs and strategic business consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. The firm provides services to Fortune 100 companies as well as start-ups, with an emphasis on health care and life sciences as well as financial services and energy.

Ferguson co-chaired New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s victorious 2009 campaign, and after the election served as Chairman of the Treasury Subcommittee for Christie’s transition team. Christie later nominated Ferguson to be a board member of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority; Ferguson's nomination was approved March 10, 2011, by the Democratic-controlled New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee and March 21, 2011, by the full Senate.

Ferguson is also a senior fellow at the non-profit Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.