Republicans in New Jersey who face tough races: They’re in SCHIP shape.

Since they know their president will veto the SCHIP bill anyway, Republican members of Congress facing tough races next year voted in the affirmative on the bill.

SCHIP is State Children’s Health Insurance Program ----“a national program designed for families who earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but cannot afford to buy private insurance. The program was created to address the growing number of children in the United States without health insurance.”

Democrats want to increase the funding of the program, while Republicans want to keep the funding flat.

Ferguson is a Schmerguson: Congressman Mike Ferguson voted against SCHIP before he voted for it. AND he faces another tough race in ’08 against Assemblywoman Linda Stender ----who lost by just a single point in ’06.

Sex vs Sax: In 2006, Congressman Jim Saxton faced Democratic candidate Rick Sexton. Despite the similar sounding names, the numbers were not even close: Saxton got 58% of the vote, while Sexton received just 41%.

Saxton probably didn’t even sweat that much. But, wait, in 2008----Saxton will face a much tougher opponent in State Senator John Adler. Saxton is 64 years old, and has been in Congress since 1984.

<--------Adler has served in the New Jersey State Senate since 1992, where he represents the 6th Legislative District. Adler was Democratic Conference Chair from 2002-03 and Assistant Minority Leader from 1994-2001.

He was ahead of the curve with an endorsement of John Kerry in 2004, while the rest of the state went for Howard Dean. For 2008, he is supporting Obama. Not for nothing, Adler does not follow the crowd.

Both Republicans probably did not wish to be tagged as ‘anti-children’ in a year before they were up for re-election again--- so the safe vote is voting for SCHIP. As long as they have the political ‘cover’ of a presidential veto, they think they’re OK and joined the other 45 Republicans in voting for SCHIP.

But let’s see what happens when they’re pressured to vote to overturn their president’s veto.

That’s when the fun begins.