By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff

Saying he wants to spend more time with his family, New Jersey Republican Rep. Mike Ferguson announced Monday that he will not seek re-election in 2008.

Ferguson is in his fourth term representing the politically competitive 7th District in north-central New Jersey.

“Being a representative in Congress is more meaningful than I had imagined, and I know that now is the right time to step away from public life to focus more on family life while our children are still young,” Ferguson said in a statement distributed by his congressional office.

Ferguson is the 21st House member, and the 17th Republican, who has announced plans to leave Congress at the end of next year.

Had he sought a fifth term, Ferguson would have faced a bruising re-election campaign in which he would have been again opposed by Democratic Rep. Linda Stender, who planned a rematch campaign after losing to Ferguson by less than 2 percentage points in 2006.

New Jersey’s 7th District appears highly competitive on paper: President Bush took 53 percent of the district vote in the 2004 presidential contest. Republicans run well in the 7th’s share of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, while Democrats poll more strongly in the 7th’s portions of Middlesex and Union counties.

Just 37 years old, Ferguson will leave the House at the end of next year as one of its youngest members. He was first elected in 2000, at age 30, succeeding Republican Rep. Bob Franks, who left to pursue a Senate campaign that was unsuccessful. In 1998, Ferguson lost to Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. in the adjacent 6th District.

Ferguson is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee who has focused on health care and telecommunications issues. He tends to split with his party on environmental, labor and gun issues but opposes abortion rights and generally favors conservative economic policies on such items as taxes. A former education consulting firm owner, he is well-versed on education issues and has been a leader in fighting for additional special education funding.

He was a more dependable vote for House Republican leaders and the Bush administration earlier in his House career than he is now; through August of this year, Ferguson had a “party unity” score of 61 percent — meaning that he sided with Republicans on three-fifths of House votes that pitted most Republicans against most Democrats. That was the third-lowest score among House Republicans.

Ferguson, a former college instructor who holds a master’s degree in education policy, said that he hopes his future will include spending “some time in the classroom to share with students my passion for public service and encourage them to serve others and our country.”

CQ reporter Michael Teitelbaum contributed to this report