BOB MENENDEZ

Tom Kean Jr. is paying back an out-of-state political ally.

About 25 friends and colleagues congregated at the state Senate minority leader’s Westfield home to meet and donate to U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

It was, according to Kean, the second fundraiser he’s held for McConnell this election cycle, and a way of showing appreciation for one of his major out-of-state backer in his 2006 run against Bob Menendez.

In December, 2005, McConnell’s PAC, Bluegrass Committee, gave $10,000 to Kean’s Senate campaign, and three months later McConnell – then the majority whip -- headlined a New Jersey fundraiser for Kean.

Rep. Pascrell joined the Senators in discussing the effort in Congress to bring down artificially high prices, end dependence on oil

Barack Obama campaigns for Bob Menendez in the 2006 U.S. Senate race: Getty Images Photo
During the primary season, Sen. Bob Menendez’s name circulated as a possible vice presidential pick for Sen. Hillary Clinton.

With Clinton now out of the race and Menendez doing his best jockeying on her behalf to get her on the ticket as Barack Obama’s running mate, the New Jersey senator fielded a question Thursday regarding his filling the role himself as backup to the party’s leading man.

Is he interested? Is he on any Obama short list or has anyone from the campaign approached him?

On the flight to Puerto Rico, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) turned to former President Bill Clinton and told him one of the reasons his wife was losing was because the campaign too often allowed Sen. Barack Obama to frame the issues.

When Clinton ran in the 1990s, he stayed on message - most famously with his "it’s the economy, stupid" rundown of the first President Bush. He won, Menendez observed, because Clinton forced his opponent to respond to the issues on his terms.

A flummoxed Bush was left marveling at supermarket product scanning devices while Clinton told voters, "I feel your pain."

Sixteen years later, his wife didn’t capture the issues and present them aggressively enough, in Menendez’s view, and she suffered the consequences.

Now, as he shifts gears from Clinton to Obama, Menendez is on the offensive, trying to frame the immigration and ethics debates against Sen. John McCain, a day before the presumptive Republican presidential nominee lands in New Jersey for a Burlington County campaign rally.

ZIMMER & KEAN CALL ON

LAUTENBERG TO DEBATE IN JUNE

-- Kean, Menendez campaign set precedent of early debates in 06’ race --

Trenton, NJ – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer was joined today by Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean, Jr. at a Statehouse press conference. Zimmer and Kean called on Senator Frank Lautenberg to begin debating this month just as Kean did with Senator Bob Menendez in 2006.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez has a 36%-26% approval rating among New Jersey voters in a Quinnipiac University poll released today.  These numbers represent a considerable improvement from the upside-down 30%-31% approvals had in the last Quinnipiac survey on February 20. 

U.S. Sen. FRank Lautenberg (D-NJ) exults with Gov. Jon Corzine and Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex). 

NEWARK - The Democratic Party allies of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg stood with their nominee tonight in the Gateway Hilton shortly after challenger U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) conceded in Cherry Hill.

After thanking his family, supporters and his defeated challenger for the congressman's offer of friendship, Lautenberg - who won by a margin of 61-34% - came out swinging in front of an animated crowd.

Hard economic times. The War in Iraq.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg stood on his home turf today to show his support with the Hispanic community, as his primary opponent, Rep. Rob Andrews, was beginning a weekend incursion into Lautenberg's north Jersey strongholds.

Hours after Andrews hit Paterson - where Lautenberg grew up - to accept the endorsement of Passaic County Terry Duffy, Lautenberg headed to Jersey City to stand with about a dozen mostly Hispanic elected officials led by U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez.

At the Andrews event, Duffy was much more explicit about Lautenberg's senior citizen status than Andrews has been so far during the campaign. Still, it was circulated in a press release by the Andrews camp.

"When Sen. Lautenberg ran against Millicent Fenwick in 1982, he said she was too old to run again, and he defeated her with that argument. If he thought it was a legitimate issue then, it should be a legitimate issue now," said Duffy.

Don't expect New Jersey's U.S. senators to be a presidential runningmate. In a survey of the U.S. Senate's membership not already running for president on whether they'd accept an offer to be vice president, The Hill newspaper found a variety of responses to the veepstakes question. Some were accompanied by laughs, others took the question seriously.

So, how did Democrats Bob Menendez and Frank Lautenberg respond?