Frank Lautenberg introduces his son to the delegation

When Sen. Frank Lautenberg seemed parched a few minutes into his speech to the New Jersey delegation today, a man, as if on cue, walked up from the audience with a glass of water.

“This is my son Josh. This is what he does for a living,” said Lautenberg.

Lautenberg’s son Josh, 40, lives here in Colorado – in Vail, to be exact – the same town where his father was originally sworn in for his first term in office in 1982.

Eventually, Josh decided to move here. Now he’s a real estate broker who was just last year considered as a possible replacement for a Colorado State Legislator.

“He’s a Coloradan. I’m trying to figure out what I said that got him to this terrible place up in the mountains where the skies are blue and there’s skiing. Nevermind that,” said Lautenberg.

Among Josh’s fellow Vail residents, at least temporarily, was Goya Foods heir Andy Unanue, who announced that he was seeking the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in March to run against Lautenberg, only to drop out three weeks later. Unanue spent the bulk of his candidacy in Veil, where he was vacationing with his family, only returning to New Jersey to file his paperwork.

Josh Lautenberg said that he encouraged his father, who’s 84, to seek a fifth term.

“I’ve worked in every campaign he’s had since I was 13 years old. I’ve never known anyone with a longer record of accomplishment and effectiveness for the state of New Jersey, much less the entire nation,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, effectiveness is ageless.”