The Menendez factor

No longer as involved in the day-to-day mechanics of local politics, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) in back to back statewide elections has proved to be his party’s New Jersey go-to guy.

The former mayor of Union City got out the machine-backed Feb. 5 vote for Clinton with a war cry - "We have an opportunity in Hudson, Hudson, Hispanics, Hillary and history." And leading up to June 3, he helped U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9) stare down a party uprising in Bergen County that might have weakened crucial organizational support for U.S. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)

Clinton won by ten points here with significant Latino support, and Lautenberg buried U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) yesterday, 61-34%.

Simultaneously, as he hovers around a 41% approval rating among New Jersey voters, according to an April Monmouth University poll, Menendez in two years has emerged as a key national Latino for the Democrats.

"He’s been a potent factor, no question, in between his skill as a campaigner and his ability to motivate voters," said State Party Chairman Joseph Cryan. "That’s why he’s talked about so much in the party."

On behalf of Clinton he campaigned in Nevada, Texas and Puerto Rico - all wins for the New York senator.

Like Cryan, Clinton campaign fund-raiser John Graham worked closely with Menendez during the presidential primary and describes the junior senator as someone who detests the backslapping part of the game so much he simply refuses to engage in it, and rather defines politics as all business.

That reputation, both Cryan and Graham insist, has carried Menendez to a strata of political power beyond New Jersey.

"Menendez personally is giving Latinos a stature bigger than (New Mexico Gov. and presidential candidate) Bill Richardson," said Graham.

Unlike Menendez, Richardson plays the charm card that Menendez appears to disdain in his own social maneuvering.

"Richardson’s a nice guy, affable, but it’s mostly facade," Graham added. "Bob Menendez understands Latino issues - Cuban - Puerto Rican - he bridges a lot of that divide, and he gets international relations like few other people around. We’re talking about a potential secretary of state individual here."

Cryan also notes Menendez’s talent for matching political skill with policy smarts, and former Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo (D-Newark), himself celebrated statewide as a policy wonk, said when it comes to knowledge of issues, "Bob Menendez and Jim Florio are the two guys I’d have to put up there in terms of sheer ability."

Nicholas Chiaravallotti of Bayonne, former state director for Menendez, recalled the day in in 2002 when Menendez, then a congressman, took his staff aside and told them he intended to vote against the Iraq War resolution.

"He told us he didn’t see the evidence for going to war," Chiaravallotti recalled. "He said he had studied the intelligence report, and didn’t see the evidence. And he voted against it. And that was it."

Since he wielded power for so local at the local level as a dual-office holding mayor and state legislator, it remains difficult for people to accept that Menendez is removed from Hudson County politics.

"I’m staying out of it," he told PoltickerNJ.com a year ago when asked to comment about Chiaravallotti’s Assembly bid in the 31st District.

Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise said this week, "It’s true that he’s very much hands-off right now. I know no one believes him, but it’s true."

In the aftermath of Andrews’s primary challenge of Lautenberg, DeGise and other members of the Hudson County Democratic Organization, including Chairman Jerramiah Healy, took phone calls from Andrews allies in South Jersey, urging them to break ranks with the incumbent and support their candidate.

Menendez, meanwhile, received word from Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC), urging the senator to do what he could to help his colleague.

"Chuck Schumer and the DSCC love Frank Lautenberg," said Graham. "Rob didn’t recognize the strength and corps of how that groups stays together. I’m sure Rob Andrews and South Jersey had an earful given to them when he got in the race."

DeGise said he didn’t need Menendez to speak to him and Healy about whom they would support in the Democratic Senate primary.

"Jerry and I talked about it, and we both felt, a commitment is a commitment," DeGise said. "Menendez had more to do with Bergen than here. He came to our strategy meeting two weeks to emphasize who important Hudson was, but there was no need for him to be more involved here. Lautenberg had our support."

The threat indeed emanated from Bergen, where County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero’s sent out signals that he was preparing to kick Lautenberg off the organization line.

Set to replace him with Andrews, Ferreiro ran up against Rothman and Menendez’s legal - among other arguments - that the chair couldn’t contravene the will of the county committee, which had already endorsed Lautenberg.

"Sen. Menendez’s role was one of leadership and friendship," said Cryan. "He helped hold the delegations, and was a vital cog in the mixer."

The lines held in the north and that made the difference more than anything. In Hudson County, Lautenberg destroyed Andrews, 75% to 21%.

In Essex, where most experts believed the endorsement of the county’s most powerful local machine, the North Ward Democratic Organization, could have stirred a substantial rebellion against the sitting senator, Lautenberg crushed his opponent, 76.92% to 20.25%.

Steve Adubato’s machine produced the win for Andrews in the North Ward as expected. But it was not the usual overwhelming North Ward Democratic Organization victory, as 1,500 voters went with the South Jersey congressman, compared to 1,200 for Lautenberg.

Adubato saw it coming yesterday. He knew the inherent contradiction of backing an off-the-line candidate while trying to protect organization allies.

But he saw another familiar feature on the political terrain that an addition to U.S. Rep. Albio Sires was not line up behind Andrews.

"This is a tough election for us in the North Ward because, come on, I wish I could tell you what Menendez means to the North Ward, to the Latino community, and he’s not only backing Lautenberg, he’s very seriously backing him," Adubato said.

"Every Latino got personal correspondence from Menendez. We’re feeling a lot of pressure here. And I’m very concerned."

Noting the power of the line regardless of who’s on it or who’s supporting it, some Essex County politicos said Adubato was spinning when he gave Menendez Election Day praise. But Audubato’s opponents driving voter turnout for Lautenberg in the North Ward said their strategy was simple.

"We just kept pounding Menendez, Menendez, Menendez," said Lionel Leach, Essex county director for the Lautenberg campaign. "We put out a mailer, a robocall, and a personal letter."

The overriding argument of line strength notwithstanding, both Adubato and Leach identified a common factor.

However national a figure in the eyes of his biggest supporters, however exclusive his membership in the U.S. Senate, the junior senator has a name that matters in the mostly Latino North Ward, and North Jersey strength, and when Lautenberg won on Tuesday night, he hugged Menendez.