NJGOP

MENENDEZ OWES GOV. KEAN APOLOGY
Sen. Lance Says Menendez Resorted To The "Politics Of Personal Destruction," "Gutter Politics" And "Filthy Mudslinging" Trenton, NJ - Senate Republican Leader Leonard Lance released the following statement today:

"As many of you know, I had the great and distinct honor of working in Counsel's office for Governor Tom Kean. I learned then what the rest of America knows now. Tom Kean is more than a decent and honorable man. He is a man of great integrity, a man of the highest moral caliber, and man whose ethics are beyond reproach. He is the most prominent New Jerseyean to serve the nation since Woodrow Wilson. During his forty years of public service, he has embodied the highest ideals captured in the notion of public service.

I'm here today because I am very disappointed. This morning I opened the newspapers to see that Senator Menendez's campaign is attacking the integrity, character and even the morality of former Governor Kean. Matt Miller, Mr. Menendez's spokesman, has accused Governor Kean of quote "morally questionable" behavior and of quote "shaking down" executives at a company in order to curry favor with him. They have accused Governor Kean of engaging in a quote "quid pro quo."

This isn't just simply wrong or even just out of bounds. It is outrageous, it is offensive and it is despicable. Governor Kean was fighting for reform long before it was fashionable. Mr. Miller's comments are at the least, ignorant, and perhaps worse. His attack should be viewed as little more than a calculated attempt to sully and impugn the Kean family's long and distinguished legacy of public service.

Senator Menendez owes Governor Kean a public apology. What's more, he should make clear his disavowal of his campaign's tactics by immediately repudiating the statement coming from his campaign.

Governor Kean service to the nation is indisputable. His leadership on the 9/11 Commission was praised as fair, honest and open by leaders from every corner of the country and from both sides of the political aisle. If Senator Menendez truly questions Governor Kean's character and integrity, then I suggest that he reach out to former Governor Byrne or his former Democratic colleague Congressman Lee Hamilton of Indiana who Co-Chaired the 9/11 Commission. I am certain that neither of them shares Senator Menendez's opinion

With this attack, Bob Menendez has resorted to the politics of personal destruction and has chosen to resort to the kind of gutter politics and filthy mudslinging that is the very antithesis of everything Governor Tom Kean stands for. Again, I call on Senator Menendez to apologize to Governor Kean and to the people of New Jersey for this baseless and defamatory attack on our former Governor. Senator Menendez is wrong, he knows he is wrong and he should stand up and say so.

Will Senator Menendez do what is right and denounce his campaign's irresponsible and malicious attack or will he embrace the kind of politics that is poisoning our nation's capital and demeaning the very underpinnings of our democracy?"

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Read Assemblyman DeCroce's Comments Later In The Day