Bob Menendez

Senate President Dick Codey and U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez were not present for Frank Lautenberg’s official campaign kickoff today, but made sure to voice their continued support for him.

Codey said that Lautenberg “has the experience to rise above partisan politics and focus on what's best for New Jersey – strengthening our security, improving our health care system and protecting our environment.No one fought harder than Frank to defeat the Bush administration's senseless attempts to deprive New Jersey of well-deserved homeland security dollars and sell our ports to foreign interests.”

Menendez ticked off a number of Lautenberg’s recent legislative achiveements, like repaying military families for buying their own body armor and increasing the federal investment in Amtrak.

President Bush will visit New Jersey today, speaking in Freehold to tout a new mortgage hotline.  But U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez says Bush should have joined him a year ago when he began sounding “alarm bells on the housing crisis.”

“For more than a year, this tsunami of foreclosures has washed away the American dream for millions. The president has bent over backward to stabilize Wall Street, but he has never exerted much effort on helping the homeowners on Main Street,” said Menendez, a member of the Senate Banking Committee. “Homeowners across the country are drowning in out-of-control mortgage payments. The president must finally realize that their dire situation not only threatens to take away the American Dream from millions, it also has a direct effect on property values, on the credit crisis and on our entire slumping economy.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez spent three days last week stumping for Hillary Clinton in Texas in an effort to turn out Hispanic votes in yesterday’s presidential primary.   Clinton won Hispanics 67%-31% over Barack Obama, according to exit polls, and Hispanics represented 34% of Clinton’s total statewide vote.  This substantially enhances Menendez’s clout with Clinton -- something that could be useful if she wins – and among Democrats nationally.

Clinton supporter from left, U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone

Mark Alexander assumed the familiar posture this week of a man with a phone in his hand making calls for presidential candidate Barack Obama. This time, however, the scenery was different, as he occupied unfamiliar territory on the other side of the Delaware River somewhere in a mid-western American state called Ohio, a rust-belt cousin of New Jersey.

"It’s raining," the former Jersey state director for the Obama campaign told PoltickerNJ.com in a 30-second conversation between calls, where Obama and his Democratic Party rival Sen. Hillary Clinton are competing today as well as in three other primary states: Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Democrat Frank Pallone is the most powerful member of the New Jersey congressional delegation and the sixteenth most powerful Congressman nationally, according to rankings by Knowlegis.org.  The least powerful is Republican Frank LoBiondo, who is 377th out of 435.   In the Senate, Frank Lautenberg (#44) is viewed as more powerful than Bob Menendez (#70).

Voters have no idea who the Republican U.S. Senate candidates are, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released this morning. 84% of voters have never heard of State Senator Joseph Pennacchio, 87% don’t recognize Anne Evans Estabrook, and 89% have no idea who Murray Sabrin is. Among Republicans, the number is similarly dismal: 82% haven’t heard of Pennacchio, 83% don’t know who Sabrin is, and 87% are unfamiliar with Estabrook.

“No brand name has entered the race for the Republicans,” said Peter Woolley, a political scientist and director of the poll. “In part, that is a reflection of poor prospects for the Republican Party nationally which is bogged down with an unpopular President, an unpopular war, and a softening economy.”

The four-term incumbent, Democrat Frank Lautenberg, is known by 85% of New Jersey voters; he has a 42%-23% favorability rating.

“He’s a brand name and they like him.” Woolley said.

Senator Bob Menendez will campaign for Hillary Clinton in Texas tomorrow to help turn out the state’s huge Hispanic community, just as polls show Obama closing in on Clinton’s lead there.

Menendez plans to lead a group of Hispanic elected officials on campaign stops through the cities of San Antonio, Brownsville and Houston until Monday.

Bob Decheine probably wouldn’t know how to get from Haworth to Hawthorne, but he’s very much in control of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in New Jersey. His power comes from his day job as Chief of Staff to Congressman Steven Rothman, who has emerged as the leader of the state Obama campaign. And Rothman’s lead in a PolitickerNJ.com online poll of which New Jersey Democrat has the most political power today appears to be the result of Obama’s surge as a national candidate.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez’s approval ratings have returned to being upside-down – 30%-31% -- his lowest approval rating since entering the Senate, according to a new poll released this morning by Quinnipiac University.  Menendez was at 34%-34% in December.  Menendez does not face voters until 2012.