Rob Andrews

Following his receipt of invitations to participate in candidates’ forums, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews today stepped up his call on Sen. Frank Lautenberg to accept the congressman’s debate challenge.

"The senator has said he’d be willing to have debates if they were sponsored by legitimate organizations, and we’ve received nine offers of debates from legitimate organizations," Andrews said this morning in a conference call with reporters.

He listed the organizations: the Associated Press, the Bergen Record, New Jersey101.5, NJN News, the Philadelphia Inquirer and NBC 10, the Press of Atlantic City, Telemundo, WOR TV, and 1210 radio.

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United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1360, which represents 11,000 South Jersey members, today endorsed U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews (D-1) for the U.S. Senate.

Back in 1982, Millicent Fenwick, a 72-year-old Congresswoman who was the Republican nominee for United States Senator, agreed to debate her Democratic opponent five times. But the Democrat, 58-year-old businessman Frank Lautenberg, said that five debates were not enough and asked for more. Now, 26 years later, it’s Rob Andrews calling for a multitude of debates and it’s Lautenberg, 84, who seems to be avoiding them.

U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews tells his core supporters that the work of a senator requires 24-7 energy.

State Sen. Dana Redd (D-Camden) and U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) 

CHERRY HILL - Entering to the strains of John Mellencamp’s "Small Town," U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) returned from Trenton to his native Camden County on the day he launched his longshot U.S. Senate bid.

From the podium in party headquarters, Andrews picked faces out of the crowd and reminisced briefly about past battles even as he steeled his fellow South Jersey Democrats for a tough primary campaign against U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

Camille AndrewsTRENTON - The Lautenberg campaign today took exception to Andrews's people describing the congressman's kickoff as an event reserved for family as opposed to politicians.

"Camille Andrews is a politician," said Lautenberg spokesperson Julie Roginsky of the candidate's wife, who's running for her husband's District 1 congressional seat, and who stood with Andrews in Trenton today.

Answering criticism that he appears to be installing Camille Andrews as a placeholder while he runs for the U.S. Senate, the congressman repeated his promise to not reclaim his House seat should he fail in his June 3 primary bid against Lautenberg.

Less than an hour after Rep. Rob Andrews formally kicked off his Democratic primary campaign in Trenton, 84-year-old incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg turned out one quarter of the women in the U.S. Senate to stump for him today at a Newark fundraiser.

Senators Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) spoke at the $500-per-head show of force at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

Lautenberg staffers said the event is expected to raise at least $200,000 for the campaign – part of the $1 million in fundraising commitments that Lautenberg has gotten since Andrews started his challenge. That’s on top of the $4.3 million he already had in the bank.

U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) in Trenton today.

TRENTON - U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) kicked off his campaign for the U.S. Senate here today in the State House Annex, boasting a plan to get America out of Iraq, a record in opposition to what he cited as damaging trade agreements, and a specific strategy to provide people with better heath care.

"Since the first of the year, 10,000 New Jerseayans have lost their jobs, 70 people who are connected in some way to New Jersey have lost their lives in the ongoing carnage of Iraq, tonight more than 1 million New Jerseyans will go to bed without health insurance," said the 50-year old Andrews, who is challenging U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg in the Democratic Primary.

Rob Andrews’ entry into the Democratic primary for U.S. Senator has been a financial boon to incumbent Frank Lautenberg’s re-election campaign.  In the two weeks since Andrews announced his candidacy, Lautenberg’s campaign has received for than $1 million in fundraising commitments – about half of Andrews’ $2.4 million cash-on-hand, according to sources close to Lautenberg.  Lautenberg already has over $4 million in his warchest, and committed to putting another $2 million of his own money into his campaign.