Robert Menendez

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) is bashing the owners of the Empire State Building for being lit red and yellow this week to honor the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.  Menendez says China is a communist regime that has been associated with oppression and human rights suppression.

"I find it distasteful that one of the foremost symbols of our free nation would be draped in the colors of a government that has systematically restricted freedom for 60 years," said Menendez, a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member.  "Such a display does not deserve to share a skyline with the Statue of Liberty. It is an affront to those who have been killed, those who have been stifled and those who have been driven into exile over the past six decades. It is an affront to the ideals that our great nation was built upon."

Gov. Jon Corzine is airing a new TV ad airing on Spanish language TV stations featuring an endorsement from U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken).  Menendez, the only Latino in the U.S. Senate, touts Corzine's investment in the construction of new schools and his leadership during an economic crisis.  

Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) says that federal prosecutors should probe whether four New Jersey legislators violated any laws when they pushed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve a medical device marketed by campaign contributors.

A New York Times story this morning alleged that U.S. Senators Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) and Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park), and U.S. Reps. Steven Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) and Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), asked the FDA to reverse the recommendation of their scientists and approve a patch for injured knees that had been found to be unsafe.  The manufacturer, ReGen Biologics, Inc., made what the Times called "significant" contributions to their campaigns a few months before they intervened with the FDA.

DeCroce, citing OpenSecrets.org, a website that tracks campaign contributions, the four Democrats received a total of $26,00 from ReGen executives.  He wants the incoming U.S. Attorney, Paul Fishman, to make a probe of the congressional Democrats his first priority.

"This could be one of the worst cases of ‘pay-to-play' perpetrated by any public official in New Jersey," said DeCroce.

Menendez, Lautenberg, Pallone & Rothman Received Donations from ReGen Biologics, Pressured FDA to Approve Company’s Medical Device

Senator Robert Singer (R-30) urged Governor Jon Corzine to join his call for the United States Attorney’s Office to investigate shocking revelations that four New Jersey congressmen exerted pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to force the approval of a medical device after receiving campaign donations from several executives of ReGen Biologics, the producer of the device.

In a published report, the New York Times stated: “The agency has never before publicly questioned the process behind one of its approvals, never admitted that a regulatory decision was influenced by politics, and never accused a former commissioner of questionable conduct.”

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If these allegations are true, then it is very important that New Jersey find and aid any state patients victimized by political failures, Kean said. Governor Corzine should order the health commissioner to start her inquiry today.

Today's must-read story comes from the New York Times, which reports that after scientists for the Food and Drug Administration ruled that a medical device was unsafe and often failed, U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, and U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone and Steven Rothman successfully exerted pressure on the FDA to change their decision.  The manufacturer of Menaflex, a patch for injured knees, ReGen Biologics, Inc., made what the Times called "significant" contributions to their campaigns a few months before they intervened with the FDA.

It's official: Jon Corzine has the support of the Democrat who represents him in the State Senate.  Brian Stack, who is also the Mayor of Union City, is expected to endorse the Governor tomorrow.  Usually a Democrat endorsing a Democrat at the end of September isn't news, but Stack had openly flirted with the idea of backing Republican Christopher Christie.  Indeed, that remained a possibility as recently as last week.

On Friday, at Corzine's request, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez - a former Union City Mayor and once a Stack rival - attended a meeting of the Hudson County Democratic Organization.  Menendez helped put some added pressure on Stack, who agreed to support the re-election of his constituent.

There is a growing consensus among Democrats that Gov. Jon Corzine needs U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) to put Hudson County together for him.  Hudson is Menendez's base: he was Mayor of Union City, Assemblyman, State Senator, Congressman and Hudson County Democratic Chairman before leaving local politics to take a seat in the Senate.  There is speculation that Menendez will show up at a tomorrow's weekly meeting of the Hudson County Democratic Organization to talk to the mayors - with whom political power rests in Hudson - about Corzine's re-election campaign.

Some Democrats fear that Hudson County Democrats might be too weakened by recent events to replicate the 61,640 vote margin they delivered in for Corzine in 2005. There is chaos in Hoboken and Secaucus, where mayors have resigned following their arrests on federal corruption charges last month. The new Hoboken Mayor, Dawn Zimmer, is less than enthralled with the governor, her constituent; Secaucus Democrats have no candidate for Mayor and the local organization is backing an independent candidate who had been challenging Dennis Elwell. In Bayonne, some supporters of former Mayor Joseph Doria are unhappy because Corzine asked Doria to resign his cabinet post just hours after the FBI raided his home and office; ironically, Corzine is taking heat for throwing Doria under the bus and the beneficiary of that could be Christie, the bus driver.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to meet at 10AM today to consider the nomination of Paul Fishman as the U.S. Attorney from New Jersey.  Fishman was nominated earlier this year by President Barack Obama after winning the recommendation of New Jersey's two U.S. Senators, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW FISHMAN'S JUDICIARY COMMITTEE QUESTIONAIRE

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE LIVE WEBCAST

When asked if she would feel comfortable walking around any neighborhood of Newark at night, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor, said "I wouldn't feel comfortable walking around a lot of places at night that are not Newark."

PARAMUS - Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno is sticking to her statement: she knows what it's like to be afraid to walk across the street in Newark. 

"It's not a gaffe. I've been victimized in Newark twice in the last five years because I work in Newark," said Guadagno, the Republican lieutenant governor candidate, about her choice of words that gave Democrats an opening to take a shot at her and gin up their inner city base. 

About six months ago and in 2003, Guadagno said, her car was broken into and her purse and other belongings stolen just outside the Newark campus of Rutgers Law's Newark campus, where she teaches legal research and writing part-time.   She also worked in Newark as a former Assistant U.S. Attorney.

Guadagno's comment last week was met with a quick response by U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Hoboken) and several Democratic Newark council members, who painted her as an out of touch suburbanite whose comments served to undermine the city's revitalization. 

Rather than backpedal, Guadagno tried to flip the out of touch label onto Corzine. 

"I think that anybody who says that Newark doesn't have a problem with crime isn't living in the world that we're living in," she said.  "Everybody knows that the population of Newark in the last 40 years has virtually been cut in half. That's because we're not paying enough attention to our cities.  The way we're going to do that is to, one, recognize there is a problem.  Clearly Jon Corzine doesn't know there is a problem.  Shame on him."

Christie has taken pains to emphasize his commitment to the state's large cities, attempting to mitigate Corzine's built-in urban turnout by appealing to city residents on education and crime issues. 

Guadagno praised Mayor Cory Booker's anti-crime efforts, but criticized council members for "having drivers and body guards when they go back and forth to work every day - at taxpayers' expense."