Robert Menendez

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) stands with Gov. Jon Corzine, left, and Latino elected officials.

NEWARK - U.S. Sen Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) today blasted GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie and Christie's running mate, lieutenant governor candidate Kim Guadagno.

Standing at a podium beside Gov. Jon Corzine and flanked by Latino elected officials in support of the Democratic incumbent, Menendez singled out Christie and Guadagno's campaign headquarters kickoff here last week, and the LG candidate's empathetic comment to residents that as someone who teaches at Rutgers University, she knows what it's like to be "afraid" to cross the street in Newark.

"They're going to open a headquarters in Newark at election time but then say that they're afraid to walk the streets," said Menendez.

"We are not afraid to walk the streets of Newark," he added to growing applause. 

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) is playing a key role in a statewide effort to increase voter turnout among Latino voters for Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign.  This weekend, Menendez presided over a meeting in New Brunswick that was attended by over 200 statewide Latino leaders, including U.S. Rep. Albio Sires (D-West New York), State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark), Assemblywomen Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D-Camden) and Annette Quijano (D-Elizabeth), Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark) and Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus), Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz, Paterson Mayor Joey Torres, and Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco.

Statement of New Jersey officials on the eighth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks:

For Immediate Release:
Contact: Daniel Beckelman
(201)-446-9889

September 10, 2009
 
Belleville, Bloomfield and Newark Get Bluffed Again
Quadruple-Dipping Backbencher Caputo Can’t Secure Energy Block Grant For His Entire District
 
Belleville-Urban Republican Assembly candidate Andrew Bloschak is pleased that federal money is flowing back to New Jersey to improve energy efficiency, but the electrician and autoworker who is looking to represent working families in Essex County wondered why dual-officeholder Ralph Caputo could not ensure some of this funding for his entire district. (According to a press release on PolitickerNJ, US Senator Robert Menendez has secured funding for energy efficiency improvements in towns throughout New Jersey, but the in the 28th District only Irvington received a grant.)

New Jersey's two U.S. Senators and the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Health subcommitte issued statements tonight following President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress:

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) turns 86 in January. His term is up four years after that.

The Democratic-controlled Massachusetts Legislature, thinking John Kerry might win the presidency in 2004, changed state law to take away the power of the governor to fill U.S. Senate vacancies by appointment.  They didn't want the Republican governor, Mitt Romney, replacing Kerry in the Senate with a Republican.  Now that Democrat Deval Patrick is governor, there's a move to reinstate the power so that a Democrat can fill the late Ted Kennedy's seat on an interim basis.

New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the United States Senate since Clifford Case won his fourth term in 1972.  But some Democrats, seeing GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie enter September with a ten point lead over Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, have another worry: a GOP governor could send a Republican to the U.S. Senate, if a vacancy were to occur.

Frank Lautenberg will turn 86 in January and still has four years left on his term.  No punches should be pulled here: there has been no shortage of Democrats posturing for a Senate seat in the event that Lautenberg does not finish his term, and Christie's healthy poll numbers has forced the realization that the next U.S. Senator from New Jersey could be a Republican.

If Christie wins, Democrats might need to replicate the Massachusetts law as an insurance policy on their Senate seat -- and get Corzine to sign it before he leaves office in January.   Democrats will especially want to prevent New Jersey's seat from flipping while Robert Menendez is the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman.

Just last week, a Star-Ledger editorial endorsed a proposal by a Wisconsin Senator to eliminate all Senate appointments and fill vacancies only by special election. According to the editorial, 20% of American voters may be represented by unelected U.S. Senators in the near future.

U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) has a 43%-41% approval rating and U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) is a 40%-37% approval rating, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. The New Jersey Legislature gets an upside-down approval rating of 25%-64%.  Among independents, it is upside-down at 20%-69%.

Asked which party they would like to see in control of the State Assembly after the November election, 46% said Republican and 40% say Democratic.

President Barack Obama submitted his first seven nominations for U.S. Attorneys on June 4.   The U.S. Senate confirmed five of the seven on August 7, but New Jersey's Paul Fishman was not one of them.  The five who were confirmed came from New York (Southern District), Alabama, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Vermont. 

Until the Senate confirms Fishman, which is unlikely to be any earlier than next month, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra will remain in the post he's held since Christopher Christie resigned on December 1, 2008 to seek the Republican nomination for Governor.  The Associated Press, citing two unnamed sources, reported earlier this week that the Department of Justice is investigating whether Marra made inappropriate public comments during a high profile announcement of public corruption cases that might have boosted the Christie campaign.

Representatives of New Jersey's two U.S. Senators, Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) and Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken), continue to predict a smooth confirmation for Fishman, who jointly recommended his appointment to Obama in February.  But Lautenberg and Menendez have not been able to get the Democratic-controlled Senate to move forward on Fishman.  They have not said why.

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) today urged federal authorities to investigate GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie for failing to report a $46,000 loan he gave U.S. Attorney underling Michele Brown.

"Add this to the growing list of Christie's capers," said Pascrell. "Is it mere coincidence that Mr. Christie's personal life is again in conflict with his public obligations? A prosecutor at his level should know that once he gave that loan, no matter how well-intended it was, it changed the relationship between Mr. Christie and Ms. Brown. We have a right to know to what extent it changed. At the very least, this is a conflict of interest."

A self-professed fan of the former U.S. Attorney's until the 2006 U.S. Senate election when news leaked from Christie's office about a probe of property owned by U.S. Sen. (and candidate for reelection) Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken), Pascrell has also been on Christie's case about the latter's oversight of deferred prosecution agreements when he served as U.S. Attorney.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) is praising the life of Bill Cahir, a U.S. Marine Corps sergeant and former New Jersey political reporter who was killed in action in Afghanistan.

"Sgt. Bill Cahir was a shining example of what makes ours the greatest and proudest nation in the world. He had a deep desire to serve his country, and he did so as a Congressional aide, with a reporter's notebook, with aspirations to represent his community in government and on the front lines of the battle against extremists who would do us harm," Menendez said.