Unanue disputes court testimony that he showed up at Goya drunk and hung over

U.S. Senate candidate Andy Unanue says that a Star-Ledger article alleging that he came to work drunk or hung over is false, and says this came from an “uncorroborated source” during a legal battle involving control of his family business, Goya Foods.

“I just got off the phone with a reporter from the Star-Ledger who plans to run an article in tomorrow’s newspaper that contains false allegations made against me years ago. I wanted you to hear from me personally that these allegations, made by one uncorroborated source, are absolutely false. They were no true then and are not true now,” Unanue wrote to PolitickerNJ.com last night. “I am disgusted that Frank Lautenberg and the Democrats are so frightened of facing me in a general election that they are already resorting to these tactics. We haven’t heard Democrat whisperings about the other candidates in the Republican primary. The only reason they’re doing it now is because they feel they have an opponent who can retire Frank Lautenberg in November.”

PolitickerNJ.com has obtained copies of partial transcripts of the Goya dispute trial, outlining testimony by Andy Unanue; Robert Unanue, his cousin; and Joseph Perez, a Goya executive who made many of the allegations against the Senate candidate.

Unanue, 40, a millionaire businessman who said Sunday he would enter the race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, says this is a personal attack on him and “on the people of New Jersey and their ability to choose between two distinctly different candidates.”

“I hope that these dirty tactics and the Democrats’ fear of me and my candidacy in November invigorates you and rallies you to my support as it has invigorated me,” Unanue wrote. “This exemplifies what's wrong with politics: while people are struggling with the burden of high taxes and fearing for their economic and physical security, the Democrats want to throw mud. These dirty tactics never created a job, educated a child, improved access to health care, protected us from the threat of terror or secured our borders. The people deserve an honest discussion of the issues that affect their lives, not the dredging up of an old family disagreement. I can only imagine what tactics they will resort to when I become the front runner in the polls.”

CLICK HERE TO VIEW TESTIMONY: Andy Unanue | Robert Unanue | Joseph Perez