STORM A-BREWIN' IN U.S. SENATE RACE
Just as the hurricane season begins, so does the political season warm up. The main event in New Jersey this year is the race for Senate between incumbent Democrat Robert Menendez and State Senator Tom Kean. Like a hurricane, voters are experiencing the calm before the storm in the coming days.
This race has begun to heat up but promises to get ugly before Election Day. According to form, each side has already used a trusted political lieutenant to question the integrity of the opposing candidate. For the Democrats, Representative Frank Pallone has previously challenged financial contributions to the Kean campaign. Last week, the Menendez campaign filed a federal ethics complaint against Kean regarding his stake in family trusts while other Democrats have even questioned why the younger Kean dropped the Jr. from his political literature.
On the Republican side, Assemblymen Richard Merkt and Guy Gregg have signed their own federal ethics complaint against Senator Menendez earlier this week. They claim that the Senator collected over $300,000 in rent from a nonprofit agency for which he helped secure federal funds. Previously, Republicans have portrayed Menendez as the leader of the notorious Hudson County political machine, where ethics generally take a back seat.
We can be sure that the campaigns will probably deteriorate from here. Over the next few weeks, voters may hear about various proposals or policy positions from the candidates, but by early October, the evening news will surely show the candidates finger pointing at each other and personally questioning each other’s morals. That seems to be the modus operandi for the past few state wide races, from Schundler/McGreevey through Corzine/Forrester. Like any good storm, the heaviest winds of this campaign are still to come.
