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Much riding on the New Jersey senate raceBy Carol Amoruso, HAV editor Oct. 25, 2006 The New Jersey senatorial race, very close at the moment, is, along with the Lieberman-Lamont-Schlesinger contest in Connecticut, garnering the most interest of all contested seats. A loss by Democratic incumbent, Robert Menendez, would effectively kill the party’s chances to pick up the 6 seats needed to win back the Senate. Despite renewed support for the Democrats, the result of deep discontentment with both the Bush administration and the performance of the Republican-led Congress, Menendez is in trouble in this traditionally Democratic state. His challenger, State Senator, Tom Kean, Jr is running on his family name—his father, Thomas Kean, Sr., is the state’s former governor and head of the September 11 Commission--and on hammering allegations of corruption against Menendez. Menendez was not elected to the post. He’d been appointed by newly-elected Governor Corzine to serve the one year remaining in his term after moving on to the state house. Menendez’ 14 prior years as a Congressman representing Union City, a strong voting record, and the fact that he is Hispanic in a state with a large Hispanic population, made him a likely choice. Born in New York City, a son of Cuban immigrants who migrated under the pre-Fidel Fulgencio Battista regime, the 7-term Congressman has been closely aligned with the Cuban exile community and has maintained a staunch anti-Castro profile. His record is somewhat inconsistent, vacillating from the center to the center-left of his party. Most notably, Menendez voted against the Iraqi war and has kept up vocal opposition to it. He’s for the most part strong on immigrant rights--although he favors sending undocumented workers back home--health care, reproductive rights--he’s pro-choice and stem cell research--and the environment --Menendez earned a 100% voting record approval from the League of Conservation Voters. On the other hand, he is more conservative on civil and human rights issues: he is in favor of the death penalty and recently voted for the Administration’s bill rolling back the Supreme Court decision granting habeas corpus to alien detainees and re-opening the door to sanctioned torture. Menendez raised eyebrows recently when, pressed, he declared that his greatest regret was having voted for the Administration’s failed and underfunded No Child Left Behind Act. (This complex law, in addition to promising expanded funding to schools, withholds federal aid to institutions of higher learning that disallow armed forces recruiters on campus). Kean has been a strong supporter of the war, but has been trying of late to distance himself from disfavored policies of his party’s administration; he has joined the growing chorus calling for the resignation of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and called for rethinking the terms but not the commitment of U.S. engagement in Iraq. He draws a hard line against protecting the rights of undocumented workers and occasionally drifts left of his party’s line on other social issues. Regrettably, the crux of the campaign has the meanspirited charges of corruption and mudslinging, sullying the dignity of the candidates. Kean claims there is an ongoing federal investigation of Menendez’ involvement with an anti-poverty organization. Menendez has consistently denied the charge. The non-profit, the North Hudson Community Action Corporation, paid Menendez over $300,000 to lease a Union City building from him. In return, and while he was in the House, Menendez helped the organization secure several million dollars in federal grants. Menendez has claimed that the rent, averaging about $3,2000 a month, was at market rate, and that there was no impropriety. But, there may have been a quid pro quo attached to the duration of the lease: the tenants stayed as long as Menendez delivered the grants. Although he does admit certain relevant documents have been subpoenaed by the feds, Menendez denies that he is under investigation. The New York Times, on Oct. 8, supported that denial: “….there have been no reports or statements from federal prosecutors indicating that Mr. Menendez is under criminal investigation.” In the last of three acrimonious, incoherent almost, broadcast debates, on Oct. 7, Menendez and Kean spent much time away from the issues, embroiled instead in countercharges of corruption. Kean alluded again to Menendez’ misdeeds, this time in the context of a reply to a Menendez provocation on revamping the ethics committees after revelations of Republican Mike Foley’s sexual advances on underage Congressional pages. Menendez threw back corruption allegations of his own, including a reference to a Newark Star-Ledger report that Kean had accepted $213,000 in campaign contributions from employees of companies doing business with the state at the same time that the he, Kean, had proposed legislation making such contributions illegal. The race, at press time, has widened, with Menendez pulling away from the dead heat in which it had been locked for weeks. An Oct. 21 Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll shows Menendez leading Kean by nine percentage points, 48% to 39%. Other polls show Menendez’ lead at around 5%. The Menendez campaign is being helped by the Republican congressional scandals and his opposition to the Iraq war. In addition, 13% said they favored him because he is a Hispanic. Kean’s support principally comes from his family name and the barrage of charges of Menendez’ dirty dealings. In a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 57% of voters said questions of Menendez’ propriety were “serious.” It has been predicted that money will be the ultimate determinant in the race; if that be the case, Menendez will easily win, as his coffers are three times as full as Kean’s, and he is gearing up for a last-minute TV ad campaign. Money should not be the determinant in any campaign, let alone this one, where the candidates stand far apart on the burning issues of war and immigration. Nor should the vote be influenced by which candidate can sling the mud more on target. If Menendez’ deep pockets deliver him the senate seat, it will be a faulty test of New Jerseyans’ positions on issues crucial to our well-being as a society. On the net: Robert Menendez official website:
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Carol
Amoruso has had several vocational callings over the years. She's
taught young children, run volunteer programs for seniors, had a
catering business, designed clothes. Ultimately, she found that
nothing engaged and challenged her the way writing has. She's
written every day since childhood, professionally since 1990. Her
involvement in the arts, society and politics of Africa, the
Caribbean, and the Latin World have been the most inspiring and her
work concentrates on those areas. She travels extensively but lives
in New York City.