Sen. Robert Menendez — fighting corruption indictments for the second time in his political career — said he’s “hopeful” about running for a fourth term. But not with the Democratic nomination behind him.
In a nine-minute video posted to YouTube Thursday, Menendez said he’s aiming for a summer exoneration that would “allow me to pursue my candidacy as an independent Democrat in the general election.”
Menendez would have needed to submit petitions by Monday to run in the Democratic primary, where Rep. Andy Kim and Tammy Murphy are frontrunner candidates. He didn’t participate in any of the conventions that Democratic political machines use to decide who’ll get preferred placement on primary ballots — a tool party organizations and political bosses have used for a century to tip the scales in favor of their endorsed candidates.
Campaigning after the Democratic primary, he said in the video, “would allow me the time to not only remind New Jerseyans of how I’ve succeeded in being your champion, but how we will secure our financial futures, meet the challenges of raising a family, owning a home, provide for a college education, and secure a more peaceful world for all of us to live in.”
Menendez lost any practical chance of getting party endorsements or winning the Democratic nomination when the state’s most powerful political leaders — including Gov. Phil Murphy — called for him to step down days after his indictment in September.
Menendez has maintained his innocence since his September indictment. But until now, he refused to say whether he’d seek reelection, even as Tammy Murphy and Kim far surpassed him in polling and fundraising, becoming clear frontrunners in a race to replace him.
Earlier this month, Joseph Uribe — one of three businessmen accused of bribing Menendez and his wife with lavish gifts — pleaded guilty to federal charges and agreed to cooperate with the investigation against the senator.
Prosecutors alleged in Menendez’s September indictment and later superseding indictments that he tried to interfere in criminal proceedings and did favors for the government of Egypt in exchange for gifts including gold bars and a Mercedes Benz. They later said he’d made public shows of support for Qatar to help one of the businessmen secure a deal with an investment fund where a member of the Qatari royal family was a principal.
This month, prosecutors additionally charged Menendez and his wife with obstruction, saying they lied to their former lawyers about the gifts — describing them as loans — and caused those lawyers to repeat the same falsehoods to prosecutors.
His trial is set to start in early May.
“I know many of you are hurt and disappointed in me with the accusations I’m facing,” Menendez said in the video. “Believe me, I am disappointed at the false accusations as well.”
Menendez, New Jersey’s senior senator, has long been a dominant figure in New Jersey politics — particularly Hudson County, where he began his political career on the Union City school board and as the city’s mayor before being elected to the state Legislature. He became a U.S. senator in 2006, first appointed to the role by then-Gov. Jon Corzine and later winning elections with strong party support.
The leaders of Hudson County’s political organization lagged behind their peers in other county machines, when calls for Menendez to resign began pouring in the day of his indictment. But in November, the Hudson County Democratic Organization gave Murphy its endorsement.
A poll by Monmouth University earlier this month found just 16% of respondents approved of the job Menendez is doing, and nearly three in four wanted him to step down.
Menendez had just 9% support in a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll last month. .
Menendez raised just $16,000, and refunded nearly the same amount, in the last quarter of 2023, NJ Monitor reported last month. In the same period, Murphy raised more than $3.2 million and Kim raised $1.8 million.
Menendez also spent more than $2.6 million on legal fees in 2023, mostly related to the indictment, according to NJ Spotlight.
Menendez’s political career survived a previous bribery indictment. He was charged in 2015 with trading political favors for donations and other perks, but the trial ended in a hung jury.
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