Menendez Gives Republicans Their Best Shot
So, should Democrats be worried about a poll that has Andy Kim a mere five points ahead of two relatively unknown Republicans if Bob Menendez is in the race?
Probably not.
It’s still six months or so to the election and the poll has Kim ahead, not behind.
But at the same time, the sampling does give some indication of how Menendez can mess things up for his Democratic party.
For the record, the FDU poll showed Kim ahead of Christine Serrano Glassner by 10 points and Curtis Bashaw by nine. That’s not an insurmountable lead, but it’s certainly a comfortable one.
But when the poll put Menendez in the race as an independent candidate, Kim’s lead dwindled to five points over both Republicans.
An obvious question here is whether Menendez is really going to run as an independent.
His trial is set to begin in May and under the best-case scenario for the incumbent, he will be acquitted and will then seek reelection.
Anything is possible, but by any objective standard, Menendez faces an awfully difficult legal challenge, given the magnitude of the charges against him, namely the allegations about gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash found in his home.
It can be hard to figure out what voters are going to do, but here’s how pollster Dan Cassino summed things up.
“Despite all of his legal problems, Menendez still has a base, and if he’s on the ballot, that base is going to come out for him. He’s not going to win, but he might be able to make things uncomfortable for Democrats.”
That would be the worst-case scenario for the Dems – Menendez running as a spoiler.
This brings us to motivation.
Why?
Why would the incumbent senator even consider running as an independent in a race he would not win?
After all, Menendez has been a very loyal Democrat since he got involved in politics 50 years ago – literally. His legal troubles aside, would he really want to help Republicans win a Senate seat in New Jersey for the first time since 1972?
Here again is Cassino’s take:
“Right now, this race isn’t close enough for Menendez to serve as a spoiler. But if he’s on the ballot, the race gets a lot more interesting.”
An “interesting” Senate race this fall is not what Democrats want – especially after the very interesting Kim-Tammy Murphy clash.
Why would Menendez want to be a spoiler? How about when he voted against Obama’s Iran nuclear deal and then the deep state came after him with charges he beat 6 years ago? He hasn’t been a favorite of the deep state Dems. Now they’re after him again, and he’s pleading innocence.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
And here I was starting to think the supposed 5% of voters who still support Menendez was just a sampling error. He is an embarrassment and so are those corruption apologists who support him.