Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla is calling on Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) – whom he’s challenging in the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 8th congressional district – to reject campaign contributions from corporate political action committees (PACs).
According to Bhalla, $69,000 of the $348,000 Menendez raised during the last quarter of 2023 came from corporate PACs; among his contributors were Samsung, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Meta, Merck, Comcast, Walmart, Boeing, and Toyota. Menendez additionally received $10,000 from New Millennium PAC, a group associated with his father, indicted Senator Bob Menendez.
“It is time for Rob Menendez Jr. to declare his independence from the special interests that have fueled his political career,” Bhalla said. “I call on him today to join me in taking no corporate PAC contributions.”
Bhalla also took Menendez to task for benefiting from $250,000 in outside spending in 2022 from a PAC led by Sam Bankman-Fried, who was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison on fraud and money laundering charges. Bhalla claimed Menendez’s 2022 campaign “likely benefited from money stolen from investors” – but of course Menendez had no control over that outside spending, and Bankman-Fried was only arrested after the election cycle was over.
“Here’s another example of Desperate Ravi grasping at straws,” Menendez said in response. “This was an independent expenditure that our campaign had no control over.”
According to Bhalla’s own campaign finance reports from the end of 2023, the entirety of his $915,000 fundraising haul came from individuals, not PACs. The first quarter of 2024 ended last night, so the two candidates will be releasing new fundraising reports within the next two weeks.
This year’s primary between Bhalla and Menendez was always going to be a contentious one; from the moment Bob Menendez was indicted on federal bribery charges last fall, it was clear that Rob Menendez’s political future was in danger, and Bhalla has hit Menendez hard over his father’s legal troubles ever since launching his campaign in December.
But last week’s order from a federal judge striking down the county line – the ballot design system that benefits party-endorsed candidates – made the race even more of a barnburner. Menendez, Bhalla, and a third Democratic candidate, Kyle Jasey, will all appear on Democratic primary ballots as equals, which is likely a blow for Menendez, who has party support in all three of the 8th district’s counties.
This story was updated at 11:55 a.m. with comment from Menendez.