Various campaign committees affiliated with U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, on trial for allegedly accepting bribes, contributed about $20,000 to the 20022 campaign of his son, Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City). Now his primary opponent, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, wants him to give the money back.
“With his father Senator Bob Menendez Jr’s trial on multiple felonies, including being an agent of foreign governments, as well as interfering in criminal investigations, in return for cold hard cash and gold bars, now underway, it is the time for Rob Menendez to demonstrate at least an inch or so of independence from the Menendez machine,” said Bhalla. “I call on Rob Menendez Jr. to return the $20,000 his campaign has received from his father, Senator Bob Menendez’s leadership PAC.”
Bhalla had asked Menendez to return the money during a New Jersey Globe Debate on May 5,
The two-term Hoboken mayor decided to run for Congress after Bob Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges.
If he wins, Bhalla would become the first mayor of Hoboken to serve in Congress.
Only one other has tried: John J. Grogan, a shipbuilders union leader and former assemblyman, who served as mayor from 1953 to 1965
He sought the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in 1958, but lost the primary to former Rep. Harrison Wiliams, Jr. (D-Plainfield) by 12,808 votes, 43.1% to 39.5% margin. Grogan won 63% in Hudson, and carried Camden, Atlantic, and Hunterdon.
Grogan briefly sought the Democratic nomination or governor in 1961, but dropped out when he failed to get enough county chairmen on board. He closed out his career by spending one term as Hudson County Clerk.
Williams spent nearly 24 years in the Senate; his career being convicted of bribery; an undercover FBI agents posing as an Arab sheik in a sting operation offered him ownership of a titanium mine in exchange for Williams’ help in obtaining federal government contracts.