The political saga of Senator Bob Menendez, a three-term Democrat from New Jersey and a convicted felon, is coming to an end.
Menendez, who is set to resign from the Senate next Tuesday, sent a letter to the New Jersey Secretary of State’s office this afternoon officially withdrawing his independent candidacy for the U.S. Senate, meaning that he won’t appear on the November general election ballot. The deadline for Menendez to do so was today.
Even if he had remained in the race, Menendez would have had virtually no chance of winning, with polls finding him to be deeply unpopular among every cross-section of the New Jersey electorate. The contest for the Senate seat he’s held for nearly 19 years is now down to Democratic Rep. Andy Kim and Republican Curtis Bashaw (as well as four other independent or minor-party candidates who remain in the race).
In June, Menendez filed for re-election under the independent “Menendez for Senate” banner, saying that while New Jersey Democrats may have abandoned him due to his indictment on federal corruption charges, he still believed voters would see fit to re-elect him.
“The people of this great state deserve a leader in Washington with a proven track record of fighting tooth and nail to deliver results, and I intend to keep doing so as an independent Democrat,” he said. “It displeases me to have to go this route, thanks to overzealous prosecutors, but I will do what must be done to continue to uphold my oath of office for my constituents.”
That plan, however, was predicated on a “not guilty” verdict in his trial; instead, the jury convicted him on all counts. A week after the verdict came down, Menendez announced his resignation from the Senate, but he kept the state guessing until today about whether he would remain an official candidate for re-election.
Menendez will leave office on August 20, after which he will be replaced by George Helmy, a caretaker senator chosen today by Gov. Phil Murphy. Helmy plans on filling the seat until the results of the November election are certified, after which Murphy has said he’ll appoint the winner – either Kim or Bashaw – to the Senate.
Polls conducted before Menendez’s conviction found that, in the event of a three-way race with Kim and Bashaw, the senator would take between just 3% and 6% of the vote. Menendez’s votes seemed to come at the expense of Kim, but his support level was so minuscule that state Democrats weren’t all that worried about the possibility of a split vote if he remained on the ballot, especially given that his conviction likely further reduced his already dwindling support.
Menendez has other priorities to focus on in the coming months regardless. The senator’s sentencing is on October 29, and he’s said that he plans to appeal the verdict – a move that may eat up much of the remaining campaign cash he has on hand. (He burned through $5.5 million during his initial trial and has $3.3 million left.)
In a statement, Bashaw said that it’s “time to move on” from the Menendez era, and that he hoped New Jersey voters would see fit to elect a Republican in his place.
“Bob Menendez’s corruption has been a distraction in New Jersey government and politics for years,” Bashaw said. “It’s time to move on with this election and make it a clean, straight-forward race focusing on the issues facing our state. New Jerseyans deserve a change from the failed Democratic monopoly that has brought us nothing but corruption, higher taxes, and chaos at the border. This November, I’m confident voters will choose a center-right businessman over a far-left bureaucrat.”
Kim, meanwhile, took Menendez’s exit as an opportunity to strike a blow on Bashaw – the type of campaign attack that New Jersey will likely be seeing a lot of this fall now that it’s officially a one-on-one race.
“Curtis Bashaw supported Senator Menendez’s exit but has endorsed and campaigned with Donald Trump who was convicted on 34 felony counts,” Kim campaign spokesperson Katey Sabo said. “That tells you everything you need to know about Mr. Bashaw.”