Asked today about the federal charges against Senator Bob Menendez, Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark) once again declined to call on the senator to resign, making him one of the few top New Jersey Democrats to do so.
“I think that the process is going to take its course,” Payne said. “You’re innocent until proven guilty in this country. The process will dictate what will happen.”
Payne added that it was still too early to discuss the 2024 Senate election, when Menendez will be up for re-election. Menendez has yet to definitively say whether he’s running for a fourth term, but Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) has already stepped up to challenge him, and other candidates are seriously considering launching campaigns as well.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Payne said of the 2024 race. “That’s a hypothetical for right now. The bigger question at hand is what’s facing him right now.”
Nine members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation have so far called on Menendez to resign. Kim was the first, followed by Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair), Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), Donald Norcross (D-Camden), Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff), and, most consequentially, Senator Cory Booker.
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), who originally released a somewhat vague statement that didn’t explicitly call for Menendez to resign, said on Wednesday that the senator should indeed step down. And Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) said at a town hall yesterday that Menendez “should immediately vacate his office.”
Two other Republicans, Reps. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) and Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), haven’t directly said Menendez needs to resign, though Van Drew’s public consideration of a Senate campaign against Menendez points towards his views on the matter.
That leaves only Payne and Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City), the senator’s son; the younger Menendez is just about the only politician anywhere to explicitly stand by his father.
Menendez, for his part, has insisted that he is innocent and said he doesn’t plan on going anywhere. The last time Menendez was indicted on federal charges, he promised not to forget those who hadn’t stood by him – but this time, that list would include the vast majority of New Jersey politicians.