America’s Promise PAC, a group supporting Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla for New Jersey’s 8th congressional district, is up with a new ad that once again ties Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) to his deeply unpopular father, Senator Bob Menendez.
The ad – which will run on digital, online video, and streaming services with a six-figure buy behind it – attacks the younger Menendez over his defense of his father during his first corruption trial in 2017, and notes that the freshman congressman has declined to fully distance himself from Senator Menendez during his current corruption trial, too.
“As Senator Menendez goes on trial for taking gold bars, a Mercedes, and thousands in bribes, who’s always there to cover for him? His son Rob,” the ad states. “During Menendez’s first corruption trial, Rob misled federal prosecutors, changing his testimony on key facts. Now Rob’s defending his father’s corruption again, saying he strongly believes in his father’s integrity and values. Junior covers for Senior, and New Jersey pays the price.”
The ad is similar in subject to a previous spot aired by America’s Promise that hit Menendez for not returning his father’s contributions, declaring that “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
The younger Menendez, for what it’s worth, has not been implicated in his father’s bribery indictment, which alleges that the senator received cash and gifts in exchange for influence in Washington. In a legal sense, the congressman is in no jeopardy.
But Bhalla’s campaign recognizes that in a political sense, Menendez’s surname and family connections are a massive liability. (It was those same connections that helped Menendez win his Hudson County-based congressional seat in the first place in 2022, back when his only government role was as an unelected member of the Port Authority Board of Commissioners.)
The resulting campaign between the two Hudson politicians has been one of the bitterest in recent New Jersey political memory. Both candidates have raised well over a million dollars, and Menendez has aired a negative ad of his own attacking Bhalla over his ethics issues as an attorney; more spending and attacks could still be on their way before primary day arrives on June 4.