New Republican emerges as possible U.S. Senate candidate

A prominent South Jersey real estate developer and hotelier is mulling a bid for Bob Menendez’s U.S. Senate seat, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed, setting up a possible fight in the Republican primary.

Curtis Bashaw, a former executive director of the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Authority, has begun speaking with GOP county chairs as part of a due diligence effort to explore whether he wants to enter the race.

The 63-year-old Cape May resident is well-known in South Jersey as a co-founder and co-managing director of Cape Advisors and Cape Resorts Group, where he led the restoration of the landmark Congress Hall hotel and other hotel projects.

If he runs, Bashaw would enter the race with a vibrant fundraising network.

He is expected to make a decision early next year.

Bashaw’s exploration comes as another Cape May Republican, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), is considering a Senate run.  Van Drew has told the New Jersey Globe that he’ll make a final decision by next month.

The front-runner on the Republican side is Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, a former Bush administration official with close ties to former President Donald Trump.  Glassner has received endorsements from Rep. Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) and most of the party establishment in her home county, Morris.

There are also three minor candidates on the Republican side: Daniel Cruz, a former member of the Andover Regional School District Board of Education; perennial candidate Gregg Mele, the 2021 Libertarian nominee for governor; and small business owner Michael Estrada, who won 1% of the vote in an independent State Assembly bid six years ago.

The Justice Department indicted Menendez, a three-term incumbent, on bribery and conspiracy charges in September, and added a charge of working as an unregistered agent of a foreign government in October.  He has not said if he will seek re-election.

Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown), First Lady Tammy Murphy, and former Newark school board member Lawrence Hamm are seeking the Democratic Senate nomination.

Republicans have an uphill fight to flip the seat: New Jersey has not elected a GOP U.S. Senator since 1972; since then, every other state but Hawaii has done so.

Still, the Menendez scandal could change the race.  Menendez has not precluded seeking a fourth term as an independent.