Is New Jersey The Most Corrupt State? Or Just Like them All?
When my grandfather told me that the only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican, he was talking about New York politics in the 1950s. Now it’s over 6 decades on and it’s still a perfect description of New Jersey politics. It’s nearly certain that corrupt New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez is going to be indicted again— this time for bribes paid to his wife.
Menendez began his career as an anti-corruption politician in Union City and defeated the local machine boss, Mayor William Musto. Menendez became Hudson County Democratic machine boss and gradually slipped into the same kind of corruption he started his career fighting against. In the state Senate, he was key to drawing a Hispanic-majority congressional district that he could run in, in 1992. In 2006, when U.S. Senator Jon Corzine became governor, he appointed Menendez to fill the Senate seat he was leaving. Despite one corruption scandal after another, Menendez has managed to hold onto the seat.
Menendez plans to run for reelection despite the coming indictment. The trial will be after the election. Most New Jersey political operatives think Menendez can hold onto the county lines even after he’s indicted, so he’ll likely be the party nominee, and will put the Democrats’ Senate majority at risk. The party is too dysfunctional to dump Menendez.
Were he to be convicted before the election, there are two conservative Democrats, Mikey Sherrill and Donald Norcross, who would duke it our for the nomination. Meanwhile, the mayor of Englewood, Michael Wildes, one of the wealthiest immigration lawyers in America, looks like he’s going to challenge Menendez anyway. How does an immigration attorney get rich enough to self-fund a Senate campaign? Clients include Melania Trump, Boy George, Sarah Brightman, Pelé, Jean-Georges, Greg Norman, every beauty pageant winner who’s ever wanted to settle in America, Sinéad O'Connor, Andrew Lloyd Webber… When a celebrity needs immigration help, Wildes is who they turn to.
Remember, there’s a gubernatorial race at the same time, which is taking Josh Gottheimer and Ras Baraka (and maybe Sherrill) out of contention for the Senate seat.
So what do the feds have Menendez on this time? The NY Post reported that the 69-year old senator and his 56-year old wife, Nadine Arslanian, took “luxury gifts” (like a car and a DC apartment) in return for favors Menendez delivered as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The gifts came from Wael Hana, who runs the only company allowed to certify meat exports to Egypt as halal and is an associate of Arslanian.
The DOJ’s current investigation is separate from a 2015 probe that resulted in bribery and corruption charges against the Garden State senator and ended in a mistrial two years later with the jury deadlocked.
In the 2015 case, prosecutors alleged that Menendez, who has served in the Senate since 2006, accepted nearly $1 million in private jet flights, vacations, and other gifts from Florida ophthalmologist Dr. Salomon Melgen in exchange for acquiring visas for the doctor’s foreign girlfriends.
Investigators also alleged that Menendez received hefty political donations in exchange for helping Melgen secure lucrative government contracts.
Menendez was also previously investigated for corruption by then-New Jersey US Attorney Chris Christie in 2006 over allegations that a nonprofit group rented space from him while he helped it secure grant money. No charges were brought in that case and the investigation was closed in 2011.
The Post reported on Thursday that Menendez’s wife cashed in up to $400,000 worth of gold bars between April 7, 2022, and June 16, 2022— months before his office publicly acknowledged the current federal investigation— and that the senator has established a legal defense fund in order to help pay for his attorneys.