Will The Anti-Red Wave Hit New Jersey Hard Enough To Wipe Out Tom Kean Next Year?

The most bipartisan thing about New Jersey politics is the jaw-dropping corruption… and we’re not even talking about Bedminster. Of course New Jersey isn’t the only state whose politics is riven with corruption. In serious corruption studies, Louisiana, Illinois, Mississippi and New York usually rank above New Jersey, but not that much above. And it’s usually worst in one-party states. Corruption issue built into New Jersey politics that both parties are equally putrid. The state is controlled by the Democrats right now but Republicans hold their own in the corruption sweepstakes. 

Easily the most vulnerable congressmember in the state— and one of the most vulnerable nationally— is Republican Tom Kean, who happens to also be one of the most corrupt— and in a swing district that Trump won in 2016, lost in 2020 and won, narrowly (by 1.2 points), lost year. The PVI is exactly even.

Yesterday, NJ.com published a piece by Riley Yates focusing on Kean’s corruption. Ironically, in 2022, Kean beat Democratic incumbent Tom Malinowski, as an anti-corruption candidate, Malinowski having been trading stocks. He won 159,392 (51.4%) to150,701 (48.6%). Yates wrote that he pledged not to be anything like Malinowski and that “he would bring the ‘highest level of ethics and transparency’ to Washington… Kean would move his millions in personal assets into a blind trust, he promised a day before taking office. That way, the scion of a wealthy political dynasty would avoid allegations of using a public position for private gain, like the very claims he had levied against his Democratic opponent. Yet two years later, Kean has backed away from that vow, saying cumbersome rules by the U.S. House Ethics Committee have left him unable to move forward with it.”

Kean already has 8 opponents and his decision isn’t going down well. “Kean,” wrote Yates, “’promised New Jersey voters one thing to get their votes, only to turn around and do the opposite as soon as he got to Congress,’ said Eli Cousin, a spokesman for the DCCC. Now he ‘continues to profit off the stock market despite running on a promise to ban congressional stock trading, and he has failed to put his assets in a blind trust more than two years after he pledged that he would,’ Cousin said.”

Kean, who lists at least $12.4 million in assets on his most recent disclosure… informed the Ethics Committee last month that he was dropping his bid to win its approval for a blind trust, under which public officials appoint an outside manager to oversee their portfolios, without their input or knowledge about where the money is invested.

… In a letter to the committee, Kean’s attorney, Steve Roberts, said the congressman has divorced himself from decisions of where his assets are placed, leaving that in the hands of his financial professionals. But Roberts said Kean was unwilling to give up his “principled and pragmatic stands” to meet the committee’s current rules.

“To be absolutely clear: Congressman Kean’s personal finances are in an investment structure where he does not direct, influence or participate in any stock and investment trading activity whatsoever,” Roberts wrote.

… Kean isn’t the only New Jersey politician seeing scrutiny over their investment holdings. U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, [New Jersey’s most corrupt Member of Congress] has also vowed to set up a blind trust, but has also yet to win approval for it.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominee for governor, faced questions from her rivals in this year’s gubernatorial primary over her stock trading. Her opponent in November, Republican Jack Ciattarelli, has also featured the issue prominently in his attacks.

Kean is the second wealthiest of New Jersey’s 12-member House delegation, behind Gottheimer and ahead of Sherrill, according to financial disclosures. The son of former Gov. Tom Kean, his wealth is largely derived from family trusts that benefit him and other relatives.

Those investment holdings provide him with significant income each year, and he reported making at least $270,000 from dividends, capital gains and interest in 2023— far exceeding his $174,000 federal salary.

To make it to Congress, Kean unsuccessfully ran against Malinowski in 2020, before unseating him in 2022. Kean repeatedly knocked the ethics of Malinowski, whose failure to timely disclose stock trades led to an ethics inquiry.

Amid the criticism, Malinowski moved his holdings in 2021 into a blind trust. Malinowski told NJ Advance Media that Kean shouldn’t be making excuses for why he can’t do that same.

“He spent an entire campaign attacking me on this issue, even though I had established a blind trust, and then he promised that he would do it,” Malinowski said. “So while I’m not surprised and always expected him to try to weasel out of it, I think that it is and should be an issue.”

Without any clear indication which Democrat Kean will face, he’s ranked as one of the DCCC’s prime targets. The committee recently claimed that Kean “continues to make life more expensive for New Jersey. New reporting is highlighting how voters ‘could soon see their monthly premiums sharply increase as subsidies expire and insurers propose a major premium hike’ as a result of Kean Jr. and House Republicans’ Tax Scam. The analysis is also making clear that ‘more than 22 million people could see a sharp premium increase starting Jan. 1’ all because Kean Jr. and House Republicans chose to break their promises to working families.”

DCCC spokesperson Eli Cousins: “Tom Kean Jr keeps voting to make life harder and more expensive for his constituents, all so he can pay for tax breaks that benefit his billionaire backers. Voters will see these higher costs very soon and they’ll know to blame Kean Jr. for these attacks on their wallets and their health care.”

Trump's own corrupt behavior sets an example for morally lax politicians like Kean. It's who he is and how he should be judged by voters next year.