New Jersey’s scandal-plagued Senator Bob Menendez fended off a challenge to his seat from Republican Bob Hugin to win a third term in the US Senate. Menendez was carried over the finish line by Democratic voters who preferred an imperfect Democrat as their Senator, rather than a Republican who could help advance President Trump’s agenda in the Senate. Democrats soured on Menendez following his being indicted on bribery charges. The trial for those allegations ended in a hung jury, but Senator Menendez was roundly criticized by Senate Ethics Committee members. The saga resulted in Hugin, an independent-minded Republican, being able to mount a serious challenge against the Senator, projected to fall just several percentage points short of unseating the Democratic incumbent. In 2012, Menendez handily beat his Republican challenger Joe Kyrillos by a tally of 58%-39%. Tuesday’s results are expected to be far closer.
Mr. Menendez joined the US Senate in 2006, and Tuesday’s reelection win will keep him in there at least through 2024. Menendez is the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, and is a member on the Senate Banking Committee and Senate Finance Committee. The Senator made national headlines when he publicly opposed President Obama’s deal with Iran to ease sanctions in exchange for concessions regarding the regime’s nuclear program.
The final tally will be posted here when it becomes available.
BREAKING UPDATE: Only 5 Lakewood districts went to Menendez. Despite that, Lakewood had the most districts for Menendez in Ocean County; Others were in Toms River, Berkeley and Manchester (five).
Menendez menendez menendez!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Insane
Such corruption and this country’s freedoms are soon going to be taken away from us R”L with the demorats retaking over the white house and Senate majority.
Start making your plans for Aliya to Israel before things get really bad and the anti-Semitism gets worse C”V
Once again, the Vaad endorsed won. This is best for klal U’Prat. I’m glad Menendez legal issue gave the Vaad “Pause” before they endorsed him.
Hugin deserved to lose for all the spam texts he sent …
I received at least 3 today alone
Where did he get cell phone numbers from and who gave him the right to text people multiple times?
Unlike robo calls it is actually an FCC violation
Political calls are permitted
To all those who voted for Hugin you DID NOTHING all you did was 1-weaken tremendously Lakewood lobbying efforts, it was a big waste and the Vad knew that Hugin didn’t stand a chance. 2-make Mendez have less pause about doing something we don’t like because the vaad won’t bring him enough votes. 3- let’s learn from this mistake and next time trust the vaad there a drop more savvy been in the buisness a little big longer then any of us.
Time for a vaad that represents and unifies the community.
People with proper ideology speak with their vote, not follow the trend like a fish not going upstream.
Lakewood Resident; Well said, a vaad is to represent the sole interests of the community, & not just endorse projected winners.
Otherwise we can just follow the polls, and be lame ducks.
additionally how else do we express our views, and show what we stand for.
the vaad follows daas Torah. we must follow daas Torah which gives its green light to the vaad.
Wrong- We Followed the Torah- Did the right thing – Easy Mitzvah
Also what would he have done for you exactly if we voted for him
Not about winning but about doing whats right
Anyone who did not vote GOP in the midterm elections, should inspect their actions, since it is not respect to the President, and it may make it harder for him to work in his and our interests.
The President is the commander in chief, greater than a senator.
May G-D give the President the heart, strength & courage to execute his job as the countries highest elected official and leader.
My comment is really addressed or the Vaad. May I humbly suggest that going forward a few weeks before an election the Vaad should set up a town hall style forum, much like what candidates looking for votes typically do. In such a setting a couple of Vaad members could actually give us reasons why they are endorsing such a candidate and also shed light into their working relationship with that candidate and give us a reason to want to vote for that candidate . It will also give the community a forum where people that have an issue will have an opportunity to discuss it. I think that will go a long way to having a unified tzibbur. Just getting phone messages a day before and the day of an election to vote this column and that candidate is clearly not working…
Cool Masmid; very good idea.
I was thinking along those lines just now, thank you for your input.
Boruch Shekivanti!
@coolmasmid, I thought they spelled it out very clearly in their endorsement. they explained why they are endorsing Menendez (and everyone else). It was simple to understand. the people screaming would not change their minds from a town hall style meeting, as they don’t care about logic. it would just give them another opportunity to hock…
keep in mind that Menendez is a federal level senator, which means very little interaction with town level politics and little to no interaction with the vaad. so i would imagine there isn’t much to talk about besides his history for standing up for Israel.