How a House Race Explains Bob Menendez’s Grip on New Jersey

The family name may be tainted, and the gold bars and the boots and jackets stuffed with cash seized as federal evidence, but Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) may yet bequeath an inheritance to his only son: a permanent seat in Congress, courtesy of the money-fueled political machine the senator himself once steered.

Nobody The Daily Beast spoke with in Hudson County, which constitutes the core of New Jersey’s Eighth Congressional District and lies directly across the water from Manhattan, denied that the senator installed now-Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ) in the House in 2022—and in the very seat the patriarch himself held from 1993 until 2006. This unceremonious anointment involved shoving other prospective candidates aside by securing the support of the county’s Democratic organization, which itself meant locking down endorsements from the 12 mayors who control nearly all politics in the area.

One of those mayors was Ravi Bhalla of Hoboken, who aspires to unseat the senator’s namesake in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. And he now recounts the endorsement request two years ago as little more than a shakedown.

Read more at The Daily Beast.