Son’s Big Primary Win Helped N.J. Sen. Menendez’s Independent Run

A day after embattled Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., filed to run for reelection as an independent, he got a boost with the larger-than-anticipated victory of his U.S. representative son, Robert Menendez Jr., in the Democratic primary in New Jersey’s 8th District.

The younger Menendez romped to an easy win (54.1% to 35.3%) over Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, whose campaign and its allies tried to link the congressman to his father’s ongoing trial for federal corruption charges.

“His son’s win does help Menendez Sr.,” veteran political consultant Ed Rollins, who quarterbacked Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman’s initial election in 1993, flatly told Newsmax on Wednesday morning.

Rollins pointed out that “Menendez’s daughter is a well-known MSNBC newscaster and his son is a congressman who beat back a serious challenge. So they are both popular figures and that helps their father.”

Menendez Sr. needs help. Now on trial on charges of widespread use of his office to enrich himself, the senator filed 2,465 signatures on petitions on the last day Garden State law permits one to seek office as an independent.

“More interesting” is the way National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines, R-Mont., characterized a three-candidate race between Democratic nominee and three-term Rep. Andy Kim (who would be New Jersey’s first ever senator of Asian heritage), centrist Republican and multimillionaire hotelier Curtis Bashaw, and Menendez.

Bashaw, openly gay and pro-choice, made big news Tuesday by handily (48% to 37.1%) winning the Republican primary over Trump-endorsed Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner. Bashaw had the strong endorsement of Trump antagonist and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

An April Emerson poll showed Menendez supported by 9% of likely state voters, and the average Democratic margin of victory in New Jersey Senate races for the past half-century is 11.5%. Moreover, New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the Senate in 52 years.

“Menendez will certainly be a factor in the race, and Brashaw might be able to pull it off,” said Rollins. “But given the history of Senate races in New Jersey, I would say it is probable but not likely.”

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.