Some NJ Republicans want 'Gold Bar Bob' to remain in office

By: Charles Stile
Political stile
USA Today Network

..... Christine Serrano Glassner, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate next year, [2024] has succeeded so far in coining a memorable moniker for recently indicted Democratic Senator Bob Menendez.
...... "Gold Bar Bob has been battling credible allegations of corruption through most of his time in office," she said after the unsealing of a 39-page federal indictment last month [09/2023] alleging that Menendez was paid bribes in the form of gold bars, two of which were discovered during a June 2022 search of his home.
.... Yet despite her searing swipe, Serrano Glassner, the mayor of Mendham Borough, refrained from calling on Menendez to step down from the very seat she is seeking in the 2024 elections. In fact, she thinks he should stay put for now.
..... "Many Democrats called for him to resign, and I disagree with that," she said in an interview with Forbes magazine. "He's entitled to due process and he should go through the full process. And all of the voters in New Jersey should be entitled to see exactly what that is. They should be the ultimate judges."
..... Serrano Glasner is hardly an outlier in the GOR. For the most part, national Republican have refused to call for Menendez to step down even after the disclosure of tawdry, detailed accusations that the 69-year-old senator peddled his influence in exchange for nearly $500,000 in cash, a Mercedes-Benz, gold bars and other benefits. His wife, Nadine Menendez, was also charged in the scheme.
..... Despite all their moral outrage -" New Jersey deserves better than this dark cloud of corruption that has been following Bob Menendez for a decade," Serrano Glassner said in her campaign announcement - most Republicans are perfectly content to let him stay in office and let that dark cloud hover indefinitely.
..... And it may be for a quite a while: Menendez and his wife have pleaded not guilty to the charges, and he has shown no inclination of leaving anytime soon despite more than 20 of his fellow Senate Democrats calling for him to resign.
..... That's not to say every Republican is giving Menendez a pass. Local Republicans have been more vocal. The Republican state Committee issued a statement calling for him to step down. So did state Senator Anthony Bucco, R-Morris. A number of legislative GOP legislative candidates this fall [2023]called on Menendez to resign and sought to tie their Democratic candidates at the hip with Menendez.
..... "Despite Democrats" recent and self-serving attempts to distance themselves from embattled Senator Bob Menendez, voters should know that (Democratic) Senator Vin Gopal has been part and parcel with the endemic corruption that has flourished under one-party rule," said Republican Steve Dnistrian, who is challenging Gopal in the competitive 11th legislative district in Monmouth County.
..... And U.S. Representative Thomas H. Kean Jr, R-Union, who lost to Menendez in 2006 race for the senate, said Menendez should "immediately vacate his office," although he believes voters or the legal system will likely force him out, since Menendez :doesn't care what i or anyone else in New Jersey thinks."
..... But some state Republicans, who feel that they have built momentum over the summer [2023] on culture war issues, such as parental rights and opposition to offshore wind energy, are not expecting to make the Menendez scandal a leading issue in the race. The emphasis is to keep it on kitchen table issues, not the gold bars and cash allegedly found in Menendez's home closet.
..... "I don't think it's gonna be a major issue," Bunco said. "I think it's just part of that drip, drip, drip that is coming from the Democrat side. you know, people are looking out and saying, 'hey, maybe enough is enough here."
..... Besides they won't have a say in who gets to replace Menendez even if he resigns before his election next year. [2024] Governor Phil Murphy will have that chore, and he's certain to pick a Democrat.
..... But for national Republicans, the political advantage is clear. The longer Menendez sticks around, the easier it is for the national Republican Party to make him a punching bag and drive up the long-shot chances of a Republican, whether it be Serrano Glasner or U.S. Representative Jeff Van Drew, R-Cape May, who is also making noise of a possible campaign, snatching a senate seat net year [2024] in a safe Democratic blue bastion.
..... "They don't want him off the stage," said Micab Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Center for New Jersey Politics at Rider University.
..... But, as with everything else that involves the national GOP these days, the shadow of Trump hovers over the issue of Menendez's fate
..... If Republican candidates publicly demanded that Menendez step down while he defends himself in court, then they would ultimately have to answer the inevitable questions: If an indicted Menendez should leave office, then shouldn't Trump cancel his own bid to return to the White House while he fights 90 felony counts spread out over four indictments?
..... But by declaring that voters should ultimately determine Menedez's fate, GOP officials can avoid charges of hypocrisy. They can now say that is exactly how Trump's fate should be resolved. What's good for Menendez is also good for the Republican front-runner for the nomination in 2024.
..... Serrano Glassner's spokesman didn't directly address th4e Trump-consistency questions but noted that Menendez is being prosecuted by a "democratic-controlled Department of Justice," which defuses any claim that he is being targeted for political purposes.
..... The same Democrats who are destroying our economy and depriving parents of their rights are the ones who would love to be rid of the stench of corruption they enabled in 'Gold Bar Bob,'" said Harrison Neely, the spokesman. "yet Menendez and the democrats should have to face the ultimate jury: the voters of New Jersey."
..... Of course, the Democrats have a history of political opportunism when it comes to Menendez. Democratic Party leaders rallied behind him after federal prosecutors in 2015 charged him with accepting bribes form a Florida ophthalmologies.
..... They believed they had no choice in the matter: If Menendez resigned under that cloud, then Republican Governor Chris Christie would have picked a Republican to replace him, shrinking the Democrats' narrow majority in the Senate.
..... Now that Murphy gets to pick the replacement, Democrats won't have that worry. They have the luxury of getting on their soap box and demanding Menendez's immediate departure.
..... It's worth noting that Menendez weather the outcry that erupted after his first indictment.
..... In November 2017, the case against him collapse in a mistrial, and by early 2018, the Justice Department opted not to retry the case.
..... He hung in there protect by his own party, with powerful allies, like U.S. Senator Cory Booker, standing by him.
..... Not long after that case ended, Menendez allegedly began his latest profit-for-power scheme.

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