Menendez Officially
Accepts Offer
to Replace Corzine in
Senate
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, December 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Robert
Menendez has formally accepted New Jersey Gov.-elect Jon Corzine's offer to
serve out the remaining year on his Senate term, Democratic congressional aides
said.
Corzine will appear with Menendez Friday at 2 p.m. at Liberty State Park in
Jersey City, N.J., to formally announce his choice, the aides said on Thursday.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because the official announcement had not
yet been made.
Corzine had decided on Wednesday to choose Menendez over several other
candidates, but he did not formally offer Menendez the job until Thursday night.
Corzine was elected governor last month; state law gives the governor the
authority to fill Senate vacancies. Corzine's Senate term expires in 2006.
Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants, will be the first minority to represent
New Jersey in the Senate. Dozens of Hispanic groups lobbied heavily for
Corzine to select Menendez. He will join Sens. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. and
Mel Martinez, R-Fla. as the Senate's only Hispanics.
Menendez, 51, has a $4.1 million campaign war chest to run for a full Senate
term in 2006.
In an interview with The Associated Press last month, Menendez said he believed
he would be an effective senator because ''I have walked the shoes of the
average New Jerseyan.''
''I have lived in the state virtually my entire life and I have dedicated my
adult life to public service within the state,'' he said. ''As someone who
came from immigrant parents and was the first to go to college from my family, I
understand the hopes and dreams of aspirations of people.''
The only Republican candidate so far is state Sen. Tom Kean, Jr., son of Thomas
Kean, the former governor and former Sept. 11 Commission chairman.
|
