Kean: you're corrupt

Menendez: no YOU'RE corrupt

Kean: no YOU ARE

Menendez: no you are... infinity.

THE MUD FLIES
Menendez, Kean rap each other on ethics
Thursday, August 31, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Gearing up for what has the makings of a close and bitter campaign stretch after Labor Day, Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez and his Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr. swapped accusations of ethical breaches yesterday at dueling news conferences.

To dramatize his point, Kean, a state senator from Westfield, stood across the street from a three-story brick building on 41st Street in Union City that Menendez once owned.

The building serves as the administrative office for the Head Start program run by the North Hudson Community Action Corp., a nonprofit Menendez helped designate a "federally qualified heath care center." The designation led to the nonprofit receiving nearly $10 million in federal grants, according to news reports.

But over a nine-year period, roughly $350,000 of that money came back to Menendez in the form of rent," Kean said.

"Bob Menendez is either engulfed in corruption or he's oblivious to it. Either way, he's not fit to serve in the Senate," he said.

Matt Miller, Menendez's campaign spokesman, said Menendez asked for and received permission from the House Ethics Committee to collect rent from the nonprofit 12 years ago.

"The (federal) designation meant thousands of under-privileged county residents were able to get health care services that they needed," he said, noting Menendez did the same for Horizon Health Care Center in Jersey City and the Jewish Renaissance Medical Center in Perth Amboy.

Miller said Kean was simply trying to deflect attention away from his own ethical failings, which Menendez discussed at a morning press conference in Trenton.

In an earlier news conference in Trenton, Menendez charged Kean with accepting campaign donations from the UnitedHealth Care insurance company the same day his father, former Gov. Thomas Kean Sr., a board member of the corporation, was testifying to the Securities and Exchange Commission that the company did nothing wrong when it backdated stock options for its chief operating officer.

In addition, Menendez accused Kean of accepting $62,000 in campaign funds from corporate boards his father sat on and flip-flopping on several votes, including extending the New Jersey smoking ban to casinos, after he received campaign contributions from industry lobbyists.

The dueling news conferences happened on the same day that a poll was released showing the U.S. Senate race was virtually tied - but that Kean would enjoy a sizable lead if not for the war in Iraq.

Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind Poll, designed to test the impact of national issues on the race, indicated that if the war were not a factor, Kean could be leading Menendez by 47-36 percent.

As it stands, however, 43 percent of voters polled said they favor Kean to 39 percent for Menendez, a difference that matches the poll's sampling error margin and makes the race a virtual tie.

The poll also found Kean has strong approval numbers with all voters, even Democrats, while Menendez has maintained his solid party base but has relatively little support among Republicans. And while 86 percent of Republicans recognize Kean, just 70 percent of Democrats say they know who Menendez is.

Kean characterized Menendez's accusations as the actions of a desperate politician - and took a shot at Menendez's home county in the process.

"He knows he's going to lose this race," Kean said. "What a Hudson County Democrat does is try to bring down as many people with him."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rivals in New Jersey Senate Race Invade Each Other?s Turf
By DAVID W. CHEN and LAURA MANSNERUS
New York Times
Published: August 31, 2006

UNION CITY, N.J., Aug. 30 ? State Senator Thomas H. Kean Jr. and United States Senator Robert Menendez ventured into each other?s turf on Wednesday to continue what has become an almost daily barrage of accusations over ethics in their tight race for Mr. Menendez?s seat.

At a news conference in front of a house here that Mr. Menendez once owned and occupied with his family, Mr. Kean, a Republican, hammered away at Mr. Menendez for collecting more than $300,000 in rent for that house over a decade from a nonprofit community agency for which he helped secure federal funds.

Echoing criticism from two Republican assemblymen who have claimed that Mr. Menendez skirted conflict-of-interest rules in the transaction, Mr. Kean expressed outrage over what he said were Mr. Menendez?s dual roles as lawmaker and landlord. Mr. Menendez sold the house three years ago.

?Bob Menendez is either engulfed in corruption, or he?s oblivious to it,? Mr. Kean said. ?Either way, he?s unfit to serve New Jersey in the United States Senate.?

Just two hours earlier, Mr. Menendez held his own news conference at the State House, in Trenton, attacking Mr. Kean where he legislates. Mr. Menendez questioned what he said was Mr. Kean?s receipt of more than $62,000 from corporate donors with business ties to his father, former Gov. Thomas H. Kean. He also accused Mr. Kean of flip-flopping on support of a smoking ban in Atlantic City casinos after receiving $10,000 in contributions from the casino industry.

Mr. Menendez spent most of his time, though, swatting away repeated questions about his dealings with the nonprofit agency in Union City, the North Hudson Community Action Corporation. Both Mr. Menendez and Mr. Kean reinforced the themes that they have been using against each other all summer: Mr. Kean casting doubts on Mr. Menendez?s ethics because he is a product of Hudson County?s political machine; Mr. Menendez raising questions about Mr. Kean?s finances and ties to Republican donors.

The race is likely to become more intense in the hotly contested race when former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton are expected to campaign for the two candidates in separate fund-raisers next Wednesday.

The day?s events coincided with the release of the latest poll on the race from Fairleigh Dickinson University, which showed Mr. Kean and Mr. Menendez drawing 43 percent and 39 percent support, respectively, among registered voters, a dead heat given the margin of error of four percentage points. The telephone poll was taken of 651 randomly selected registered voters statewide reached between Aug. 21 and Sunday.

Mr. Menendez has raised three times as much money as Mr. Kean has, and many political observers expect that the race will largely be fought ? and will be won ? by the quality and quantity of television commercials in the fall.

For Mr. Kean, the appearance in Union City was not without some risk, given that on the day nearly three months ago when Mr. Menendez formally announced his candidacy in Union City, Mr. Kean appeared in Jersey City at a news conference to criticize Mr. Menendez?s ethics ? but appeared to be flummoxed when he was drowned out by lawn mowers operated by county corrections personnel.

This time, though, there were no major distractions, with a minor exception: a garage band played a raucous rendition of ?La Bamba? in the house next to the one where Mr. Kean stood.

At one point, Mr. Kean claimed that Mr. Menendez was a product of a broken system in Washington. When he was asked whether Republicans should be blamed for that system, since they control all the levers of the federal government, he said: ?This is not a partisan issue. There is a system that has allowed people like Jack Abramoff to thrive.?

In Trenton, Mr. Menendez delivered his lengthiest comments yet on the Union City house. He called its rental ?an arm?s-length transaction,? that he said had been approved by the House ethics committee.

He noted that the North Hudson Community Action Corporation received federal funds long before he was elected to Congress and continues to do so.

Only toward the end of the news conference did Mr. Menendez let a little exasperation show, cutting off questioning and then rapping softly on the lectern as he said, ?This is an agency I am proud to have helped.?

David W. Chen reported from Union City for this article and Laura Mansnerus from Trenton.