Voters wanted a revolution. How'd they get stuck with corrupt Bob Menendez? | Will Bunch

Updated: June 7, 2018 — 2:04 PM EDT

You say you want a revolution? Then you definitely want to see more candidates like Michael Starr Hopkins, a 31-year-old public defender and occasional TV political pundit who — for a brief month or two in late 2017 — toyed with throwing a large wrench into the creaky, oil-leaking machine that is New Jersey’s Democratic Party.

Hopkins’ scheme would have made him not just the youngest U.S. senator since a (former) whippersnapper named Joe Biden back in 1973 but an ardent advocate for progressive causes such as ending the college-debt crisis, supporting a Medicare-for-all health-care system, and legalizing pot.

And here’s the beauty part: A Hopkins campaign — with just a slight nudge from the far-too-influential powers-that-be in the Garden State — would have given New Jersey’s rank-and-file Democrats hope of wiping the slate clean from the embarrassing tenure of their incumbent Sen. Robert Menendez, whose greatest achievement has been showing that taking freebies like jet travel and swank vacations from a millionaire donor seeking political favors is no longer a felony in America’s comatose 21st-century democracy.

Late last fall, Hopkins — who lives in Jersey City — raised about $50,000 from small donors for an insurgent challenge to Menendez. Then he went to major party backers and power players like then-Gov.-elect Phil Murphy and Menendez’s Senate colleague Cory Booker, a 2020 presidential hopeful, to sell them on the power of a fresh face. There would be no sale. Hopkins couldn’t get past the front door.

“They were all very clear that they were backing Menendez — and that was decided even before the Justice Department decided not to prosecute him” a second time after a November hung jury, Hopkins told me this week. He said that many bigger Democratic donors told him they feared “retribution” if they bucked the establishment and gave Hopkins any money. The would-be insurgent abandoned his Senate campaign before it ever got off the ground.

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnis ... rotest-vote-20180607.html

Now Menendez has a Democrat challenging him

WASHINGTON -- Before they can face each other in the general election, both U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez and former Celgene Corp. executive Bob Hugin first must overcome opposition from candidates in their own parties.

On the final day for candidates to declare their intention with the state Division of Elections to run in the June 5 primary, community newspaper publisher Lisa McCormick filled to run against Menendez, D-N.J., who is seeking a third six-year term. McCormick announced a campaign for the 2017 Democratic nomination for governor but did not run.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/ ... re-election_campaign.html

Feds intend to retry Menendez and Melgen 'at the earliest possible date'

By MATT FRIEDMAN  - Updated 01/19/2018 05:26 PM EST

Two months after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the federal corruption case against Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and co-defendant Salomon Melgen, the Justice Department on Friday said it wants to retry them — and soon.

“The United States files this notice of intent to retry the defendants and requests that the Court set the case for retrial at the earliest possible date,” reads the one-paragraph notice signed by AnnaLou Tirol, acting chief of the department's public integrity section. “Defendants Robert Menendez and Salomon Melgen have been indicted for bribery and corruption by two separate grand juries properly impaneled in the District of New Jersey. The first trial ended in a mistrial with a deadlocked jury. An early retrial date is in the best interests of the public, and the United States is available to schedule a retrial at the Court’s earliest convenience.”

Menendez, New Jersey's senior senator, is up for reelection this year.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01 ... justice-department-350904

Eye Doctor Tied to Bob Menendez Case Convicted in $100 Million Fraud Scheme

(WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.) — A federal judge heard wildly conflicting stories Tuesday about a prominent Florida eye doctor convicted in a $100 million Medicare fraud scheme. Some former patients said Dr. Salomon Melgen restored their sight for free, while others described painful and unnecessary treatments that left them blind.

Melgen, 63, is facing a possible life sentence after being found guilty of 67 counts, including health care fraud, submitting false claims and falsifying records in patients’ files. Evidence presented during his trial earlier this year showed he subjected patients to unnecessary procedures, including sticking needles in their eyes and burning their retinas with lasers.

Melgen also stands accused in a separate federal case of bribing Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey in exchange for favors including visas for his foreign mistresses.

http://time.com/5051062/salomon-melgen-bob-menendez-fraud-scheme/

Menendez 'I won't forget you' warning inspires gift for N.J. political mavens

“I look forward to proving our innocence and being exonerated,” the 63-year-old Robert Menendez told reporters last week. | Julio Cortez/AP