New Jersey Senate race: Bob Menendez’s lead over Bob Hugin down to 2 points
Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez is in a shockingly close race with the Republican challenger, Bob Hugin.
Senator Robert Menendez
Image/United States Senate
The new poll from Stockton University shows that Menendez holds only a 2% lead: 45-43% — easily within the margin of error. A Quinnipiac University poll released in late August found Menendez held a six-point lead.
Hugin’s success has been credited to attacks on Menendez for a federal corruption trial that has dogged the senator for years. The Department of Justice, after investigating Menendez for nearly five years, charged the senator with conspiracy, bribery and honest services fraud related to allegedly abusing the power of his office.
“With a two-point lead falling within the poll’s margin of error, the Senate race at this point is up for grabs,” said Michael W. Klein, interim executive director of the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University.
According to the poll, the corruption charges against Menendez still hang over his campaign, with 59% of voters saying the charges are “extremely important” or “significant factor” in how they will vote in November.
To make this worse for Menendez, the new poll is biased with Democrats: 36% polled, Republicans and Independents 28%.
Joel Benenson, Menendez’s pollster, tweeted that the poll “only had 24 people aged 18-29 and 24 Latinos in sample of 578, both key Dem constituencies that are too small to weigh properly.”
“We knew this would be a competitive race given the millions greedy drug company CEO Bob Hugin spent on TV he made off the backs of cancer victims and their families, but we are confident Senator Menendez will prevail on Election Day,” the Menendez campaign said in a statement.
