Menendez Named to Senate Seat from NJ
 Wayne Parry - Associated Press
| | Gov.-elect Jon S. Corzine, left, talks with Rep. Robert Menendez at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, N.J., Friday, Dec. 9, 2005, just before announcing that he was selecting Menendez to serve the remaining year of his U.S. Senate term, giving New Jersey its first minority senator. (AP Photo/Mel Evans) |
Jersey City, NJ - Gov.-elect Jon Corzine on Friday appointed Democratic Rep. Robert Menendez to serve out the remaining year in Corzine's Senate term, giving New Jersey its first minority senator.
Menendez, 51, becomes the third Hispanic in the Senate, joining Democrat Ken Salazar of Colorado and Republican Mel Martinez of Florida.
Menendez, with his huge $4.1 million campaign war chest and status as the third most powerful Democrat in the House, was long considered the front-runner for Corzine's seat. National Democrats pushed for a solid candidate to keep the seat in the party's hands in the 2006 election, a post no New Jersey Republican has won since 1972.
"Bob is a fierce and articulate advocate. He's a man of integrity," said Corzine, who was elected last month. "He is eminently electable."
Menendez, a lawyer, grew up in a Union City tenement and was the first in his family to go to college. His parents left Cuba before he was born.
"This is a privilege I will work tirelessly every day to honor," Menendez said within sight of the Statue of Liberty. "In America, freedom and opportunity are the keys that unlock success not just for the rich or the connected, but for anyone who is willing to work hard."
He pledged to serve the interests of working families and called for affordable health care and middle-class tax breaks. Menendez, a father of two, also criticized the war in Iraq.
"I pledge to you that I will never send New Jerseyans into a war that I would be unwilling to send my own son or daughter to fight," he said.
The only GOP candidate for the Senate seat so far is state Sen. Tom Kean Jr., whose father was governor of New Jersey and chairman of the Sept. 11 Commission. |
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News from Around the Americas | December 2005 
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