Sen. Bob Menendez may soon have a spin Straw Donation It will be converted into more gold bars.
A new report says the indicted New Jersey Democrat has gathered enough signatures to defend his seat as an independent, potentially setting up a three-way race in November.
Menendez, 70, has dropped out of the race for the June 4 Democratic primary, which progressive Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) is expected to win.
As of Thursday, the Menendez reelection campaign had garnered the 800 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot by primary election day, but was planning to gather up to 10,000 signatures to make a “statement” about the senator’s “level of support.” A source told NBC News..
“He’s not going down without a fight,” one person told the outlet.
The New Jersey Department of Elections has not yet listed Menendez as a candidate in the general election, and a spokesman for the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A representative for Menendez’s office also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If Menendez qualifies, his support would help him close the gap with Republican candidate Kim in the three-way race, according to polls.
A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll conducted last month showed Kim leading both Republican candidates, Mendham Borough President Christine Serrano Glassner and developer Curtis Bashaw, by double digits.
Adding in Menendez, Kim’s lead over Glassner and Bashaw shrinks to 6 and 8 percentage points, respectively, with the incumbents receiving 7 and 6 percentage points of support in each race.
Kim is running in the Democratic primary against Patricia Campos Medina, a left-wing labor union activist, and Larry Hamm, an activist and leader of the People for Progress group who has previously run for the U.S. Senate.
Menendez is currently on trial in Manhattan federal court on charges of accepting bribery. He received more than $600,000 in cash and gold bars in exchange for providing favors to three wealthy New Jersey businessmen.
He was also accused of acting as a foreign agent to benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar during his leadership position on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, from which he subsequently resigned.
Menendez has pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintains his innocence. His defense team has argued that his wife, co-defendant Nadine, inherited the gold bars from a Lebanese family and hid them in the marital home without his knowledge.
Nadine Menendez’s trial has been postponed while she undergoes treatment for breast cancer.
The senator avoided criminal conviction in 2017 when a federal jury hung on similar corruption charges.
During Menendez’s first reelection campaign in 2012, one of his campaign donors pleaded guilty to a dummy donation scheme that sent about $100,000 in illegal contributions to his campaign. According to NJ.com.
The lawsuit cost the Democratic campaign $2 million in legal services funding, according to an April filing with the Federal Election Commission.
