A cloud of corruption is settling around President Trump's former confidantes, and Democrats are stoked. So stoked, they seem to have forgotten a potential problem of their own.
Amid the storm of Paul Manafort's guilty verdicts and Michael Cohen's guilty pleas, Quinnipiac University released a poll Wednesday surveying New Jersey voters. The poll shows incumbent Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democratic senator who previously escaped corruption charges, inching closer to losing his seat in November's midterms.
Quinnipiac's poll reveals that 43 percent of registered voters would vote for Menendez today — a relatively narrow 6-point lead over his Republican competitor Bob Hugin, given Menendez's traditionally safely blue constituency. Just five months ago, a Quinnipiac poll gave Menendez a 17-point lead over Hugin.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Meanwhile, Democrats have been trying to tie Trump-supporting candidates to corruption associated with the president's administration. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) conveniently debuted an anti-corruption bill Tuesday, just before Manafort and Cohen's courtroom appearances. But their push seems to be having unintended consequences on Menendez, who was indicted in 2015 on federal corruption charges, accused of using his Senate seat to benefit a friend in exchange for private jet rides and campaign donations.
Menendez's charges were dismissed earlier this year after a mistrial, but he still got "severely admonished" by the Senate Ethics Committee in an April letter. It's since been re-election season as usual for Menendez — though he probably didn't expect to fight so hard in a state that hasn't elected a Republican senator since 1954.
For Wednesday's poll, Quinnipiac surveyed 908 registered New Jersey voters over the phone from Aug. 15-20. The poll has a 4.6-point margin of error. Read more results here.
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to TrumpSpeed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
-
Supreme Court allows 'roving' race-tied ICE raidsSpeed Read The court paused a federal judge's order barring agents from detaining suspected undocumented immigrants in LA based on race
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raidSpeed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
DC sues Trump to end Guard 'occupation'Speed Read D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues that the unsolicited military presence violates the law
-
RFK Jr. faces bipartisan heat in Senate hearingSpeed Read The health secretary defended his leadership amid CDC turmoil and deflected questions about the restricted availability of vaccines
-
White House defends boat strike as legal doubts mountSpeed Read Experts say there was no legal justification for killing 11 alleged drug-traffickers
-
Epstein accusers urge full file release, hint at own listspeed read A rally was organized by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, who are hoping to force a vote on their Epstein Files Transparency Act
-
Court hands Harvard a win in Trump funding battleSpeed Read The Trump administration was ordered to restore Harvard's $2 billion in research grants
