Bob Menendez

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Bob Menendez

Robert "Bob" Menendez (* 1. January 1954 in New York City ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party , of the State of New Jersey in January 2006 in the US Senate represents. He is the first Hispanic Senator from New Jersey and served on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee from 2013 to 2015 . He was previously a member of the US House of Representatives from 1993 to 2006 . A corruption charge was dropped in 2018.

Family, education and work

Menendez is the son of Cuban immigrants who fled to New York in 1953 because of their dissatisfaction with the Batista government . His father was a carpenter, his mother a seamstress. He grew up in Union City , New Jersey, where he also graduated from Union Hill High School and was president of the senior class. As the first of his family he attended college ( Saint Peter's College ), which he finished in 1976 with a bachelor's degree in political science. Then he attended the Law School of Rutgers University , where he 1979 Juris Doctor gained. In 1980 he was inducted into the New Jersey Bar Association and then started working for a private law firm.

Menendez married Jane Jacobsen, a Union City teacher, in 1976. This marriage, which divorced in 2005, had two children. In 2013 he married Alicia Mucci.

Political career

Menendez began his political career while studying when he was elected to the Union City's Board of Education in 1974. He was on the board for four years. After losing the mayoral election of that city in 1982, he won the 1986 election and was mayor of Union City until 1992. At the same time he was a member of the New Jersey State Parliament , from 1987 to 1991 as a member of the General Assembly , from 1991 to 1993 as a member of the Senate .

In the 1992 election , Menendez was elected to succeed Frank Joseph Guarini , who was no longer running, in the US House of Representatives after the electoral district, which was already favorably structured for Democrats, had received strong Hispanic dominance through redistricting the borders. From January 1993 to January 2006, Menendez represented New Jersey's 13th Congressional constituency in Congress. In January 2006, he was appointed by former US Senator and newly elected Governor of New Jersey, Jon Corzine , to take on his previous vacant Senate seat. In the regular Senate election in November 2006 , Menendez won clearly against his Republican opponent Tom Kean and also won the following election in 2012 with 59 percent of the vote over his Republican challenger Joe Kyrillos (39 percent).

From January 2013 to January 2015, Menendez succeeded the newly appointed Secretary of State John Kerry as Chairman of the Senate's important Foreign Policy Committee . With the change of power to the Republicans in the Senate after the election in November 2014 , Republican Bob Corker took over the chairmanship of the committee in January 2015. Menendez remained a member of the committee and initially led the Democrats there in its leadership ranks (" ranking member ") however, at the end of March 2015, he resigned from this management position due to corruption investigations and was replaced by Ben Cardin .

After the corruption proceedings against Menendez were discontinued, he announced at the end of March 2018 that he would be running for his Senate seat again in the November election. In the first Monmouth University poll , Menendez led 53 percent to 21 percent against his Republican challenger, drug entrepreneur Bob Hugin. According to this, Menendez had approval ratings of 37 to 38 percent - significantly less than in previous election campaigns - and his challenger was 28 to 35. According to this, 76 percent of the state's voters were aware that Menendez had gone through corruption proceedings, and 51 percent said that this would influence their voting decision against Menendez. While Hugin used $ 36 million from his own assets in the course of the election campaign, voter satisfaction with Menendez and his polls continued to decline, so that observers expected a close result shortly before the election. Menendez prevailed with 53.1 to 43.7 percent of the vote and will take up another six-year mandate on January 3, 2019.

Positions

Foreign policy

When it comes to foreign policy issues, Menendez is considered to be more conservative and interventionist and often voted with his Republican colleagues, but in 2002 he voted against the authorization of the Iraq war . In June 2014, Menendez called for US intervention in the Syrian civil war . During the war in Ukraine in August 2014, during a visit to Kiev in response to the advance of the separatists, he called for the US, the European Union and NATO to supply Ukraine with weapons. As the second US Senator for the Democrats, Menendez declared in August 2015 that he was opposed to the international negotiated solution in the dispute over the Iranian nuclear program , which was supported by President Obama .

Menendez rejected Mike Pompeo, who was nominated by President Trump as Secretary of State, in the Foreign Policy Committee in April 2018 .

Domestic politics

Menendez is significantly more progressive in domestic and environmental policy . He supports the right of women to abortion ( Pro-Choice ) and the opening of marriage to homosexuals . In 2013 Menendez was one of the leading figures ("Gang of Eight") for a non-partisan, comprehensive immigration reform that received approval from the Senate, but failed due to opposition from the House of Representatives.

Corruption proceedings

In the fall of 2012, Menendez hit the headlines because there was suspicion that he may have sought out underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic and had flights paid for by an eye surgeon for whom he had obtained business advantages in return. However, the statements of the prostitutes turned out to be bought, which is why the FBI investigated the unknown financier.

In early April 2015, Menendez was charged with corruption . He was accused of illegally procuring visas for his eye surgeon friend and helping to settle a threatened fine. For this, Menendez is said to have assumed the equivalent of almost one million US dollars. After the Supreme Court denied Menedez's request for a hearing in March 2017, the trial against him was set for September of that year. After eleven weeks of hearing, the judge declared on November 16, 2017 that a jury stalemate could not lead to a judgment (“mistrial”), so that the trial ended with no result. The decision on further steps rests with the government.

After a federal judge withdrew seven of 18 counts, the Justice Department withdrew all allegations on January 31, 2018, ending the trial against Menendez. An ethics investigation by the Senate into the acceptance of gifts remained pending against him.

Web links

Commons : Robert Menendez  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gregory Lewis McNamee: Bob Menendez. In: Encyclopedia Britannica , August 24, 2015.
  2. ^ Gregory Lewis McNamee: Bob Menendez. In: Encyclopedia Britannica , August 24, 2015.
  3. ^ Gregory Lewis McNamee: Bob Menendez. In: Encyclopedia Britannica , August 24, 2015.
  4. ^ Evelyn Nieves: A New House District Could Make History. In: The New York Times , October 29, 1992.
  5. ↑ Joe Tyrell: Menendez Wins Handily Over Kyrillos. In: NJ Spotlight , Nov. 7, 2012.
  6. ^ Nicole Gaudiano: Cardin Replaces Menendez as Top Dem on Foreign Relations. In: USA Today , April 2, 2015.
  7. ↑ David Porter: US Sen. Bob Menendez Announces He'll Seek 3rd Term. In: US News , March 27, 2018.
  8. ^ Matt Friedman: Monmouth poll: Menendez leads Hugin by 21 points. In: Politico , April 12, 2018.
  9. ↑ Ryan Hutchins, Matt Friedman: New Jersey Democrats sound alarm over Menendez race. In: Politico , November 3, 2018.
  10. ^ New Jersey US Senate Election Results. In: The New York Times , November 7, 2018.
  11. ^ Gregory Lewis McNamee: Bob Menendez. In: Encyclopedia Britannica , August 24, 2015.
  12. ^ Robert Menendez and Marco Rubio Support Bigger US Role in Syria Conflict. In: Fox News Latino , June 17, 2013.
  13. ↑ Russia in Ukraine “Is Clearly an Invasion”. In: CNN.com , August 31, 2014.
  14. ↑ Tal Kopan, Theodore Schleifer: Bob Menendez Becomes Second Senate Democrat to Oppose Iran Deal. In: CNN.com , August 18, 2015.
  15. ↑ Patricia Zengerle: White House presses vulnerable Democrats to back State Dept nominee Pompeo. In: Reuters , April 18, 2018.
  16. ^ Gregory Lewis McNamee: Bob Menendez. In: Encyclopedia Britannica , August 24, 2015.
  17. ^ Manu Raju: Senate Group Reaches Immigration Deal. In: Politico , January 28, 2013.
  18. ↑ Ginger Gibson, John Breshnahan: Can Robert Menendez Survive? In: Politico , February 3, 2013.
  19. ↑ Elspeth Reeve: The Bob Menendez Scandal Has Gotten So Weird. In: The Atlantic Wire , May 17, 2013.
  20. ↑ Corruption allegations against influential Democrats. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . 2nd April 2015.
  21. ↑ John Bresnahan: Supreme Court refuses to dismiss Menendez corruption charges. In: Politico , March 20, 2017.
  22. ^ Thomas Moriarty: Judge declares mistrial in Senator Bob Menendez federal corruption trial. In: NJ.com , November 16, 2017.
  23. ↑ Ted Sherman: In shocking move, feds drop all charges against Sen. Bob Menendez. In: NJ.com , January 31, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Menendez, Bob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Menendez, Robert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Democratic Party politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City