US Senate

U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, who was re-elected to a fifth term two weeks ago, has a 50%-36% approval rating, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released early this morning.  U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, who doesn’t face the voters again until 2012, has a 38%-30% approval rating.  Menendez was at 35%-31% in September.

Both of New Jersey's Democratic Senators voted to keep Joe Lieberman as Chairman of the Senator Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Lieberman, an Independent Democrat who backed John McCain for President, held his post by a 42-13 vote, with Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez voting in the majority.

An aide to U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) who used to work for former New Jersey U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli was fired last week after he was arrested on child pornography-related charges, the Washington Post reports.

According to information available on the internet, the suspect, Jeff Rosato, worked as a staff assistant for Torricelli from 2001 until he left office in 2003. 

After another suspect led investigators to Rosato, after which they said that they found pornographic images and videos of children on his home computer.

If Republican Ted Stevens loses he'll become the fifth incumbent U.S. Senator to lose re-election in a year when a home state candidate is on the national ticket.  It happened twice in 1916, and again in 1964 and 1980.

Despite Gov. Sarah Palin's presence on the GOP ticket in Alaska, Stevens -- convicted on federal corruption charges last month -- trails Democrat Mark Begich by 814 votes, with 35,000 ballots still to be counted --

The first time that happened was in 1916, when Democrat Woodrow Wilson was re-elected to a second term as President.  But in Wilson's home state of New Jersey, Republican Joseph Frelinghuysen, a cousin of U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, ousted Democratic U.S. Sen. James Martine by a 56%-39% margin. And in Indiana, the home state of Wilson's vice president, Thomas Marshall, Republican Harry New unseated incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. John Kern by a 48%-46% margin.

In the twelve states where Democratic U.S. Senators were seeking re-election in 2008, New Jersey's Frank Lautenberg had the second closest race.  Lautenberg beat former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer by a solid 56%-42% margin; the only Democratic Senator in a closer race was Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who won 52%-46%.  Barack Obama won New Jersey 57%-42%, while John McCain carried Louisiana by a 59%-40% margin.

FREEHOLD – A squat drab building on the side of a highway could describe a lot of places in New Jersey, but this one warrants a double take because a state trooper stands out front, and operatives come and go, frantically talking on their cellphones in the rain.

It’s two days after Election Day, but there remains a political war going on in Monmouth and here at the Clerk’s Office on Halls-Mill Road represents ground zero.

In a fight to secure a second seat on the Freeholder Board, Democratic candidate Amy Mallet leads Republican candidate John Curley by 18 votes, 135,688 to 135,670 as representatives from both parties jockey in the background for position in case a legal challenge goes down.

Jeff Boss, who claims to have witnessed the U.S. government arrange the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, received 601 votes in New Jersey in his bid for President of the United States.  But more than fifteen times as many voters supported Boss in his dual bid to win election to the U.S. Senate: he received 9,877 votes in his campaign to unseat Frank Lautenberg -- about three-tenths of one percent.

Frank Lautenberg becomes the first U.S. Senator from New Jersey to win a fifth term, but didn't set any records for winning percentages.  His 56% against former U.S. Rep. Richard Zimmer was his career best, but he didn't approach the 60% mark that Bill Bradley, Clifford Case and Harrison Williams had achieved back in a time when the state was more politically competitive.  Still, the 84-year-old Democrat is secure for the next six years, and did not have to sweat much after pushing back a primary challenge from U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews.

In battleground Monmouth County, where Democrats hoped to dropkick Republicans from the top down, it didn’t happen.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) defeated Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.) here by 51.26 percent to 47.39 percent, or 159,461 to 147,424 votes. While losing statewide, GOP U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer defeated U.S.  Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) in Monmouth by a 51.95 percent 45.59 percent.