UPDATED: 20 DEC 2021 05:50 PM EST
A Menendez dynasty could be in offing in New Jersey.
Longtime Rep. Albio Sires (D-N.J.) plans to retire next year and Robert Menendez Jr., the son of the state’s senior senator, is already amassing support to replace the congressman in New Jersey’s heavily Democratic 8th Congressional District, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Sires, 70, will retire at the end of his current term in January 2023, after serving in Congress since January 2006. Sires was tapped by Democrats to fill the House seat held for years by Menendez Sr., who ascended to the Senate that year.
Numerous sources said Menendez Sr. has reached out to Democrats to gauge their interest in his son’s candidacy.
The Cuban-born Sires is a former mayor of West New York and speaker of the General Assembly who was a Republican for much of the 1980s and 1990s. In Congress, Sires, like Menendez Sr. — who’s also of Cuban heritage but was born in the U.S. — has been a vocal critic of the Castro regime. Sires also chairs the House Foreign Affairs western hemisphere subcommittee.
Sires, who serves on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said in a statement that he considers the recently passed infrastructure bill that includes funding for a new Hudson River rail tunnel the “capstone to a career of service.”
“Whether it was raising the minimum wage, creating affordable housing, increasing funding for public education, or funding critical cancer research, I am proud of my service to our residents,” Sires said.
Sires’ district in northern New Jersey is dominated by urban Hudson County but also also includes the city of Elizabeth in Union County, part of Newark and town of Belleville in Essex County and Fairview in Bergen County.
Though Hudson County insiders have said a number of local officials expressed an interest in running for Sires’ seat, Menendez Jr. has the support of a key local power broker: Union City Mayor and state Sen. Brian Stack, who runs a vaunted turnout machine in his Hudson County city.
“I got to know him over just the last couple of years, and he’s a bright guy. I think he’s got the energy, I think he’s a sensible individual. I think he’ll do a good job as our congressman," Stack said in a phone interview Monday. "It can’t hurt that he’s got the help from his dad, but he’s really his own person."
Sires, in an interview with Hudson County View on Monday, also expressed support for the younger Menendez to succeed him
The elder Menendez did not respond to a request for comment from POLITICO. Sires’ retirement was first reported by New Jersey Globe.
Menendez Jr., an attorney who has never run for public office, recently stepped up his political involvement. As his father feuded with Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, whom he perceived as maneuvering to replace him during his 2017 federal corruption trial, reports began circulating that the younger Menendez could challenge Fulop. That never materialized, however, and Menendez Jr. was nominated by Gov. Phil Murphy to the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
While some Hudson County Democrats don’t like the idea of such an important office going to someone who was not been politically active until recently, they’re unlikely to challenge the state’s senior senator if he weighs in heavily in favor of his son.
Stack said Menendez Jr.'s newness “could be a good thing, too — that he didn’t come through the system."
"He’ll learn as he goes along here," Stack said.
One uncertainty, however, is the boundaries of the 8th District; New Jersey’s congressional redistricting commission is working on a new map, though the district is likely to remain heavily Democratic.
Shoring up support among Hudson County’s various and sometimes-fractious Democratic power brokers would make Menendez Jr. the heavy favorite to win the district. But he would almost certainly face a challenge from the party’s left flank, which is already expressing distaste at the thought of a political dynasty.
“I can guarantee that the progressives will not sit out the race. Who that candidate will be, I ultimately can’t say,” said Hector Oseguera, who unsuccessfully challenged Sires in the 2020 Democratic primary. “I can tell you Albio would like to put someone else in there because he has his own heir apparent, but the Menendezes have a lot of power in Hudson County, and this is Bob Menendez calling in his power.”
Though Oseguera’s candidacy caused Sires and his allies to spend money in a district they’re normally able to easily win, the election wasn’t close, with Sires winning with about 70 percent of the vote.
Oseguera said he probably won’t run but insisted the district “is exactly the sort of place where you can have the evolution of what [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] did in New York.”
