Menendez Poll Says Voters Don't Blame Menendez Jr. For Dad's 'Sins'

HOBOKEN, NJ — In this year's race for 8th District Congress, recent poll numbers show that incumbent Robert Menendez Jr. is likely to prevail over Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, according to Menendez's pollster — but the Bhalla camp begs to differ.

The Menendez camp released their poll numbers late last week.

The poll results also included responses to questions about whether voters will hold the "sins" of Menendez Jr.'s father, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, against the son. Last September, Menendez Sr. was indicted on bribery charges.

Rob Menendez Jr. has not been implicated in the alleged crimes.

The four questions about the Menendez father's "sins" essentially amount to the same question asked four different ways:

The Feb. 13 memo released last week by the Menendez Jr. campaign says that Menendez holds " a comfortable lead" over competitors Bhalla, Kyle Jasey, and "someone else," with 19 percent of voters currently undecided.

According to the Menendez team, the poll says that right now, 46 percent of 8th District voters polled would choose Menendez again. Twenty-four percent would choose Bhalla, and 6 percent would choose Jasey.

However, a release from Bhalla's campaign team this week said that the race is much closer than that, and that Bhalla will likely gain traction.

They said that when they surveyed 403 voters throughout the district, Bhalla received 41 percent of the vote to Menendez's 44. Fifteen percent are undecided, they said.

"Menendez's share of the vote is likely his ceiling...while Bhalla has tremendous upside," they noted.

They added, "The Menendez name remains a significant liability."

The Bhalla campaign also said that the two surveys reached different populations. The Menendez poll went to registered Democrats, they said, while the Bhalla poll went to voters who had traditionally voted in the Democratic primary.

Bhalla will face Menendez in June, hoping to get the nomination to run in the general election in November.

On Wednesday, Menendez Jr.'s team said Bhalla's characterization wasn't accurate.

“Our Menendez for Congress poll was conducted among registered Democrats in the Eighth Congressional District who were then screened for their likelihood to vote in the primary and weighted to be representative of a likely Democratic primary electorate," said Ben Lazarus of TargetSmart. "It is completely inaccurate to deride our poll as not being representative of likely primary voters. In fact, our research and modeling suggests that the more likely a voter is to participate in the primary, the more likely they are to support Congressman Menendez.

“Furthermore, given the Eighth is a heavily Hispanic district, our campaign went out of its way to invest in a culturally appropriate, bilingual, language of choice polling methodology, a design that ensured primary voters who predominantly speak Spanish were able to participate in the survey. We are confident in the results of MFC’s poll."

Both Bhalla and Menendez have banked over $1 million for their campaigns and have drawn key endorsements from other prominent political figures.

The 8th District includes Hoboken, some of Jersey City, most Hudson County towns, Elizabeth, and the East and North Wards of Newark.

Read more about the race, and Menendez and Bhalla's shots at each other, here: Days After 'Gold Bar Bob' Menendez Barb, Bhalla Asks For 6 Debates