Robert Menendez: N.J. Senator No Stranger To Controversy

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, a Union City native who was once called the “Boss of Hudson County” to his chagrin, is no stranger to controversy and legal actions.

Menendez, who was indicted on Wednesday on 14 counts of federal corruption charges, grew up the son of Cuban immigrants in a Union City tenement building, according to the senator’s website.

According to his website, Menendez first entered public service as a 19-year-old college student, when he launched a successful petition drive to reform the local school board.

One year later, Menendez won a seat on the same school board, which became the launching point for his political career and led to his eventual election as Mayor of Union City, a legislator in the NJ State Assembly and Senate, and a legislator in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

ETHICS VIOLATIONS OR POLITCAL MUDSLINGING?

Aside from his recent federal indictments for corruption charges, Menendez has been in the thick of several other controversies and allegations:

• In August of 2006, Republican state lawmakers filed an ethics complaint against Menendez, alleging that his rental of property to a nonprofit agency that receives federal funds broke conflict-of-interest rules (the investigation was closed in 2011, with no charges filed)
• A group of Tea Party activists launched a recall effort against Menendez in 2010, an allegedly unconstitutional effort which Menendez successfully appealed to the NJ Supreme Court
• In 2010, Menendez was accused of writing an ethically questionable letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, asking Bernanke to approve an acquisition for a New Jersey bank with directors who had given him political contributions
• In November 2012, a politically conservative website published allegations that Menendez had contact with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic (multiple news organizations such as the New York Times, ABC News and the New York Post declined to publish the allegations, calling them “unsubstantiated”)