October 31, 2006

Menendez in GOP Crosshairs

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New polls show Bob Menendez hanging on to a thin lead in the New Jersery senate race, but Tom Kean,Jr. is attacking non-stop, now with more backing from the National Republican Senatorial campaign in D.C. A new ad, sponsored by the committee, once again hammers Menendez on corruption. A CNN poll is giving the Democrat a 12 point lead among registered voters and 7 points among likely voters. Nevertheless, the GOP clearly sees the possibility of a win here. They have been diverting money from other key races, such as in the Ohio senate battle, where they have concluded a loss is inevitable. The new money is meant to enhance Kean’s image in south Jersey.

Menendez insists he’s not under investigation and that Kean is a Bush puppet. “I don’t think the national Republican Party would spend $3½ million if it didn’t believe at the end of the day that Tom Kean Jr. will be a vote for the president and his policies,” Menendez is quoted as saying in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Meanwhile Kean is off on a new attack, ripping Menendez for giveaways to illegal aliens. In a hysterical ad, young Tom shrieks: “Stop Bob Menendez from giving billions in social security benefits to illegal aliens.”

–James Ridgeway

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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