• NJ-Sen: New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez was convicted in federal court Tuesday on all 16 counts of corruption he was charged with last year and is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 29. However, while it remains likely that Rep. Andy Kim, who won the Democratic primary for Menendez's Senate seat in June, will succeed the incumbent in the 119th Congress, there are many questions about just what will happen next.
Menendez, who is still a member of the Democratic caucus in the Senate, turned in enough signatures in May to run in the general election as an independent. However, he still has until Aug. 16 to withdraw his name. Kim would be the favorite with or without Menendez on the ballot in this reliably blue state, though Republicans are hoping that their nominee, wealthy developer Curtis Bashaw, can put up a fight.
It also remains to be seen whether Menendez, who predicted his conviction would be reversed on appeal, will be able to complete the rest of his term. Two prominent Democrats, Gov. Phil Murphy and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, both called on the senator to resign following Tuesday's verdict, with Murphy going on a step further.
"If he refuses to vacate his office," said the second-term governor in a statement, "I call on the U.S. Senate to vote to expel him."
It would take two-thirds of the body to make Menendez the first senator to be expelled since the Civil War, when multiple members were ejected for supporting the Confederacy.
If Menendez were to leave office―one way or the other―before his term ends in January, it would be up to Murphy to appoint a successor for the remainder of his current term. In his statement following Menendez's conviction, Murphy said that he would "make a temporary appointment" should a vacancy arise, which would seem to rule out Kim as an option.
(The governor and the congressman are anything but allies: Murphy's wife, former financier Tammy Murphy, ran against Kim in the primary, though she dropped out in March after repeated setbacks.)
There's also the question of whether the Garden State could end up hosting two Senate elections. In theory, if Menendez were to leave quickly enough, a special election for the final two months of his term could be held in November, simultaneously with the regular election for a full six-year term. But such a special election might not be practical, since New Jersey law would also require a primary, and there just might not be enough time to conduct one.
The state's last Senate vacancy arose when Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg died on June 3, 2013. Then-Gov. Chris Christie set a primary for Aug. 13 followed by a special election on Oct. 16—a Wednesday. That allowed Christie, a Republican who was up for reelection that fall, to avoid appearing on the same ballot as Democrat Cory Booker, the popular Newark mayor who won the special.
P.S. While no senator has been expelled since 1862, several others resigned in disgrace to avoid such a fate. This roster includes Harrison Williams, a New Jersey Democrat who was convicted in May of 1981 for corruption in the wide-ranging scandal nicknamed "Abscam."
Williams initially refused to resign, but Democrats sought to change his mind after Republican Tom Kean defeated Gov. Brendan Byrne that November. Democrats called for Williams to quit while Byrne, whose term was set to end the following January, was still in a position to appoint a fellow Democrat.
However, the senator turned down their entreaties. Byrne, explains the New Jersey Globe's David Wildstein, still held out hope for a last-second change of heart, and he even attended Kean's inaugural carrying a letter that would have appointed former state Senate President Joseph Merlino to a vacant seat.
That letter was worthless, though, by the time Williams' expulsion trial began in March of 1982. Williams at last quit when he realized that he was all but assured of getting the boot, and Kean picked Republican Nicholas Brady to replace him. Brady, however, did not run that fall and Democrat Frank Lautenberg reclaimed the seat for his party, while Williams went on to serve 21 months in prison.