As New Jersey Gas Prices Soar, Menendez Focuses On Re-Election

As the price of gasoline in New Jersey continues to soar – up 12 more cents per gallon just in the last week – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) showed New Jersey voters exactly where his priorities stand on this critical issue – and that’s his bid for re-election next year. In a front page Politico story today titled, “Menendez: Gas Prices Can Fuel Dem Win,” New Jersey’s junior Senator, who has been leading the charge in Congress against expanded domestic energy production, cynically expounds at length on how “the present set of circumstances [is] giving [Democrats] opportunities to frame the debate….”

“It’s unbelievable that as New Jersey families and small businesses are struggling with the rising cost of gas, their U.S. Senator is sitting in Washington gleefully picking over the political opportunities that this tough economic situation might present for him,” National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Chris Bond said today.

Noting that Menendez remains under federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, the NRSC said today that Menendez is likely looking for any major issue to distract from his ongoing ethics problems. “As the only United States Senator under active investigation by President Obama’s Department of Justice, it’s perhaps understandable that Senator Menendez would try to demagogue the issue of gas prices to distract from his own political problems – but he should try explaining that to New Jersey families now paying almost $4 a gallon at the pump. What’s more, the only solution Senator Menendez has offered to address this growing problem is to raise taxes and spend more government money,” Bond continued. 

“New Jersey families and businesses deserve better, and while Senator Menendez is sitting in Washington rooting for higher gas prices, they should remember that they will have the opportunity to hold him accountable at the ballot box in New Jersey next year,” Bond concluded.