Democrats have spent months engrossed by the slow-motion downfall of Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey. But no sooner had he announced his resignation on Tuesday than their focus jumped to another question: Who would serve out his Senate term?
Party leaders had already been swapping names for weeks. Among them are a trio of prominent Black women; New Jersey’s first lady; and Representative Andy Kim, the Democratic nominee in November’s general election to replace Mr. Menendez on a more permanent basis.
The decision will fall to Gov. Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat in his second term, and advisers said he was winnowing his own list.
Here is what we know so far:
Menendez will vacate his seat in August
Mr. Menendez, 70, has been under intense pressure to resign since a Manhattan jury convicted him last week on all counts in a sweeping bribery scheme involving Egyptian intelligence, bars of gold and a Qatari sheikh.
On Tuesday, Mr. Menendez relented rather than face a possible vote to expel him from the Senate. He told Mr. Murphy in a letter that he would resign effective Aug. 20, giving the governor about a month to line up a replacement.
Whoever Mr. Murphy selects will serve until Mr. Menendez’s current term, his third, expires on Jan. 3.
Pressure to give a nominee a leg up
Prominent Democrats in New Jersey and Washington want Mr. Murphy to name Mr. Kim, 42, and they think the case is clear. Doing so would give their party’s nominee a leg up in November and allow him to begin accruing seniority in the Senate a few months early.
Mr. Kim has indicated he would accept the post if it was offered.
“Anyone else would be a real mistake by Phil,” said Steven Fulop, the mayor of Jersey City.
But it may not be that simple.
Mr. Murphy strongly dislikes Mr. Kim after he ran a bruising primary campaign against the governor’s wife, Tammy Murphy. Mr. Murphy has since indicated to allies that he has no interest in giving Mr. Kim the seat.
The governor is also under pressure from Republicans, including two of his predecessors as governor, to appoint a caretaker to avoid putting his thumb on the scale for the general election between Mr. Kim and the Republican nominee, Curtis Bashaw.
“The voters should have a free choice in November, unencumbered by political influence,” the former governors, Chris Christie and Thomas H. Kean, wrote in a recent statement.
What about the governor’s wife?
As reports swirled that Ms. Murphy was under consideration, Democrats in New Jersey bluntly warned Mr. Murphy that appointing his wife would smack of nepotism. The Murphys appear to have gotten the message.
Ms. Murphy, 58, quickly removed herself from consideration Tuesday afternoon, saying that she wanted to keep her focus on maternal health initiatives and defeating former President Donald J. Trump in November.
“While I’m grateful for the humbling support and outreach I’ve received since last year, I want to reiterate that I will not accept an appointment to the U.S. Senate,” she wrote on X.
Gov. Murphy’s shortlist
Mr. Murphy is considering at least four candidates, according to current and former aides who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the deliberations publicly. Several would break barriers in a state that has never sent a woman or a Black politician to the Senate.
One of the candidates under consideration is Tahesha L. Way, Mr. Murphy’s longtime secretary of state whom he appointed lieutenant governor last September. Ms. Way is in her early 50s, and an appointment could be seen as thanks for her loyalty to the governor.
Mr. Murphy is also looking at Nina Mitchell Wells, a former New Jersey secretary of state under Gov. Jon Corzine. Ms. Wells, 73, is married to Theodore V. Wells Jr., one of the nation’s leading defense lawyers and a mentor to prominent Black politicians like Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House Democratic leader.
Another candidate is Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, 79, a longtime Democratic leader who has represented Trenton and Princeton in the House for five terms. A spokesman for the congresswoman has indicated that she “would gladly continue to serve New Jersey in whatever capacity is asked of her.”
Mr. Murphy is also said to be weighing whether to appoint George Helmy, his longtime chief of staff. Mr. Helmy, who is in his 40s, left the governor’s office last fall to take a position as a health care executive, but he remains a close confidant of the governor. He also knows the Senate well as a former aide to Mr. Booker and former Senator Frank Lautenberg.
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