ROBERT MENENDEZ

Robert Menendez



Robert Menendez

Robert "Bob" Menendez (born January 1, 1954) is the junior United States Senator from New Jersey and a member of the Democratic Party. In December 2005, he was appointed by Jon Corzine to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Corzine, who resigned upon being elected Governor of New Jersey, and was sworn into office in January 2006. Menendez was elected to his own full six-year term in the 2006 U.S. Senate election, defeating Republican Thomas Kean, Jr. He is the first person of Latino ethnicity to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate.

Prior to his appointment to the U.S. Senate, Menendez was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing New Jersey's 13th congressional district from 1993 to 2006. A resident of Hoboken, he previously served as Mayor of Union City (1986-1992) and a member of the New Jersey General Assembly (1987-1991) and the New Jersey Senate (1991-1993).

Bob Menendez was born on New Year's Day in New York City to Cuban immigrants who left their homeland a few months earlier, in 1953, seeking economic and political freedom from the repressive government headed by Fulgencio Batista. His father, Mario, was a mechanic and his mother, Evangelina, a seamstress.[4] The family subsequently moved to neighboring New Jersey where, growing up in Union City, he graduated from Union Hill High School.

After a B.A. from Saint Peter's College in Jersey City, he earned his Juris Doctor degree from Rutgers School of Law in Newark. He is a brother of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc.[5] He was admitted to the New Jersey Bar in 1980 and became a lawyer in private practice.

He married Jane Jacobsen, a teacher for the Union City Board of Education, and the couple had two children: Alicia, a graduate of Harvard University, and Robert, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In 1973, at age 19, while attending Saint Peter's College in Jersey City, he launched a successful petition drive against his mentor, then-Union City Mayor William Musto, to reform the local school board. He was elected to the Union City Board of Education in 1974. He would stay close to Musto throughout the 1970s, however, and supported Musto in his re-election to the New Jersey Senate in 1978. Menendez would later testify against Musto in a court case that resulted in a prison sentence for Musto. The trial was very controversial, and Musto declared his innocence for the rest of his life.

Menendez was elected mayor of Union City in 1986 after an unsuccessful run against the popular Musto in 1982. Menendez served as mayor until 1992. While mayor, he simultaneously served in the New Jersey Legislature, a common practice for New Jersey politicians. He was in the General Assembly from 1987 until 1991 and in the New Jersey Senate from 1991 to 1993, following the death of Christopher Jackman.

In December 2005, Menendez was appointed by Jon Corzine to fill the remaining year in the Senate seat from which Corzine resigned ...