TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who pleaded not guilty this week to bribery charges, occupies the same seat as the last senator to be convicted of such a charge: Harrison “Pete” Williams.
The charges against the senators, both Democrats, play into a persistent – and not totally baseless – stereotype of New Jersey politicians on the take.
The state’s a place where Gov. Chris Christie made his name by winning more than 130 corruption convictions during the seven years he spent as U.S. attorney, and where real political figures became the basis for some famous fictional corrupt characters – Nucky Thompson from “Boardwalk Empire” and Carmine Polito in “American Hustle.”
Just this century, mayors of Newark, Trenton and Camden have been sent to prison, and scandals prompted a governor to resign and a U.S. senator to drop out of a re-election bid.
Julian E. Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, said the Menendez and Williams cases, which are among the 12 times a sitting senator has been indicted, are very different.