As long as it wasn’t Roy Moore-type allegations against him, I’d enthusiastically vote for Menendez in this race. This election is a referendum on Trump, therefore you need to vote for the party, not the person. I’d vote for Rod Blagojevich or Edwin Edwards before I’d vote Republican in any congressional race this year.
That's not necessarily true. I would rather support the candidate that has at least some ethics over the one that does not. I'm not a straight-ticket voter who votes based purely on party identification. I look at the candidates, evaluate their relative merits, and vote accordingly.
This is really the only way to properly vote - take the candidates that you're given, weight their positions in terms of personal importance and vote for the least bad option. In most cases, this exercise will result a vote for the candidate of the party where the voter most often leans, but for voters with less traditional priorities or candidates with ethical issues, the calculus is less straightforward. On Menendez, I would - without hesitation - cast a Hugin vote in New Jersey because Bribery Bob is that odious. Presumably, based on this poll, a fair number of left-leaning indies feel the same way.
And if it gets too close for comfort and the national party has to deploy resources to HEAVEN FORBID New Jersey to defend a corrupt senator in a so-called blue wave year, it becomes yet another piece of evidence that the DNC does not have core principles the way a political party should.
And Hugin, from what I've been told, seems to have moderate views on social issues. But unfortunately, most voters are probably like Wolverine22, in the sense that they will support a candidate no matter what they do, so long as they have an R or D next to their name. That was what happened in Alabama with Roy Moore last year. 91% of Republicans supported him even after the pedophilia allegations came out.
Yeah, Hugin is running one of the most moderate campaigns of any Republican candidate this year. New Jersey often has Green Party candidates on the ballot though, among others, so voters have other options for expressing their dissatisfaction with Menendez while still casting a vote.
If you're someone who cares about corruption, access, campaign finance laws, or anything like that, I don't think you can justify voting for someone like Menendez. If this makes you feel guilty about jeopardizing control of the Senate, assuage your conscience by sending $50 to Joe Donnelly or someone else in a competitive contest.
