Bob Menen­dez to launch bid for New Jer­sey Sen­ate seat dur­ing fed­er­al tri­al

Embat­tled Sen. Bob Menen­dez (D‑NJ) will report­ed­ly file for reelec­tion as an inde­pen­dent, a last-minute bid that is expect­ed to come before Tuesday’s dead­line and dur­ing his fed­er­al pub­lic cor­rup­tion tri­al.
Menen­dez, 70, will file nom­i­nat­ing peti­tions that he’s gath­ered in recent weeks that are signed by at least 800 peo­ple, which is the min­i­mum require­ment, accord­ing to the New Jer­sey Globe.
The Menen­dez cam­paign could not be reached. It is not clear whether Menen­dez has any cam­paign staff.

Menendez’s office did not respond to requests for com­ment.
The move comes as Menen­dez bat­tles fed­er­al charges for alleged­ly accept­ing lav­ish bribes and work­ing as a for­eign agent of Egypt and Qatar. Due to his required pres­ence at the Man­hat­tan tri­al, Menen­dez will have a friend deliv­er the sig­na­tures to the state Divi­sion of Elec­tions on Mon­day, accord­ing to the New Jer­sey Globe.
His cam­paign raised just over $1,200 in the first fundrais­ing quar­ter of this year, accord­ing to fed­er­al elec­tion records. But run­ning again means Menen­dez can con­tin­ue rais­ing funds and using them for legal expens­es. He had more than $5.67 mil­lion cash on hand a …