The final debate of the race between U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and State Senator Joe Kyrillos for a 6 year term in the U.S. Senate was taped for television yesterday afternoon. It will air at 9:30 this morning on ABC in Philadelphia and at 11 on ABC in New York. NorthJersey.com reports on the debate here.
Kyrillos will be attending the 14th Dushahra Celebration in Edison this afternoon at 3:50. This morning he makes a South Jersey swing, appearing at the Southern Jersey Jewish Coalition Brunch at the Hotel ML in Mount Laurel at 10:30. At 11:20 he will be attending the Blackwood Pumpkin Festival before heading to Atlantic County for the Smithville Irish Festival at 1:20.
Governor Chris Christie will be campaigning with Kyrillos in Princeton tomorrow, 10:30am at the Princetonian Diner on Route 1.
If case you missed it, view the debate between U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and State Senator Joe Kyrillos here.
Joe Kyrillos held is own tonight, but did not do what he need to do to close the gap in the polls and make a race of his contest to unseat Bob Menendez.
Menendez came better prepared to attack Kyrillos and better prepared to defend himself. The incumbent U.S. Senator seemed to have a better command of the facts, higher energy and was clear about the message he wanted to convey.
Kyrillos came off halting, uncomfortable and unclear in his message.
In the second half hour, Kyrillos seemed to step up his game. But his efforts to “land a punch” fell flat as his delivery was cautious and reserved. It was if he was trying to land a punch while being nice about it.
I don’t see the race changing much based upon what happened tonight. It’s not over, as there are two more debates and a month of campaigning. Most voters are not yet focused on the down ballot offices. Joe need to step up his game.
Joe Kyrillos and Bob Menendez will face off tonight in a U.S. Senatorial debate at Montclair State University. The event will be broadcast on NJTV and live streamed on njtvonline.org at 8PM.
Menendez, the incumbent Democrat is seeking his second term term in the Senate. He was appointed by Governor Jon Corzine in 2006 to fill the seat that Corzine vacated when he was elected governor. Menendez defeated State Senator Tom Kean, JR in 2006 to earn his own term. Prior to his appointment to the U.S. Senate, Menendez represented Hudson County in the House of Representatives for 13 years. He served four years in the State Assembly and one year in the State Senate before being elected to Congress. Menendez was also Mayor of Union City while serving in the Assembly.
Kyrillos has represented Monmouth County in the State Legislature for since 1988. He served as GOP State Chairman in the early 2000’s, was Mitt Romney’s 2008 New Jersey campaign chair and Governor Christie’s campaign chairman in 2009.
Despite their long careers in public service, neither Menendez or Kyrillos are well known statewide.
30% of registered voters, including 25% of Democrats, did not know enough about Menendez to express an opinion about him in September 25 Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press poll. That is a horrible statistic for an incumbent U.S. Senator that indicates he was not been engaged with his constituents. The campaign has not boosted Menendez’s name recognition much. In February, the Senator was unknown to 33% of the electorate in a Monmouth/APP poll.
Kyrillos has done a much better job increasing his name ID with voters this year. In February, 80% hadn’t heard of him and 14% heard of him but did not know enough about him to express an opinion. In the September 25 poll, 48% of likely voters had no opinion of Kyrillos and 12% had never heard of him. Of the 39% of likely voters who know of Kyrillos, 27% view him favorably.
GOP U.S. Senate candidate Joe Kyrillos continues to introduce himself to New Jersey voters with the release of his third television ad today.
Here’s the script:
Joe Kyrillos: “I’ve talked to job creators from Burlington to Bergen, they tell me the same thing. Taxes, regulations, unfair competition from China, are killing jobs. My jobs plan will put America back to work. It reduces job killing regulations, streamlines government, and levels the playing field with China. Governor Christie and I are making progress in New Jersey, now it’s time to put America back to work.
Kyrillos’s opponent, incumbent Senator Bob Menendez has gone negative against Kyrillos in recent weeks with his “The Middle Class is Under Attack” theme. Menendez and his surrogates, former acting Governor Richard Codey and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, have been attempting to link Kyrillos to Mitt Romney’s “47%” comment .
Kyrillos is promoting his partnership with Governor Christie and their methods as the way to “put America back to work.”
What do you think MMM readers? Can Kyrillos beat Menendez by staying positive? Does Christie help Kyrillos more than Codey and Booker help Menendez? Will the ads work?
Last week Kyrillos for U.S. Senate campaign manager Chapin Fay said the campaign planned to win every county that Chris Christie won in 2009, plus Bergen County, which Christie narrowly lost.
Kyrillos will need to comeback stronger than Bucky Dent’s 1978 Yankees in order for that to happen, if the Monmouth University-Gannett poll released this morning in on the mark. U.S. Senator Bob Menendez has widened his lead over Kyrillos from 9 points in July to 15 points today.
“I’m the moderate in this race,” Kyrillos declared to just under 2000 Bergen County Republican and Independent voters on a tele-town hall last week. While his message seemed to resonate with participants on the call who expressed their concerns for jobs, the skyrocketing national debt and gridlock in Washington, Kyillos’s message that he is ” a different kind of Republican,” as he is called in one of his TV ads, does not seem to be landing with Independents throughout the state who now favor Menendez 42% to 26%. In a July Monmouth poll, Kyrillos and Menendez were tied among Independents at 32% each.
President Obama’s coattails seem to be the determining factor in the U.S. Senate race. Obama was always expected to win New Jersey, but the Kyrillos camp believed that if Obama’s margin of victory was less than 10%, that Menendez could be beaten. Obama is widened his lead in New Jersey from 8 points in July to 15 points today, according to the poll.
The Obama campaign is so confident of winning New Jersey comfortably that the prime responsibility of its New Jersey staffers is to recruit volunteers to go to Pennsylvania for the rest of the campaign, according to a high level Democrat who spoke to MMM on the condition of anonymity.
“Menendez will win by at least 10 points,” said the source, “the internal numbers have Obama up by 18 and Menendez up by 12. Elsewhere in the country, the Senate and Congressional candidates are doing better than Obama, but not in Jersey. Menendez needs Obama’s coattails, but he’ll have them.”
The source said Menendez is working harder than he ever has in his life. “He’s out shaking hands with commuters every day at 5:30am and doesn’t stop campaigning until midnight.”
“We don’t see Kyrillos working that hard,” the source said as a dig to the GOP challenger.
Menendez 2012 Communications Director Paul Brubaker has still not called back.
The Kyrillos for U.S. Senate campaign released an internal poll this afternoon that shows the GOP challenger within 4 points of the incumbent, Democrat Robert Menendez, with 65 days left to go before election day. 45% of those survey said they would vote for Menendez, 41% would vote for Kyrillos and 14% are undecided.
Of the Menendez voters, 76% said they were definitely voting for the Hudson County incumbent while 24% said they probably would. 71% of Kyrillos voters were solid compared to 29% probable.
The poll, which was conducted by Magellan Strategies between August 30 and September 3rd, is a survey of 746 likely general election voters from New Jersey. The margin of error is +/- 3.5% with 95% confidence. The survey was weighted based upon past general election turnout demographics.
29% of the respondents were Republicans, 39% Democrats and 35% Independents. 27% of the respondents consider themselves conservative, 16% say they are liberal and 51% say they are moderate.
“Joe’s message of creating jobs for the middle class and working together with members of both sides of the aisle is resonating with the voters of New Jersey,” said Kyrillos Campaign Manager Chapin Fay. “It’s clear New Jerseyans want change and, if this surge continues, in two months they will have it when Joe Kyrillos is elected the next US Senator from New Jersey.”
“This marks another poll in which Menendez is yet again under 50%,” said Adam Geller of National Research, the Kyrillos campaign’s pollster.
Menendez 2012 communication director Paul Brubaker was not immediately available for comment. This post will be updated if he calls back.
If they follow their usual pattern, Quinnipiac will likely release a Kyrillos-Menendez poll from the survey they took August 27-September 2 within the next few days.
Kyrillos spokesperson Meaghan Cronin issued the following statement about the ad:
“Senator Kyrillos has a record of fighting for women, the environment and New Jersey families. He has always put the needs of the people ahead of political affiliation or ideology. This stands in stark contrast to Senator Menendez who consistently puts politics ahead of the people resulting in record unemployment, skyrocketing debt and loss of opportunity. Unlike Senator Menendez, Joe is committed to providing a spirit of bipartisanship to the United States Senate.”
New Jersey’s GOP nominee for U.S. Senate and his wife earned $437,500 in 2011, according to tax returns made available to the press by the Kyrillos for Senate campaign this afternoon.
Joe and Susan Kyrillos paid $106,564 in federal income taxes and $24,299 in NJ State income taxes on the $289,728 portion of their income that was taxable. Property taxes on their Middletown home are almost $20,000.
The couple jointly reported wages of $133,738. $49,000 of those wages are the senator’s legislative salary. The senator earned gross revenue of $150,000 and a net profit of $109,299 from his commercial real estate business. Mrs. Kyrillos earned gross revenues of $255,364 and a net profit of $197,532 from her insurance consulting business.
The couple did not disclose their W-2s or 1099s which would have revealed the source of their incomes.
In 2010 they earned gross income of $365,509, $214,072 of it taxable. They paid $95,811 in state and federal income taxes that year. In 2009 their gross income was $381,052, $239,582 taxable. Their state and federal income tax bill was $177,820 in 09.
The Kyrillos campaign announced that the senator would make three years tax returns available yesterday afternoon. A few hours later, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, the Democratic incumbent, announced that he would disclose five years of returns next week. Menendez has never before released tax returns in his six years in the U.S. Senate.
“I congratulate Senator Menendez for following Senator Kyrillos’ lead and agreeing to release more than one tax return,” said Kyrillos Campaign Manager Chapin Fay. “It’s clear had Senator Kyrillos not led this charge, Senator Menendez would have continued to keep New Jerseyans in the dark. Joe will bring this same agenda of good government and transparency to the United States Senate and bring an end to backroom deal-making and special interest influence.”
According to The Star Ledger, the Menendez campaign issued the following statement regarding the Kyrillos returns:
“Joe Kyrillos’s personal finances raise more questions than his tax returns can answer. Kyrillos makes a substantial income in addition to what he is paid as a public official, and it is incumbent upon him to disclose the nature of the work he does at Newport Capital, Kyrillos Real Estate and any other outside enterprises in which he is involved,” Menendez spokesman Michael Soliman said in the statement. “Without knowing the nature of Joe Kyrillos’ reported outside income, New Jerseyans are left with no assurances that this income is entirely unrelated to his public duties.”
