Businessman Wael Hana, pictured at left, poses with Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife, Nadine, during a meeting with several Egyptian officials, including Egyptian Major General Khaled Ahmed Shawky Osman (second from left). (Courtesy U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York)

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Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a campaign event "Declare Your Independence Celebration" at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County on Oct. 12, 2023, in Miami. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images)

An election lawyer alleges in a new lawsuit that New Jersey’s “sore loser law” prevents independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from appearing on the November ballot in the Garden State.

The law prohibits candidates from mounting independent campaigns the same year they’ve failed to win the nomination of a political party. Salmon says Kennedy did just that by seeking the White House as an independent after trying and failing to defeat President Joe Biden as a Democrat.

“If you want to run as an independent, that’s fine, run as an independent — don’t try and get the party’s nomination first, lose, and then decide, ‘You know what, screw these people, I want to go around the system,’” attorney Scott Salmon said in an interview.

The New Jersey Globe first reported Salmon’s complaint, which was filed in state Superior Court in Mercer County Tuesday.

Salmon was instrumental in keeping rapper Ye from appearing on the 2020 presidential ballot in New Jersey. Ye’s campaign withdrew from the race after Salmon challenged his petition signatures, saying some lacked required information and others looked identical.

Democrats in key states like North Carolina and Nevada, fearing Kennedy will siphon votes from Biden and hand the election to Republican Donald Trump, have made similar pushes to boot Kennedy from the ballot.

Kennedy announced his presidential campaign in April 2023 as a Democrat competing against Biden. Kennedy raised $385,000 from hundreds of New Jersey donors while seeking the party’s nomination, according to Salmon.

In October, Kennedy announced he would end his campaign as a Democrat and launched an independent bid for the White House.

Kennedy’s name didn’t appear on the ballot for New Jersey’s June 4 Democratic primary, but he still received hundreds, if not thousands, of write-in votes, according to Salmon.

Secretary of State Tahesha Way has until Aug. 9 to formally certify all candidates for the general election. Salmon is hoping the judge decides his case before then.

“It should be clear to people what you’re running for, what you want to associate for, and it’s fine if you don’t want to associate with a party. What’s not good for anybody is to confuse the voters, who are expecting to see someone’s name on the ballot for the nomination and then they’ve withdrawn from that party,” he said.

In his complaint, Salmon says federal and state courts have upheld New Jersey’s sore loser law. He has noted that candidates do not have to appear on a primary ballot to be disqualified from the November ballot — unsuccessfully seeking the nomination is also disqualifying under the law.

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(Photo by Edwin J. Torres/N.J. Governor’s Office)

The National Mediation Board has ended more than four years of negotiations between NJ Transit and a union representing its engineers without a resolution, paving the way for a strike that federal law could still delay by months.

NJ Transit locomotive engineers have been working under an expired contract since 2019 amid a collective bargaining standoff with the state over pay, but federal law that limits labor actions by railroads has kept them from striking despite a unanimous vote by the union’s members.

“It’s time for NJT to make a fair offer and settle this dispute voluntarily, otherwise our members will be walking picket lines rather than operating trains,” said Eddie Hall, president of the national branch of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

Because rail service interruptions can significantly impact interstate commerce, railways — and commuter railways especially — must complete lengthy mediation processes before launching a job action.

The National Mediation Board is the largest of those hurdles. The body can indefinitely mediate disputes between rail unions and transit agencies, and it has kept the dispute between the union and NJ Transit in mediation for years.

The end of mediation kicks off a 30-day cool-off period, meaning locomotive engineers could strike as early as July 25, though they will likely have to wait months longer.

The union declined an offer of arbitration that followed the National Mediation Board’s release, which means the dispute will likely go to a Presidential Emergency Board.

Federal law requires President Joe Biden to convene a Presidential Emergency Board upon request from either of the parties or a governor in a state that would be affected by a job action. In this case, that list includes Govs. Phil Murphy, Kathy Hochul, and Josh Shapiro.

Statute requires the president to grant a requests emergency boards, which will create another 120-day lockout on job actions, though the board could end that lockout sooner.

The governors and parties can request a second Presidential Emergency Board be convened if the first does not reach a settlement within 120 days.

“While we are currently in the 30-day ‘cooling off’ period, in light of the BLET’s response to the National Mediation Board (NMB) rejecting binding arbitration to settle this matter, NJ TRANSIT fully intends, to make a formal request for a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB),” said Jim Smith, a spokesperson for NJ Transit.

the three governors did not immediately return requests for comment on whether they will ask Biden to convene a board.

“Our members are angry and feel betrayed,” Hall said. “Locomotive engineers kept the trains running during the pandemic. They have gone five years without a pay raise during a period of high inflation. These men and women want to serve the public with uninterrupted service, but they cannot continue working for subpar wages. They have had enough.”

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A Smith & Wesson .357 magnum revolver cools down at a target range at the Los Angeles Gun Club on December 7, 2012, in Los Angeles. Gun enthusiasts rent the the weapon to try out before making a purchase at a gun store. Leading firearms maker Smith & Wesson reported an almost 50% increase in sales revenue. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian|Getty Images)

Gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson must release marketing documents sought by a subpoena issued by the New Jersey Attorney General, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The federal appeals court ruled it could not toss the subpoena because of a legal doctrine, called issue preclusion, that bars judges from reconsidering another court’s ruling on a single issue of contention between the same parties.

A state appellate court upheld the subpoena in 2023 in a case Smith & Wesson called a “carbon copy” of its federal complaint. 

“Smith & Wesson lost its case at every level of the New Jersey court system, which concluded that the gun company’s efforts to evade subpoena compliance were meritless. The decision shows that Smith & Wesson cannot run to federal court when it did not get its way in state court,” Attorney General Matt Platkin said in a statement.

The case centers on a subpoena issued to the gun manufacturer to probe whether it had violated New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act by misstating the legality, safety, effectiveness, and benefits of its firearms.

Smith & Wesson has charged the subpoena violates a series of constitutional rights and, in its federal appeal, argued the state appeals court did not properly weigh its constitutional claims, denying the gunmaker’s appeal based only ripeness — a measure of how prepared a case’s facts are for trial.

But the newer ruling says that is a faulty reading of the state court’s decision. New Jersey’s Appellate Division had indeed weighed the constitutional claims and found them wanting, the judges wrote.

“The Appellate Division considered Smith & Wesson’s constitutional defenses, held they were not legally cognizable, and held that, in the alternative, the claims were not ripe,” the federal judges wrote.

They also discounted the gunmaker’s claim that state proceedings did not afford them a chance to state their case, finding “Smith & Wesson had a full and fair opportunity to litigate its claims in state court” even though it was a pretrial proceeding.

One judge on the federal panel took a dissenting view, arguing state court rulings had not delved deep enough into the gunmaker’s constitutional arguments and, therefore, failed to reach the merits.

“More than three years ago, Smith & Wesson asked a federal court to decide whether the novel decision by New Jersey’s Attorney General to use a state consumer fraud law to investigate ads for ordinary guns and ammo treads on the freedoms recognized by the U.S. Constitution. Today, and four opinions later, those questions remain unanswered,” Circuit Judge Paul Matey wrote in his dissent.

Smith & Wesson did not return a request for comment, and it’s unclear whether the firm will petition the matter to the New Jersey or U.S. Supreme Courts. The gunmaker has already furnished documents responsive to the subpoena, though those documents are subject to a protective order that demands their return if the subpoena is declared unlawful.

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(Photo by Hal Brown)

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Spadea is arguing in a new campaign filing that his weekday radio show on New Jersey 101.5 does not amount to an impermissible in-kind contribution to his campaign because it does not include direct appeals for his election.

His two primary opponents are taking the opposite position, claiming in filings made public Tuesday by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission that the platform afforded to Spadea by the radio station amounts to aid well above the state’s campaign contribution limits.

The commission is due to hear arguments on the matter on Friday.

An adverse ruling would immediately spell trouble for Spadea, a conservative firebrand who has placed himself firmly in the Trump wing of the Republican Party. Apart from choosing whether to give up his radio show or his campaign, a ruling against him would likely put him in immediate violation of state campaign finance laws.

Spadea’s filing says his show does not constitute an in-kind contribution — that’s a non-monetary donation to a political campaign, usually in the form of goods or services — because state regulations define political communications as those urging the election or defeat of a given candidate. The radio host claims not to have made any such appeals.

“Thus, the mere presence of a candidate does not transform a communication into a ‘political communication contribution.’ It must include an explicit appeal for the election or defeat of a candidate,” Spadea’s attorneys wrote in their brief, which calls the commission’s planned review “extraordinary and extralegal.”

The brief adds that the proper procedure here would be for the commission to investigate only if Spadea engaged in political advocacy on his show, not “prospectively restricting speech that might potentially become a campaign contribution.”

Spadea’s attorneys appeared to admit in a footnote that the show could cause campaign finance issues come January.

The state regulations say communications absent a direct appeal for election are political communications if their audience is substantially made up of eligible voters, if they contain political objectives or achievements, and if they were made with at least some cooperation or consent from the candidate, subject to a time bar. For most candidates, that rule kicks in 90 days before an election. For gubernatorial candidates, it becomes effective on Jan. 1 of the year of the gubernatorial election — in this case, Jan. 1, 2025.

Townsquare Media, which owns New Jersey 101.5, echoed its host’s arguments in its own brief. It says a finding that his show is an in-kind contribution would improperly restrict speech.

“Classifying Spadea’s airtime as an in-kind contribution … would open the door to excessive regulation of media activities involving any candidate, chilling free speech and hindering political participation,” Townsquare’s attorneys wrote.

The station said it has instituted internal rules to bar mentions of Spadea’s candidacy or attacks on his opponents, adding he will no longer be allowed to host New Jersey 101.5 radio programs after he becomes a legally qualified candidate as defined by the Federal Communications Commission.

Spadea will meet that bar if and when he files nominating petitions and secures a spot on the ballot. The deadline to file nominating petitions is typically in late March or early April of the election year, or a little more than 60 days before the primary.

He could become a legally qualified candidate earlier if he declares a write-in campaign, though he is not expected to do so.

Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Union), one of Spadea’s opponents for the Republican nomination, argues the show is an in-kind contribution because it is a contribution of a good or service — namely airtime — to a candidate.

“His program offers substantial promotional advantages to his campaign, including unrestricted market access and significant advertising influence typically purchased by other candidates,” attorney William Burns wrote for Bramnick’s campaign.

Bramnick’s attorneys cited a 1997 advisory opinion from the Election Law Enforcement Commission that found the publication of political newsletters could be an in-kind contribution. That opinion centered on a newsletter that was to be sent within the 90-day lockout period for non-gubernatorial candidates.

Attorneys for Jack Ciattarelli, a former assemblyman mounting a third bid for governor next year, argue Spadea’s airtime is a contribution on different grounds. New Jersey’s definition of expenditure includes an exemption for some news coverage, but Ciattarelli’s campaign argues Spadea’s show does not qualify for this exception because it does not provide “reasonably equal coverage to all opposing candidates” as the exception requires.

“Even Spadea and Townsquare Media cannot credibly contend that they afford ‘reasonable equal coverage to all opposing candidates,’” attorney Mark Sheridan wrote for the Ciattarelli campaign. “Instead, they provide coverage to a single candidate with a single point of view.”

But that isn’t the only test in the news media exception. It also asks whether a candidate or political committee owns or controls the news organization’s facility. Spadea does not own or control Townsquare Media, his attorneys said in his filing.

Townsquare Media bills $500 per minute of airtime for ads on Spadea’s morning show, according to a rate card for political advertisements provided by the firm to Ciattarelli’s campaign.

Spadea’s show runs for 20 hours each week and has aired 28 hours since Spadea announced his candidacy. That could be up to $420,000 in airtime, though not all the time would be considered an expenditure even in the case of an adverse ruling. New Jersey caps campaign contributions to $5,800 per election.

“This situation is entirely of Spadea’s making. He could have sought an advisory opinion from this Commission as to whether his airtime constituted a ‘contribution’ under the Act,” Sheridan wrote. “Spadea and his employer, Townsquare Media, both failed to avail themselves of that opportunity.”

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WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 13: Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) at the National Republican Senatorial Committee building on June 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. Trump is visiting Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Republicans and participate in additional meetings. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Republican members of the U.S. Senate striving for a takeover of their chamber in the November elections have a wish list for what they’d like to see in Donald Trump’s running mate.

A “little calmer” than Trump. Confident. Conservative. Military experience. Good relationships with senators. Ready to take over as chief executive if needed, they told States Newsroom in interviews.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has held off on revealing his pick. But he’s dropped tantalizing compliments about a few of the short-list candidates, producing non-stop headlines about the veepstakes in advance of the Republican National Convention next month.

So far, Trump hasn’t indicated a clear favorite, leading to incessant speculation about what characteristics he’s looking for in his second-in-command this time around, the person who will head up the GOP ticket with him in what’s likely to be a close election.

In 2016, Trump selected Indiana’s Mike Pence, in part to sway evangelical Christians who were skeptical about Trump’s moral character.

Trump is seeking a second term in office as a convicted felon found guilty on 34 counts in New York for falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election. He’s also facing federal charges for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election and has cast aside Pence after his former vice president refused to take part in the scheme.

That, however, hasn’t diminished the number of GOP lawmakers and former presidential hopefuls jostling to join his ticket.

Trump’s list of vice presidential candidates reportedly includes North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Arkansas U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, Florida U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, former South Carolina Gov. and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, former GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, New York U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik and Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance.

Republican senators, including some thought to be in the running to be tapped as the veep candidate, met with Trump on June 13 to map campaign strategy and portray unity.

Trump told NBC News on Saturday his pick “most likely” will be at Thursday night’s debate with President Joe Biden in Atlanta.

Confidence and a coalition

Several Republican senators interviewed by States Newsroom offered suggestions for what traits might be most helpful for Trump in a vice president during a potential second term.

West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said she’s hoping to see a vice presidential pick who can bring confidence and a wider GOP coalition to the table.

“I think you want somebody who has broad knowledge, not just national, but international, (you want) decisiveness, and somebody who’s got leadership that you could actually see taking the reins of the presidency, somebody who has conservative principles on the Republican side and is a proven leader,” Capito said.

“I would imagine for President Trump, it’s going to be somebody that brings a broader constituency to him,” Capito said, adding “and is probably a little calmer than he is.”

‘Good relationships across the spectrum’

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Trump would “benefit from somebody who, in the right setting, is providing a lot of good upward feedback, supporting the president’s agenda.”

The former and possibly future president would also gain from a pick who is “well studied on the issues,” and if it’s a senator, “a person with good relationships across the spectrum would help,” Tillis said.

“We’re probably going to have a tight margin, so if you think about maybe somebody who has past relationships with people in the House, good relationships with the Republican conference. I mean, we’re gonna have some tough votes,” Tillis said.

For example, Congress faces a massive tax code fight next year as several provisions in the 2017 Republican tax law are set to expire. Tillis recalled the internal GOP debate in 2017 “wasn’t a cakewalk.”

“We had to work to get Republican support,” Tillis said. “So having somebody that naturally has that chemistry, you know, whether or not you’ve worked on legislation, or you just have a good relationship going in. If I were in President Trump’s position, that’d be a key factor.”

Congress will also need to address the debt limit next year, a debate that carries significant economic consequences, both domestically and around the globe.

A stint in the military

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst — a top member of the Armed Services Committee and a retired lieutenant colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard — said she “would love to see somebody that does have foreign relations or military policy experience.”

“I think that would be key, to have someone that’s young and enthusiastic and would be able to fill the role of our next president as well,” Ernst said.

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran said that Trump might want to pick someone whom voters feel confident can follow him as the leader of the Republican Party.

“I’m not sure that vice presidential nominees have a lot of impact, influence on how people vote,” Moran said. “But I would say that this may be a year in which that matters — (given the) age of candidates. And so who might follow is probably of interest to people. And I would say that the best qualification is somebody who’d be a great president.”

Indiana Sen. Mike Braun, who is likely to become his home state’s next governor, said Trump needs someone who thinks like him politically, so the two don’t differ on policy issues, as well as someone ready to become president if required.

“I think someone’s going to have to be on the same wavelength politically, for sure,” Braun said. “I think I’ve heard him say that he wants somebody ready to step into the role if necessary. I think the loyalty factor is something he’s always stressed.”

Alabama Sen. Katie Britt said that no matter who Trump picks off his short list, Republicans will win back the Oval Office in November.

“Every senator on the list is outstanding,” Britt said. “And I’ll be excited about the good things that we’re going to be able to do with him back in office and us in control of the Senate.”

When asked his opinion of Trump’s VP short list, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said, “I haven’t seen anybody on the list that I would object to.”

Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said he wouldn’t comment on specific contenders, but added “all the names I’ve heard mentioned seem to be good people.”

“But what counts is what President Trump thinks, and I don’t have the slightest idea who he’s gonna pick,” Kennedy said.

A sitting senator

Republican senators who spoke to States Newsroom appeared mostly unfazed by the possibility that a vice presidential pick could be from among their ranks — even if that lowers what could be a very narrow majority in the Senate come January.

Capito said she thinks a Republican majority will likely remain safe even if Trump chooses one of her colleagues as his running mate.

“I think the ones he’s talking about are from pretty red states, but you know, you’re always concerned about that,” Capito said. “But I think it would be great to have a colleague who was in the Senate with me be our vice president.”

Braun said that Trump might want to consider the polling of several key races for the Senate before picking his nominee.

“I think that could be a consideration,” Braun said. “You take that risk off the table.”

When asked whether a VP pick from the Senate could weaken or upset a GOP majority, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said, “I’m sure Trump will take that into consideration.”

Tillis said he is not concerned about Trump’s VP pick threatening a Republican Senate majority, and he speculated that Trump may even pull from the upper chamber when choosing his Cabinet, should he be elected.

“I think the replacement protocol doesn’t make it a significant issue,” Tillis said.

Grassley echoed Tillis. “Are we talking about Ohio, Florida, South Carolina? That’s it. I don’t think you’d worry about that,” he said.

Forty-five states require the governor to appoint someone to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat, and 37 of those states fill the vacancy with the chosen appointment until the next statewide election, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

The remaining states — Kentucky, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin — require vacant Senate seats to be filled by a special election.

All of Trump’s picks from the Senate are from states with Republican governors.

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(Photo by Hal Brown)

Radio talk show host Bill Spadea has had a lot to rant about recently.

On Friday morning, he needled NJ Transit over its disastrous service shutdowns and slapped Jersey Shore towns where free beach access has apparently led to too-crowded beaches. On Tuesday, he said he’d support state funds to pay for longer hours for lifeguards and he took a crack at Rutgers University.

Sort of typical for Spadea’s morning radio show on New Jersey 101.5. But now that he’s running for the GOP nod for governor next year, Spadea’s show is no longer just a chance for him to raise the blood pressure of his listeners by ranting about high taxes and those clowns in Trenton — it’s a daily, four-hour ad for Spadea’s campaign.

And it’s one that could go on for a while. Spadea’s bosses say they don’t intend to take him off the air until he becomes a “legally qualified” candidate. That could mean another nine months or so of New Jersey 101.5 giving Spadea free campaign ads, four hours a day, five days a week, unless someone steps in to stop them.

There are legal implications to all this — the Election Law Enforcement Commission will consider this week whether New Jersey 101.5 is providing an in-kind contribution to Spadea’s campaign by letting him stay on the air — but I’m less interested in what the station can and can’t do and more interested in what it should and shouldn’t do. Is it fair to let Spadea mouth off for hours every day while his opponents would have to pay New Jersey 101.5 to do the same? Shouldn’t a media company that has a healthy news component, one that is already covering next year’s race for governor, avoid giving free air time to one of the candidates?

I talked to some media watchers about this, like Joe Amditis. He’s associate director of operations for the Center for Cooperative Media, which is based at Montclair State University and hopes to grow and strengthen local news in the Garden State.

“I think it would come down to whether 101.5 considers itself a news organization,” he said. “There’s a lot of blurred lines for some orgs, especially for one like 101.5, which is not explicitly journalism.”

Kathryn Quigley, who teaches media ethics at Rowan University, where she chairs the school’s journalism department, wonders what New Jersey 101.5 would do if Spadea openly campaigned during his show.

“How will they react if he goes out of bounds?” Quigley asked. “Would they pull the plug on his show if warranted?”

The problem is it’s already warranted. Spadea previewed his campaign spiel in the video announcing his candidacy, and it’s nearly indistinguishable from his on-air musings: Taxes are too high, spending is out of control, liberals stink, so do RINOS, drag queens are bad, etc. He could change not one syllable of his show and it would still represent a free campaign ad.

Townsquare Media, which owns New Jersey 101.5, said in a statement when Spadea announced his bid for governor that it is aware of the issues involved here and has imposed some guidelines to ensure Spadea’s show adheres to “industry standards.” It’s unclear what those guidelines are, but one of the radio station’s fixes for this problem is a lengthy on-air disclaimer intended to distance itself from Spadea’s political career, but instead serves as a regular reminder that the station’s star personality is running for governor.

I asked some of Spadea’s opponents how they feel. Sen. Jon Bramnick, who is also seeking the GOP nomination for governor, said he doesn’t think this is complicated: New Jersey 101.5 is giving Spadea’s campaign something of value by keeping him on the air.

“If he’s talking policy, which he does every day, his opinion as to what should be done in the state of New Jersey, that means he’s campaigning and therefore there is value from the station that’s giving him that opportunity to speak,” he said.

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, who is vying for the Democratic nod for governor, has a different opinion: Spadea’s on-air takes on politics and policy may make him popular enough with Republican primary voters to win next June, but they will hurt him in November.

“I actually hope Spadea keeps his show because I’m excited to see him in the general election,” Fulop said.

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Douglas County, Ga., elections officials Milton Kidd, left, and Tesha Green fear being followed home by angry voters. Nationwide, many election officials are concerned for their safety. (Matt Vasilogambros/Stateline)

Editor’s note: This story contains profanities and racist slurs.

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. — When Milton Kidd leaves work at the end of the day, he slips out the back door of the domed Douglas County Courthouse, avoiding the public entrance where people might berate him or demand his home address.

He never takes the same route home two days in a row, and he makes random turns to avoid being followed.

Kidd, a Black man, has a very dangerous job: He is the elections and voter registration director for Douglas County.

“Milton Kidd is a nasty n***** living on tax money like the scum he is,” one voter wrote in an email Kidd shared with Stateline. “Living on tax money, like a piece of low IQ n***** shit.”

Another resident from Kidd’s county of 149,000 west of Atlanta left him a voicemail.

“I don’t know if you’re aware, Milton, but the American people have set a precedent for what they do to f***ing tyrants and oppressors who occupy government office,” the caller said. “Yep, back in the 1700s, they were called the British and the f***ing American people got so fed up with the f***ing British being dicks, kind of like you, and then they just f***ing killed all the f***ing British.”

Kidd smiled incredulously as he shared his security routine and the hate-filled messages that inspired it. He is dumbfounded that he’s the target of such vitriol for administering elections in 2024 — but he knows where it originated.

The lies told by former President Donald Trump, who faces state felony charges for trying to pressure Georgia officials to change the 2020 results, have resonated with many Douglas County voters, Kidd said. Now this nonpartisan official, like many others across the country, is forced to face their ire.

“It’s an idea that has become insidious in the mindsets of Americans, that because a single individual did not win an election, that now I can behave like this,” said Kidd, who has a thick beard and wears a thumb-size crystal on a black string around his neck.

As he prepares for the next presidential election, Kidd said he will continue to press his state’s elected officials for more leadership and money to protect him, his staff and the democratic process.

“If this office fails, then our democracy has failed,” he said. “I will never let a detractor who calls with vile language deter me from the work that I do.”

‘Like standing in a puddle of gasoline’

Kidd is far from the only election official who has faced threats inspired by the lies of Trump and his allies, who continue to claim without evidence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Nationally, 38% of local election officials have experienced threats, harassment or abuse since 2020 just for doing their jobs, according to a survey released in May by the Brennan Center for Justice, a voting rights nonprofit housed at the New York University School of Law. More than half of the over 900 respondents said they are concerned about the safety of their colleagues and staff.

Kidd’s colleagues in neighboring counties also have felt the hostility.

In the green hills of Bartow County, a rural community in northwest Georgia, Election Supervisor Joseph Kirk has taken steps to protect himself, though he won’t disclose specifics. While harassment has not reached the level it has in other counties, he said he has lost staff members who left their positions because of the changed atmosphere.

“There’s a lot more animosity now,” he said in his Cartersville office, a red-brick building 4 miles from Main Street.

Cobb County Director of Elections Tate Fall is also fortifying her suburban Atlanta elections office. In the coming weeks, her office will install a shatterproof safety film on the glass that shields the front desk. More access points will require key cards for entry, and there will be additional panic buttons.

“It’s very surreal,” she said. “In the office, people have become so desensitized to people yelling at them that they don’t consider a lot a threat anymore.”

At least a dozen states have enacted new protections for local election officials in recent years, including boosting criminal penalties for those who threaten or harass them.

This month, Georgia officials announced a first-in-the-nation requirement that all new police officers undergo a course on election security, partly focusing on protecting election officials from threats.

This is part of a broader mission to build more coordination between sheriff’s offices and elections offices, said Chris Harvey, deputy executive director of the Georgia Police Officer Training and Standards Council, which will lead the effort.

Harvey, a former detective, also served as Georgia’s state elections director for six years, including through the 2020 presidential election.

After the January 2021 U.S. Senate runoff, he was doxed — his home address and a picture of his house were posted online. He also received an emailed death threat that included a photo of him with crosshairs over his face.

While he says he wasn’t worried about his safety, he did worry about his wife and four children at home. He called the local police, who posted a car in front of his house for two weeks.

“In this supercharged environment, it’s like standing in a puddle of gasoline,” he told Stateline. “Anything can set it off. It didn’t used to be like that.”

The democratic path

Democracy’s fragile promise has always been part of Kidd’s life.

Kidd, 39, grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois, a former manufacturing hub of 18,000 people along the Mississippi River.

His family was part of the Great Migration, moving north from Southern states such as Arkansas and Mississippi looking for work and safety. But shortly after his ancestors’ arrival, white mobs killed hundreds of Black newcomers during several months of 1917, displacing 6,000 Black people in the southern Illinois city.

His grandmother was a sharecropper in Luxor, Arkansas, and instilled in his mother the importance of voting. Growing up, he heard stories about civil rights activists Fannie Lou Hamer, who was beaten for registering voters, and Medgar Evers, who was assassinated. It made Kidd a student of history, able to recite the Declaration of Independence and parts of the Constitution.

“The importance of the ballot box has always been something that has been stressed to me,” he said. “I know in my own family individuals have tried to register to vote and had dogs sicced on them. These are not words in a book. It’s not that far off.”

Inspired by his father, who left school in the ninth grade to work, and his mother, who received a college education later in her life, Kidd earned his master’s degree in public administration from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2010.

He then did what he called a “reverse migration” back to the South to begin working elections in various counties in the Atlanta area, including Douglas County. He started there in 2015 and was promoted to lead the office three years later.

In that time, Kidd has seen the election environment turn nasty.

“We’ve reshaped this nation into an uglier, vile, vitriolic spirit that we’re just allowing to continue to manifest,” he said last month.

He and his eight full-time staff members have attempted to bolster their public standing by going to local churches, fairs and political party meetings of both parties to share details about how they run elections and tabulate the vote securely.

But he needs more resources from the state. The same lawmakers who wink and nod at the lie that massive fraud is stealing elections do not support additional funding for local election administration, he said, especially for the safety of election administrators.

Every one of the security enhancements he made to his office — including a series of magnetic locks on the doors — came through outside grant funding, a practice the state later outlawed in 2021.

Some of Kidd’s staff members have quit, and he’s finding it hard to fill the temporary positions that allow elections to run smoothly. Constant turnover can lead to errors, which leads to more distrust. The workers who have stayed are still fearful.

“On election night, my husband definitely waits for me to get home,” said Tesha Green, the county’s deputy elections director. “You have to always make sure that no one’s there when we’re leaving out the door.”

Kidd was encouraged by Georgia’s announcement that it would require all new police officers to undergo a course on election security. Does Kidd feel supported by his local sheriff’s office? He chuckled and said there’s a lot more that could be done.

Cpt. Trent Wilson of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said the office took Kidd’s complaints seriously. Though they were concerning, he said, there was nothing criminal in the voicemails and emails Kidd received.

“It was very distasteful,” Wilson said. “But just because they’re distasteful don’t mean they’re criminal.”

Pressed about what constitutes a threat, he added: “Look, I’m a Black man. So, we don’t like to be called a n*****. But calling someone a n***** is not a crime.”

When election season comes, he said the sheriff’s office boosts security, adding more deputies to the courthouse. Visitors already must pass through metal detectors, he noted.

As head of the election office, Kidd knows he’s a target, and he’s accepted that. But he worries about his staff, many of whom are older women who don’t feel safe walking to their cars at night. And, closer to home, he worries that if something happens to him, no one will be able to take care of his beloved dogs, Kleo and Knight.

“In 2024, I work a job that I have to allow myself to be called a n*****,” he said. “But I do it because I want to make sure people have access to the ballot box.”

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.

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Sen. Bob Menendez stands pictured with his wife Nadine, Egyptian Major General Khaled Ahmed Shawky Osman (beside the senator), and businessman Wael Hana, far left, during a 2021 meeting in the senator's Washington, D.C. office. (Courtesy U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York)

In her work on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sarah Arkin was tasked with briefing senators on global affairs, coordinating their diplomatic meetings and trips, and accompanying them on those encounters both at home and abroad.

So when Sen. Bob Menendez began secretly meeting and corresponding with Egyptian officials in 2018 outside those traditional channels, she and her colleagues found it “weird,” she testified Monday. Arkin’s testimony kicked off the seventh week of Menendez’s federal bribery trial in Manhattan.

Menendez was chair of the powerful committee from January 2021 until after his indictment in September.

“A critical part of my job is preparing him for those meetings,” Arkin said. “I didn’t know exactly who he was talking to or what information he had or didn’t have or who he might want to meet or where information was coming from.”

Prosecutors say that was intentional. They allege New Jersey’s senior senator, a Democrat, flouted normal protocols because he had an illicit deal with his friend and co-defendant Wael Hana, who gave him cash and gold bars in exchange for the senator currying favor with Egyptian officials so that they would grant Hana a lucrative monopoly on exporting halal meat there.

Arkin told jurors she became Menendez’s foreign policy adviser in 2016 and in 2018 joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where she’s now a senior professional staffer.

Under questioning by prosecutor Daniel Richenthal, Arkin testified that Menendez had always been an outspoken critic of Egypt because of its dismal human rights record. But in the spring of 2019, he told Arkin he wanted to be more quiet and private in expressing his humanitarian concerns about Egypt and instructed her to soften a letter she’d drafted calling out the country’s mistreatment and detention of critics and other affronts to democracy, Arkin testified.

He also organized several meetings without his staff’s knowledge with Egyptian officials they didn’t know and did not brief staff afterward, as he typically did, Arkin said. Even Egyptian nationals who worked at Egypt’s embassy in Washington, D.C., weren’t familiar with an official Menendez directed Arkin to call, she added.

“Soooo my guy at the embassy isn’t aware of anyone with that name but is going to try to run it down,” Arkin texted her colleague Damian Murphy, who’s now the committee’s staff director.

“That’s weird. How big is the embassy?” Murphy responded.

Arkin answered: “It’s pretty big but not THAT big.”

The more questions Arkin asked, though, the more irked Menendez got, according to testimony.

When he decided to travel to Egypt, he told Arkin she’d angered the Egyptians and barred her from going, even though she typically went on such trips and had been urging him specifically to visit Egypt, which historically has received more U.S. military aid than any other country besides Israel, she said. Instead, he took his then-girlfriend and now-wife Nadine, who “had a lot of opinions” on the trip and was “very involved” in its planning, Arkin said.

Richenthal showed jurors a text exchange in which Arkin and Murphy puzzled over it all.

“All of this Egypt stuff is very weird. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Murphy texted Arkin.

Richenthal also showed jurors messages indicating an unusually friendly relationship between the Menendezes and the Egyptian officials.

In one, Egyptian Major General Khaled Ahmed Shawky Osman called the senator “Bob” — a familiarity uncommon among those who interacted with the senator, Arkin said.

During the time of his “weird” approach to the Egyptian officials, Arkin testified, the committee released billions in military aid and arms to Egypt and Menendez was involved in several Middle Eastern initiatives, including a dam in Ethiopia that would impact the Nile River and Egypt and a natural gas deal off the Egyptian coast.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Avi Weitzman, Arkin testified that Menendez said he wanted to tone down his public criticism of Egypt because New Jersey is home to a large population of Coptic Christian Egyptians who support Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

Looking ahead

Earlier Monday, defense attorneys cross-examined FBI Special Agent Paul Van Wie, who presented a chain of emails, texts, and other correspondence and documents prosecutors introduced to bolster their case.

Under Weitzman’s questioning, Van Wie read texts prosecutors did not show jurors, which suggested a Bulgari purse and extravagant flower bouquet co-defendant Fred Daibes gave Nadine Menendez weren’t bribes, but rather birthday presents.

Weitzman also tried to poke holes in Van Wie’s testimony last week, when he narrated texts, Zillow listings, and other documents that showed the Menendezes were house-hunting and had looked at homes priced over $5 million. This was just a month before FBI agents visited their Englewood Cliffs home in June 2022 with a search warrant and seized more than $486,000 in cash, 13 gold bars, and other items they said were bribes.

“Are you aware that Zillow is often used as escapist fantasy by people?” Weitzman asked, prompting laughter from the jury.

Weitzman also pushed back on prosecutors’ claims that Menendez repeatedly Googled the price of gold, showing other online searches suggesting that the senator’s wife Googled things on his account. Menendez’s online history showed searches for everything from “the best blow dry bars in Washington, D.C.” to “how do you say girlfriend in Spanish.” The senator is fluent in Spanish.

Prosecutor Paul Monteleoni deflated that defense, though, by showing, on re-direct, texts between the senator and his wife after she had asked him to track down hair salon details for a friend.

Arkin is expected to remain on the stand Tuesday for further cross-examination.

Prosecutors have said they will question several more witnesses, including Shannon Kopplin, chief counsel and staff director for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics, and expect to rest their case this week. Defense attorneys for Menendez and his co-defendants Hana and Fred Daibes expect to take up to two weeks to present their defense, with the case going to the jury for deliberations possibly the week of July 8.

The case is running behind schedule. Monday was marked with several tongue-lashings from Judge Sidney H. Stein, who scolded defense attorneys for “sand-bagging the government” with frequent last-minute motions.

Menendez, 70, who has held his Senate seat since 2006, is charged with acting as a foreign agent, fraud, extortion, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and related offenses. It’s his second corruption trial in seven years; the first ended in a hung jury in 2017.

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(Hal Brown for New Jersey Monitor)

After reaching a deal on a new state budget, lawmakers intend to advance the annual spending bill through budget committees on Wednesday with final votes set for Friday, though the timing is still in flux, a top Democrat said during a Monday budget hearing.

Legislators must approve and Gov. Phil Murphy must sign a budget by June 30 to avert a state government shutdown, and they rarely approve an annual spending bill without rubbing against the deadline.

“The timing is still up in the air,” said Sen. Paul Sarlo, the Senate’s budget chair.

Because New Jersey’s constitution requires bills to sit for a day between moving out of a committee and seeing a floor vote, budget committees must approve a budget no later than Friday and both full chambers must approve them by Sunday to avoid shutting down New Jersey’s state beaches, public parks, and government.

As part of the budget deal, legislators and the governor have agreed to enact a 2.5% surtax on corporations with more than $10 million in profit. The tax on roughly 600 businesses operating in New Jersey is expected to generate about $800 million annually and is forecast to bring in more than $1 billion in the fiscal year that begins July 1 (it will retroactively apply to the first six months of 2024).

Murphy proposed that the tax be dedicated to NJ Transit to cover a $766.8 million fiscal cliff the agency faces starting July 1, 2025. Sarlo on Monday said legislators would dedicate the funds in the budget year that begins next week.

“Every dollar will go to New Jersey Transit, dollar for dollar. No diversion whatsoever,” Sarlo told reporters following Monday’s Senate Budget Committee meeting.

It’s not yet clear how that squares with Murphy’s vision for the next year of spending. His budget proposal calls for the first year of revenue from the surtax, dubbed the corporate transit fee, to be used as a one-shot to boost state revenue as New Jersey continues to spend more than it takes through taxes and fees.

Murphy’s budget proposal includes a $1.8 billion structural deficit that will bring the state’s surplus down to $6.1 billion, or roughly 11% of proposed spending.

The eventual fate of the new tax is also unclear. Murphy has pitched it as a dedicated source of funding for the transit agency, but lawmakers have agreed on a proposal to have the tax sunset after five years. The deal was first reported by Politico New Jersey.

That timeline is a boon to business groups that have urged against a surcharge they feared would remain in perpetuity, warning that it would leave New Jersey with the highest tax rates in the nation for highly profitable businesses.

“The problem is, for me anyway, is the regional competitiveness, because Pennsylvania is on a longer-term plan to keep reducing their CBT, and it’s usually those surrounding states of Delaware and Pennsylvania that are our biggest competition,” said Michael Egenton, executive vice president of government relations for the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.

At present, the 9% rate charged by New Jersey’s top corporate tax bracket is the fourth highest in the nation. Pennsylvania last year put itself on a path to cut its corporate tax rate to 4.99% by 2031.

Neighboring New York levies a 6.5% corporate income tax, or 7.25% for firms with more than $5 million in profit, while Delaware levies an 8.7% corporate tax.

There’s some question as to whether the tax will actually expire. The prior corporate business tax surcharge — which sunset at the end of 2023 — was meant to phase down from 2.5% to 1.5% but never did. It was also initially set to expire in 2021.

“I think the bigger picture is how do we go forward with any of these programs if government is going to say one thing and then ends up doing something else,” Egenton said.

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