Tammy Murphy, who wants to replace Menendez, hired a guy who worked for a Menendez codefendant

New Jersey is such a small world. You never know when you’re going to hire someone that ties you to two different criminal cases.

That’s the issue facing first lady Tammy Murphy, a Democrat hoping to succeed indicted Sen. Bob Menendez. One of the folks helping Murphy win the Dem nomination is lobbyist Mike DeLamater, whose consulting firm worked two years ago for Fred Daibes. You may remember Fred Daibes’ name: He’s accused of bribing Menendez with gold bars and cash in exchange for Menendez’s interference in a criminal case.

The Murphy campaign thinks it’s unfair of me to make this connection, while DeLamater noted that his work with Daibes predated Daibes’ most recent indictment and consisted of assisting Daibes’ real estate firm with a single project. Authorities have not accused DeLamater of anything.

“That project was complete in June 2022 — over 15 months before allegations between Daibes and Senator Menendez were announced publicly. This is an extremely disappointing and desperate attempt to smear my integrity and good work for political convenience,” he said.

I don’t know about smearing DeLamater’s integrity. The feds charged Daibes in a bank fraud case years before DeLamater began working for him. If I were worried about my integrity, I would simply take a pass on lobbying for a guy under indictment in federal court.

This is the type of inside-baseball story that can easily veer into something convoluted. But I think it says a lot about the state of our politics that a leading contender to succeed Menendez apparently couldn’t find a strategist with zero connections to our indicted senator, so let me walk you through it.

DeLamater is no stranger to Murphy. He worked as deputy chief of staff to her husband, Gov. Phil Murphy, and helped engineer Gov. Murphy’s two election victories.

In December 2021, DeLamater launched lobbying and consulting firm Market Street Strategies, state business records show. By April 2022, Daibes Enterprises, Daibes’ real estate firm, had hired Market Street to lobby the Murphy administration on Daibes’ behalf over a decision from the state Department of Environmental Protection, per state lobbying records. The agency had fined Daibes $1.7 million (the state told me that has yet to be paid).

The timing here is interesting because Fred Daibes was indicted in October 2018 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which accused him of scheming to defraud a bank he founded. Daibes pleaded guilty to one count of the indictment in April 2022, days after lobbying records show DeLamater began working for him.

Flash forward to September 2023, when the Southern District of New York indicted Menendez and Daibes (among others). Prosecutors allege Daibes’ bribes were in exchange for Menendez’s pledge to install a friendly U.S. attorney who would make the earlier indictment go bye-bye.

The Menendez indictment caused a furor, with Democrats lining up to urge him to step aside and others promising to take his place in the U.S. Senate and restore whatever honor that body still has. Tammy Murphy was among them.

“Right now, Washington is filled with too many people more interested in getting rich or getting on camera than getting things done for you,” Murphy says in her announcement video, as footage plays of Menendez.

Less than one month later, Murphy hired DeLamater’s firm to be a political consultant to the tune of $45,000, her campaign records show. DeLamater helped in two ways: He knows how to win a statewide race in New Jersey, and he’s vice chair of the Morris County Democratic Committee, whose endorsement Murphy sought (the committee on Monday announced it is backing Murphy’s chief rival, Rep. Andy Kim).

I do not mean to imply that DeLamater did anything wrong. But couldn’t the Murphy campaign have found a political strategist in New Jersey who isn’t one step removed from Menendez’s current legal woes? Or must we, as New Jerseyans, settle for the fact that the stink of the Menendez case is going to waft into the campaign of one of his would-be successors? When the Murphy camp is seeking people to help propel her to the U.S. Senate, do they think to ask, “Hey, did you happen to work with any of the three men accused of bribing the guy Tammy wants to replace?” Might be a helpful question.

I asked the Murphy campaign to comment on whether it knew that DeLamater had worked for one of Menendez’s codefendants. The campaign hit back at … Kim.

“This is nothing more than an irrelevant and cheap hit attempt by those seeking to tarnish the reputation of someone who, unlike Congressman Kim, has worked to elect Democrats and build the Democratic Party up and down the state for over a decade,” said Murphy campaign spokeswoman Alex Altman.

Kim’s campaign declined to comment.