Clinton To Pick Up Endorsement From New Jersey Senator

Monday, June 11th 2007, 7:59 pm

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has won the endorsement of New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, a prominent Hispanic Democrat and leading political voice in the vote-rich state.

The endorsement was scheduled to be announced Tuesday in Washington, two Democrats familiar with the situation said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the planned formal announcement.

Menendez, a Cuban-American and former member of the House leadership, was appointed in December 2005 to fill the Senate seat of Gov.-elect Jon Corzine. Menendez was re-elected in 2006, defeating Thomas Kean Jr., the son of the former Republican governor, in a hard-fought and expensive race.

Clinton raised money and campaigned for Menendez during his re-election bid.

Menendez is one of just three Hispanics in the Senate, along with Republican Mel Martinez of Florida and Democrat Ken Salazar of Colorado.

The Menendez endorsement follows that of another prominent Hispanic Democrat, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Both California and New Jersey are among several large states hosting primaries Feb. 5.

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) _ Aides to Fred Thompson, the actor-politician considered a likely presidential candidate, have had repeated conversations with Iowa Republicans about him possibly competing in the straw poll in August.

``They want to know what it's going to look like, how the voting works, the logistics of it and how the program works in general,'' said Chuck Laudner, executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa.

Laudner said the conversations began a couple of weeks ago, and the most recent was at the end of last week after two prominent contenders, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, announced plans to skip the August straw poll in Ames, Iowa.

The departure of the two rendered the event all but meaningless and essentially cleared the way for Mitt Romney to win the nonbinding contest. The former Massachusetts governor has focused time and money on the straw poll, traditionally a precursor to the Iowa caucuses in January.

Thompson, the former Tennessee senator, has formed a presidential exploratory committee and is expected to join the GOP race this summer. His late entry and delayed start in raising money made it less likely that he would compete in the Aug. 11 straw poll.

The potential of Thompson participating in the contest had Republicans upbeat.

``People are going to turn out to see him,'' Laudner said of the actor from NBC's ``Law & Order.'' ``Absolutely we have been talking to them.''

Among the lesser-known candidates, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback has said he will compete in the straw poll. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee initially said he would as well, though there are signs he may reconsider.

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NEW YORK (AP) _ Democrat Chris Dodd on Tuesday will begin airing two new television ads in Iowa and New Hampshire _ both autobiographical _ with one taking a sly shot at the lack of legislative experience of some of his better-known rivals.

One ad reviews Dodd's service in the Peace Corps and accomplishments as a Connecticut senator, including his authorship of the Family and Medical Leave Act. Amid a series of snapshots of Dodd with world leaders and striding through the Capitol, comes a question: ``Have you asked what the other candidates have done?''

Dodd was elected to the Senate in 1980 and has hoped to break out of single digits in most polls by stressing his many years in public life. Among the top-tier Democratic contenders, Barack Obama has spent slightly more than two years as Illinois senator while John Edwards served just one-six year term as North Carolina senator, ending in January 2005.

The other ad, narrated by Dodd, recalls the birth of his daughter, Grace, just two days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Both ads highlight Dodd's focus on energy independence and global warming, and his desire to restore the country's ``moral leadership.''

The campaign is expected to spend about $100,000 a week to run the ads on broadcast stations in Iowa, and about $75,000 a week in New Hampshire. Campaign officials would not say how many weeks the ads would run.

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BOSTON (AP) _ Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, has invited the Democratic presidential contenders to a mid-December debate at her father's presidential library.

``President Kennedy championed public service and viewed politics as a noble and honorable profession,'' Kennedy said in a statement. ``It is therefore fitting that his library host a debate for the American people among the candidates who seek to lead our nation.''

Co-sponsoring the Dec. 17 debate would be CNN, which would air the meeting nationally, and The Politico, which would allow viewers to ask questions through its Web site, www.politico.com.

The invitation, though, could present a dilemma for the eight Democratic candidates.

The Democratic National Committee, acting on the behest of the candidates who complained about too many debates, announced in April it was sanctioning six debates from July through December before the 2008 primaries and caucuses. They already have been scheduled, with the last slated for Dec. 10 in Los Angeles.

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WASHINGTON (AP) _ The three Republican presidential candidates who indicated last month that they do not believe in evolution may have been taking a safe stance on the issue when it comes to appealing to GOP voters.

A Gallup poll released Monday said that while the country is about evenly split over whether the theory of evolution is true, Republicans disbelieve it by more than 2-to-1.

Republicans saying they don't believe in evolution outnumbered those who do by 68% to 30% in the survey. Democrats believe in evolution by 57% to 40%, as do independents by a 61% to 37% margin.

The poll also said that those who go to church often are far likelier to reject evolution than those who do not. Republicans are likelier than Democrats or independents to attend church services, according to Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll.

At the GOP's first presidential debate last month, the 10 candidates were asked which of them did not believe in evolution. Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo raised their hands.

The Gallup survey, conducted May 21 to 24, involved telephone interviews with 1,007 adults. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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WASHINGTON (AP) _ Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said his staff had ordered him to steer clear of presidential politics, but he couldn't resist making a quick joke at the expense of two Republican candidates on Monday.

``The one fact I've learned _ I can't get out of my mind _ is that Rudy Giuliani's been married more times than Mitt Romney's been hunting,'' Reid cracked to laughter from an audience at the Center for American Progress.

He then launched into his prepared remarks on oil dependency and energy efficiency.

Giuliani, the former New York mayor, is on his third marriage. Former Massachusetts Gov. Romney admitted he'd been hunting just twice after initially claiming he'd been a hunter nearly all his life.

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CORONA, Calif. (AP) _ GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Monday the United States must cultivate allies in Latin America and strive for energy independence so foreign leaders can't use their oil wealth against it.

The former Massachusetts governor made the remarks to reporters before a private fundraising luncheon at a golf club in Corona, about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

Romney said the U.S. needed to work more closely with countries such as Colombia _ which is fighting to snuff out the illicit drug trade _ because those nations could be influenced by growing communist sentiment in Latin America.

``I think what we're going to have to do is focus again on Latin America and realize that we need to have friends in our own hemisphere, and the growth of (Fidel) Castro's influence by virtue of Hugo Chavez's wealth is of real concern,'' he said of the Cuban and Venezuelan leaders.

Romney also said the United States needed to strive for energy independence so leaders of nations with oil wealth, including Chavez, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Russian President Vladimir Putin, can't dictate policy in other areas. ___

MIAMI (AP) _ Florida Democrats have embraced an early primary on Jan. 29 despite the national party's threat to penalize them by taking away half their delegates to the national convention.

Karen Thurman, the party chairwoman, and Sen. Bill Nelson said Monday that the leadership had voted unanimously to accept the date. The state party has to submit a plan to the Democratic National Committee by Friday.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist established the date last month when he signed a bill moving up the Florida primary.

While some states are slated for early contests _ Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina _ DNC Chairman Howard Dean has warned states that jump ahead of Feb. 5. Dean has said Florida will lose half its delegates and all its superdelegates if it holds its primary before the February date.

If the Florida Democratic Party decides to make its early primary binding, any Democratic candidates campaigning in the state will lose their delegates.

Nelson said he talked with Dean last week and he'll continue to try to persuade him to reverse the threat, arguing that it is essential that Democratic candidates travel to Florida to raise money and campaign.

The DNC said Monday that neither it nor Dean can waive its rules and they will be enforced.

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OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ Washington state will move its presidential primary up three months, to Feb. 19, in hopes of generating a surge of public interest after the broader round of ``Super Tuesday'' primaries two weeks earlier.

A committee of lawmakers and political party officials and Secretary Sam Reed decided unanimously Monday to move the primary up from its previous date in May.

The new date, the same as Wisconsin's primary, ``gives us a chance to respect the process, and at the same time make this primary meaningful,'' said Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia.

However, only the votes of Washingtonians taking the Republican ballot actually will make a difference.

As in years past, the state Democratic Party will ignore the results of the statewide vote and instead use precinct caucuses to allocate its 80 national convention delegates. Another 17 Democratic delegates will be ``super-delegates,'' elected officials and high party officers who are free to back the candidate of their choice at the conventions.

State Republicans also will caucus Feb. 9, but they plan to incorporate the statewide primary as well, tying 51% of GOP convention delegates to the results of the statewide vote.