Senator menendez's indictment also put a Target on the congressional seat currently held by his son Rob Menendez casting doubt over his political future well this week the list of candidates throwing their hat in the ring to replace him also expanded as senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports this election will also be a battle over accusations of nepotism and the use of the Party Machine we have people jumping into this race because they essentially see the power broker wounded and so his underling in a way being wounded as well that race the eth congressional district the wounded power broker well that would be us Senator Bob Menendez whose son Congressman Rob Menendez the underling is now facing a primary challenge for his seat by Kyle Jai the very Challenger who just a few weeks ago was going after the Menendez senate seat I was really disappointed a couple years ago when uh alio sirus's seat became available and you I was actually planning on running for it for about five minutes and then I found out that the seat had already been given to Rob Menendez I see an opportunity to potentially correct that now and to give the voters who I feel were disenfranchised a real choice in this election Andra we hear a lot of from political newcomers even if JC is the son of former State Assembly woman Mila JC but those familiar with the Hudson County Democratic Organization no better we like to say that we live in a democracy and supposedly you two people or more put themselves before the voters and the people decide on who's the better candidate and that's a very idealized version that is not reflected at all in how politics operates in Hudson County specifically and in the eth congressional district but it's likely to not be Politics as Usual in the eth because Hoboken mayor Ravi Bala looks poised to jump in this race he told us he's still in the exploratory phase but his entry could turn the political machine and the Hudson County party line on its head we heard that mayor Bala has raised $59,000 so he's not a declared candidate yet but clearly he's running uh until somebody says otherwise look you rarely get a contested Primary in these things John heus founder of Hudson County view says bala's name recognition and strong fundraising efforts from the gate makes things fun a lot different than the office by appointment primaries that led former congressman aloz and now Congressman Rob Menendez to their victories usually the incumbent just runs against some guy off the street if that and then wins like 85 to 15 and it's super boring in this kind of a race where you have at least two candidates that'll be able to raise over a million dollars you're probably going to get actually couple debates you'll get a lot of uh scrapping online so it's just a totally different Dynamic and it's a dynamic that the H County Democratic organization hates they really like to avoid contested primaries and that's not going to happen this time mayor Bala I think does stand a pretty good chance given that uh it's been reported that he does have some fundraising uh backing behind him and that will at least make the machine sweat because they will have to use deploy their resources but Hector OA points out that District 8 is heavily Latino and loyal to the Menendez name in a statement Congressman Rob Menendez said voters across the district know our record and they trust that we're committed to improving their lives touting accomplishments like bringing billions of dollars in infrastructure funds and addressing quality of life issues and while JC is running on a platform of reducing health care costs increasing access to Reproductive Rights and improving education OA points out that a real threat to Mendez would be somebody of Hispanic descent maybe a woman of Hispanic descent I think that Rob Menendez would have a very difficult race a much much much more difficult race in front of him but for now political insiders are grabbing their popcorn ready for what could be a political Throwdown in the eighth I'm Joanna gagis andj Spotlight News