A researcher working for Republican Tom Kean Jr.'s campaign became pen pals with a jailed Democratic political boss in an effort to dig up damaging information on Kean's opponent, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.
Former Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski, now serving time in a federal prison in Kentucky on corruption charges, offered political history and strategic advice to the Kean campaign in a chatty, friendly letter obtained by The Star-Ledger.
"Political intrigue is ... well ... intriguing," Janiszewski writes in the opening, summing up the unlikely alliance between himself and an agent for a Republican campaign. The letter, dated June 11, suggests an ongoing, secret correspondence.
...
Janiszewski, a sometime-ally, sometime-rival of Menendez's in Hudson County, offered a long list of local politicians who hold grudges against the senator and may be able to provide damaging information about him.
One of those people mentioned by Janiszewski -- Oscar Sandoval, a Union City psychiatrist and former FBI informant who helped land Janiszewski in prison -- rocked the U.S. Senate campaign this week by disclosing a secret recording he had made of Menendez's closest adviser.
For those of you keeping score at home, "Democrats for Junior" now consist of astroturfers posing as Democrats, a racist and a federal prisoner. With friends that dirty, Junior can't claim that he's clean as a whistle.
