Menendez’s Grip on Senate Seat Loosens After Punishing New Jersey Primary

No one expected Lisa McCormick to win New Jersey’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary over incumbent Bob Menendez. McCormick, publisher of a weekly newspaper and community news website in Rahway, was an underfunded political unknown yet managed to draw 38 percent of the vote Tuesday in a contest against a heavily favored, party-backed candidate. The narrower-than-expected margin of Menendez’s win suggests that some Democratic voters aren’t happy with the senator, whose federal corruption case was dropped by prosecutors after a mistrial in November.