Published Tuesday, March 10, 2015 | 9:13 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, March 10, 2015 | 1 p.m.
Harry Reid
WASHINGTON — As a New Jersey Democratic senator comes under fire in a corruption investigation, Republicans are taking aim at another Democrat: Sen. Harry Reid.
The Senate minority leader has not been accused of any wrongdoing in a federal investigation of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, but Republican operatives hoping to unseat Reid in 2016 are doing their best to make it a campaign headache for Nevada’s senior senator.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the organization responsible for electing Republicans to the U.S. Senate, blasted an email Monday demanding Reid return $10,000 his campaign received from Menendez.
The money was donated in 2010 during Reid’s fifth reelection, and Menendez has not donated to Reid’s 2016 campaign. Reid and Senate Democrats are holding any reservations or criticism of Menendez until the investigation is concluded.
Menendez is a senior Democrat who holds a leadership post in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The Department of Justice is investigating his relationship with a Florida doctor and political donor. Menendez has maintained his innocence, saying after news reports of an impending indictment broke Friday: “I have always conducted myself appropriately and in accordance with the law.”
On Monday, Politico and The New York Times reported the FBI questioned Reid for about one hour “as a witness” in the Menendez case.
Reid said today he was interviewed about a year ago "and I haven't heard anything since." He defended Menendez's ability to do his job during the investigation, saying, "as far as I'm concerned, he's an outstanding senator."
The Republican Senatorial Committee, nonetheless, started the process of submitting a Freedom of Information Act to request details from a 2012 meeting with the Department of Health and Human Services that Reid arranged and attended in which New York Times and Politico report Menendez discussed the Florida doctor in question with government officials.
Reid isn’t the only Democratic senator coming under attack as a result of the investigation. Republicans are also trying to tie Menendez’s troubles to another vulnerable Senate Democrat, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, whose campaign received money from Menendez.
Nevada’s junior senator, Dean Heller, is a vice chair of the NRSC.
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