It's up to you, New Jersey, New Jersey

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"Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez appears to have opened a significant lead over Republican challenger Thomas H. Kean Jr. as voters focus more on the war in Iraq and the GOP's congressional scandals.

The latest Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll shows Menendez's lead at nine percentage points. Nearly half of the likely voters, 48 percent, said they would vote for Menendez, while 39 percent said they would vote for Kean."
- Gannett via the Courier Post

The NJ senate race looked like the one real opportunity the Republicans had this year to defeat a sitting Democratic senator, and this latest poll doesn't bode well for them.

Not that they won't necessarily hold on in tight senate races where GOP senators already are in office, Virginia, Missouri, or Tennessee, for example, but this was one race where they could conceivably pick up a Democratic-held seat.

If this and some other recent NJ polls hold, it looks like the Garden State may come through after all. And I may have to stop saying snarky things about it.

Well, for a month or so.