Robert Menendez (official photo)

Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) responded today to the appeal by the citizens' committee seeking to recall him, apparently insisting that he is a federal official and thus not subject to the New Jersey constitution's recall provision, according to a source close to the case. "So here is a powerful New Jersey resident arguing that his home state's Constitution, passed overwhelmingly by the people of New Jersey, that he claims to represent, is invalid and you can't recall him from office," the outraged source told this Examiner.

But in fact Menendez is not the only United States Senator to be the target of a recall committee. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) is another. The efforts of MoveOnMary.org, the committee attempting to recall Landrieu, are a hot topic among Louisiana bloggers, this although the mainstream media and the Louisiana Attorney General's office appear to be lined up against them. But Richard T. Luzzi, co-counsel for the Committee to Recall Robert Menendez from the Office of United States Senator, told this Examiner today that he was "looking into" the Landrieu recall campaign and the surrounding controversy, which appears similar to the controversy that his clients face.

Mary Landrieu (official photo)

On December 29, 2009, Mr. Ruben T. Leblanc of New Iberia, LA, filed a recall-petition notice with the Louisiana Secretary of State's office, according to The Shreveport Times. Accounts of what happened next differ. The Shreveport Times states that Secretary of State Jay Dardenne rejected the notice as invalid, on the grounds that States may not recall their US congressmen or Senators. But the blog Caught Him With a Corndog (as quoted in another blog, And So It Goes in Shreveport) asserts that Dardenne allowed signature collection to proceed. Leblanc, in any case, is collecting signatures now, according to Peter Ferrara at Fox News (and also at Recall Congress Now).

Richard T. Luzzi (Independence Caucus)

Two conservative activists not directly affiliated with Leblanc or his organization have expressed differing views on the feasibility of the Landrieu recall. Blogger "Imkane" expressed doubt, and cited this opinion by the Louisiana Attorney General, issued March 2, 2009, which stated that Louisiana's government need not call a recall election in the case of Representative Anh "Joseph" Cao (R-LA-2), who had become the target of a recall petition of his own. But another blogger, calling himself Citizen Wells, insists that the legal position outlined by MoveOnMary.org is sound, and that the States do indeed retain the power to recall their Senators under Amendment X of the US Constitution. (This Examiner, after reviewing the relevant Constitutional text, agrees.)

Notably, the Louisiana activists appear to have taken notice of the Menendez recall effort in New Jersey, as recently as yesterday.

This article is part of the Robert Menendez series.

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