An effort to toss ethically-challenged New York Congressman George Santos (R) out of the U.S. House of Representatives fell far short on Wednesday with only 179 voting for expulsion and 213 casting ballots against.
A two-thirds supermajority is required to expel a member from the body.
New Jersey’s own delegation voted mostly along party lines but with some significant and interesting exceptions.
For example, while Jeff Van Drew (R, NJ-02) and Chris Smith (R, NJ-04) voted against expulsion in the narrowly-divided chamber, freshman Tom Kean Jr. (R-07) voted in favor of evicting Santos. Kean was joined by 23 other House Republicans.
Meanwhile, Rob Menendez (D, NJ-08) broke with the majority of the New Jersey Democrat delegation to vote against expulsion. Menendez’s father – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez – is currently under federal indictment for charges including bribery and acting as an unregistered agent for Egypt and could face his own expulsion vote down the road.
Menendez wasn’t alone; 30 other House Democrats opposed expulsion while New Jersey’s Donald Norcross (D, NJ-01) voted present.
“Neither the Ethics Committee nor the courts have finished adjudicating this,” Congressman Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut, posted on X. “In this country, one is presumed innocent until PROVEN guilty. No exceptions.”
