Robert Torricelli - Senate Career

Senate Career

He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996, defeating Republican Congressman Dick Zimmer to obtain the seat vacated by the retirement of Democratic Senator Bill Bradley.

In 2000, he headed the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and helped the Democrats gain four Senate seats.

Late in an increasingly competitive race against Republican Doug Forrester in 2002, Torricelli suddenly withdrew after disclosure of illegal contributions to his campaign by David Chang, a businessman connected to North Korea. Torricelli had previously denied this and a number of other charges, and in his withdrawal speech stated that despite his leaving public office in a different way than he planned, he was proud of his service. Shortly thereafter, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Democratic Party could legally replace Torricelli's name on the ballot with that of former U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, ironically a longtime Torricelli nemesis, with whom he had often publicly feuded. New Jersey Republicans had contested the Torricelli-Lautenberg swap on the grounds that the deadline for ballot changes had long passed. It seemed apparent to many that Torricelli had only made his decision after local polls showed, for the first time, that the scandal had damaged Torricelli's re-election chances beyond repair.