Family drama in the Garden State

Bricks of gold bullion. Envelopes filled with cash. Secret meetings with an Egyptian spy.

These sordid details form the backbone of the bribery charges against New Jersey’s senior senator, Robert Menendez, a Democrat. In any other state, that would be enough drama.

But in the Garden State, the scandal has uncorked an even more powerful political tempest.

Tammy Murphy, the wife of New Jersey’s governor, Phil Murphy, is running for Menendez’s seat as a Democrat, buoyed by political leaders who are allied with her husband and dependent on his largess during his final two years in office.

The audacious play for a highly coveted seat has prompted critics to pan her candidacy as rank nepotism.

She is up against Andy Kim, a popular three-term Democratic congressman from South Jersey, who is perhaps best known nationally for a viral photograph of him cleaning up the Capitol after the Jan. 6 riot.

And Menendez, who has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges and faces trial in May, has been coy about whether he intends to seek re-election.

If Murphy is elected, two of New Jersey’s three statewide offices would be held by people who share the same mansion. Murphy was a Republican until 10 years ago and has never run for office. She would be the first woman ever elected to the Senate from New Jersey, a history-making possibility she has emphasized.