Morning Digest: Why Menendez Jr. may have to betray Menendez Sr. to win reelection

_{The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.}

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● NJ-08: Will the father take the son down with him? That's the question for Rep. Rob Menendez, whose dad, Sen. Bob Menendez, is headed to trial on federal corruption charges. While the elder Menendez has not announced whether he'll run for another term in Congress, the younger Menendez says he'll seek reelection—and some powerful New Jersey Democrats very much want to see him prevail.

But in order to do so, Rob Menendez may have to publicly turn his back on his father by endorsing the state's first lady, Tammy Murphy, in her bid to succeed the senator. Will Menendez stand by his family? Or will he put his own ambitions first? And even if he does abandon his dad—whose influence is the chief reason Menendez is in the House today—can he actually win again?

Catch up on all the latest twists and turns—including some ugly poll numbers and spicy sniping—in our latest installment on the Menendez family saga.