• Associated Press via Newsday, Tuesday, October 24, 2006 12 PM

With two weeks left in their battle for a U.S. Senate seat from New Jersey, Robert Menendez and Tom Kean, Jr. are appearing in some recent campaign ads, a change for the pair who have relied on nameless voices to attack each other since mid-September.

But while Kean continues going after his opponent as corrupt, Menendez breaks new ground by speaking about his mother. Shown walking through a factory, the incumbent Democrat talks about how her work as a seamstress without a pension or health care led him to oppose the Bush Administration's plan to privatize Social Security.

The Kean ad, for cable stations, has the Republican alluding to his father and namesake, a two-term governor, when he says: "Public service is a tradition that I'm proud of. That's why I'm fighting to help New Jersey escape the clutch of corruption." He then reiterates accusations that Menendez is under federal criminal investigation.

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