WHEN ETHAN BLOCK heard that Andy Kim was running for Senate, he got to work. Over winter break, the Rutgers University senior launched a campus group to spread the word about the mild-mannered congressman taking on Bob Menendez, the longtime Democratic senator who’d been indicted for allegedly accepting bribes of gold bars and cash-stuffed envelopes in exchange for, among other things, secretly aiding the government of Egypt. By February, Block’s new group—RU for Andy Kim—boasted a roster of about 40 students who’d volunteered to pound doors and spread the word.
To Block, Kim wasn’t just battling one disgraced incumbent—he was also challenging the iron grip of New Jersey’s Democratic machine, which, having finally abandoned Menendez, then threw in with a
