Republican Kean Wins N.J. Senate Primary

Sen. Tom Kean Jr, smiles as he celebrates winning the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Mountainside, N.J., Tuesday, June 6, 2006. Kean's wife, Rhonda, watches at left, (AP Photo/Mike Derer) (Mike Derer - AP)

TRENTON, N.J. -- Republican Tom Kean Jr., aiming for Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez's job, cruised to victory in a primary race he had been under pressure to win decisively.

With 97 percent of precincts reporting, the son of former Gov. Tom Kean had 75.5 percent, or 126,399 votes, to 24.5 percent, or 40,929 votes, for John Ginty.

Ginty was put up as a candidate by conservatives who don't like the younger Kean's support for abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research. Some observers have said that if Ginty garnered a bigger chunk of the vote it could have dampened Kean's prospects.

Kean has been viewed the GOP's best Senate hope in years in a state that has not elected a Republican to that body since 1972.

Menendez was appointed in January by Gov. Jon Corzine to serve out the remaining year of Corzine's Senate term. He handily defeated his primary opponent, James D. Kelly Jr., who lives in a group home for the mentally ill.