By Jonathan Tamari , Phily.com

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey is taking over as head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, giving him the reins of a political operation charged with raising money, recruiting candidates, and winning seats across the nation.

The job gives Menendez a high-profile post not quite three years into his tenure in the Senate, and a role among top decisionmakers.

“It puts me in a leadership room with a very small universe of people,” Menendez said, adding that his say on key decisions and increased access to the White House would benefit New Jersey. “I don’t get any greater pay, but I get a greater say.”

Menendez becomes the first Hispanic to head a campaign committee in either the House or the Senate, according to the DSCC.

His recruiting job includes helping find elected Senate replacements for President-elect Obama, Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and, possibly, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, rumored to be close to joining the Obama administration.

Menendez named Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter as one of the incumbent Republicans he hopes to mount a “significant challenge” against. He is also sizing up races against sitting Republicans in Missouri, Florida and Kentucky.

At the same time, Menendez said, he will work to bolster high-profile Democratic incumbents in California and Connecticut and the party’s top senator, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

In statements issued by spokesmen, Reid called Menendez “aggressive, focused and committed,” while the outgoing committee chairman, Sen. Charles Schumer, of New York, said, “When he’s dedicated to a task, he inevitably succeeds.”

Menendez, who expects to formally take over the committee in December, has been Schumer’s vice chairman for the last two years.

He takes over a job that has recently been monopolized by the Northeast. Schumer led the Democrats’ Senate campaigns for the last four years as they regained and then expanded their majority. The seat was previously held by Jon S. Corzine, now New Jersey’s governor, who oversaw the committee for two years.

Former New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli led the committee in 1999 and 2000, making the Garden State home to three of the DSCC’s last five chairs. Only one of the previous five, Washington’s Patty Murray, came from outside New York or New Jersey.

Menendez said senators from the area bring sharp political and managerial skills, and are close to an area of significant wealth that can be tapped to support the Democratic cause.

Menendez first rose up in North Jersey’s Hudson County, known for its bruising political battles even among members of the same party.

At age 20 he joined the Union City Board of Education, and he became mayor 12 years later, in 1986. He served briefly in the state Assembly and Senate before winning a House seat in 1992. He eventually became the highest-ranking Hispanic representative in congressional history.

He joined the Senate in 2006, appointed by Corzine, who vacated his Senate seat when he left Washington for Trenton. Menendez won his first full term in November 2006.

“He has been in the vanguard for Latino progress in politics, and in New Jersey particularly,” said Martin Perez, president of the New Brunswick-based Latino Leadership Alliance.

Hispanics provided a big margin for Democrats in the 2008 elections, supporting Obama over Republican John McCain by a 2-1 ratio, according to an analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center. A Hispanic surge helped flip Florida into the Democratic column, and New Jersey Hispanics, in particular, went heavily for Obama.

Asked about recruiting Hispanic candidates, Menendez said his top priority was to “pick individuals who will win.”

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