The tale of the tape, spells even more trouble for New Jersey political appointee Bob Menendez. This is a race to watch as Tom Kean Jr. continues to lead Menedez by 3-4 percentage points.

“For nearly two years, Oscar Sandoval worked as an FBI informant in a criminal probe resulting in convictions of a half-dozen North Jersey politicians and government vendors, shaking the state’s political establishment.

But fallout from his role in Hudson County government may not be over, as new ethical questions are raised in a highly charged U.S. Senate race in which Sen. Robert Menendez’s activities in county politics and patronage have come under scrutiny.

In court papers filed in March, the North Jersey psychiatrist says he was pressured in 1999 to hire a doctor favored by Menendez or risk losing $1 million in government contracts.

Sandoval surreptitiously tape-recorded what he took as the threatening conversation, and provided a copy of the previously unreleased recording to The Inquirer.

In the 20-minute taped telephone call, Donald Scarinci – a powerful North Jersey lawyer, political fund-raiser, and confidant of Menendez’s – tells Sandoval that Menendez would consider it “a favor” if Sandoval hired the doctor. He also said hiring Vicente Ruiz would afford him “protection.”

Sandoval said the implication was clear: Either he hire Ruiz or risk losing psychiatric-services contracts at the Hudson County Jail, a county psychiatric hospital, and a youth detention center.

Failing to hire the doctor could result in “the law of the jungle,” Scarinci says on the tape.”

Sounds like a Sopranos episode….