David Norcross, the GOP national committeeman from New Jersey, said: "Sure, he's stronger. You'd always rather run against someone who's under a cloud."
Running against Torricelli, he added, "will be a very difficult campaign. He's articulate, and he occasionally wanders over and votes with us [conservative Republicans]."
Yet even some of those Republicans lamenting Torricelli's success in putting the criminal probe behind him said he may have a harder time with the voters. And they signaled that circumstances surrounding the probe will be used in the campaign.
"He still will have those questions of judgment hanging over his head," Norcross said. "He may be out from under the cloud of indictment, but can you seriously question his judgment? Yes. Can you say that he lost his compass in his zeal to raise campaign funds? Yes."
Although the Republican Senate candidate will not be able to run TV commercials saying Torricelli is under investigation, he or she could remind voters that Torricelli's home was searched under a federal warrant and that Torricelli accepted gifts from someone who later sought his intervention in federal matters.
"His actions raise profound questions about his ethics and whether he should remain a United States senator, and that will be the dominant issue in the campaign," said Larry Weitzner, a Republican consultant in New Jersey.
Torricelli, he added, "may have dodged a criminal investigation, but he's got a lot of explaining to do to voters as to why he accepted suits and watches from David Chang and what he promised him in return. What may be difficult to prove in a criminal investigation may not be so difficult for the voters to understand."
