well what started as an online political spat between two congressional candidates has erupted into an allout war of words incumbent Democratic representative Rob Menendez and his opponent Hoboken mayor Ravi Bhalla are in the midst of a nasty fight on social media and neither side is pulling punches as we near the June primary both are vying for the seed in Hudson County's 8th congressional district as senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports Bhalla appears to have the edge at least when it comes to fundraising it's gloves off knives out online in the eth congressional district race incumbent Rob Menendez started it last week slamming his opponent for unethically doing a political interview at Hoboken City Hall where Ravi Bala is the mayor Challenger Bala shot back wow the entitled son of corrupt Bob goldar Menendez trying to lecture me about ethics they're still at it and his father used his his weight and influence to give his son a congressional seat that is nepotism rank nepotism at its worst that's where he's going to want to Pivot every single time he's not going to want to address his own failures as mayor his own ethical issues Menendez says a couple of City Council Members blew the whistle on Bhalla who admits he shouldn't have done a political interview inside City Hall we did this one on the sidewalk I do conc the tone is not what voters deserve but I would like to see more on the substance so we can show people how we are different we're proud of how we've represented the eth congressional district that's what we want to talk about but again we're not going to let him set a false narrative about who we are and the work that we're doing Hudson view correspondent John heus posted Rockham sockum robots after Monday's round one in the online political boxing match you hit each other till somebody's head pops off and that's pretty much what they were doing on this exchange to the boulder bigger point though I mean him and Ravi just really don't like each other and um I don't think either side is going to give an inch between now and June I think this is an indication that nobody's going to let anybody come up for air at any point in time without answering it back r as Micah rasmason says each candidate's vying for voter attention Rob Menendez is a first term incumbent and while he scored the coveted endorsement of Hudson County's powerful Democratic political machine it abandoned his father after Senator Bob menendez's latest indictment on corruption charges what's a name even though Rob Mendez is not on trial they have the same name and that's I think alone is quite problematic how many voters in the eth district even know that there's two Menendez is probably not a lot Bala served as mayor here for six years and sees an opening to take down the Menendez Dynasty his campaigns collecting money from small donors and early fundraising show some stunning figures Bhalla raised $974,000 in the fourth quarter of last year that's almost tripled the 348,000 incumbent Menendez brought in it's historic rasmon says nobody who has ever run for the house in New Jersey before has raised as much money as he did in his first quarter it tells me that as Menendez was putting together the pieces it wasn't enough to Stave off the sense that he was vulnerable the sense that he could be beaten balos got about 915,000 in cash on hand now with Menendez behind by more than 200,000 much of the incumbent donations come from major players and packs in politics money talks but the county machine can still make it rain from Menendez moreover it doesn't look like this district has ever elected anyone off the line I would say the organizational Edge goes to Menendez so far and bal's got his work cut out for him between now and June expect a Rockham sockum campaign in Hoboken I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News [Music]