Lautenberg regretted his decision, especially after neither Whitman nor Kean ran against Corzine in the general election (instead, Congressman Bob Franks ran for the seat, and was defeated). He also was said to be missing his days working in the Senate. He had considered reversing his decision and running for re-election, but since his rival, Senator Torricelli, had encouraged Corzine to run in the first place, Lautenberg would likely have had trouble restarting his campaign. A little over a year after he left office, however, Lautenberg found an opening. In the 2002 primaries leading up to the midterm elections. Torricelli won the Democratic nomination for a second term in the Senate. The Republican candidate was Doug Forrester, the mayor of West Windsor Township. It was expected that Torricelli would win the election by a significant margin, as no Republican had won election from New Jersey since Clifford P. Case was elected to his final six-year term in 1972 in the seat Torricelli was currently occupying. However, an ongoing investigation into the Senator's activities and business dealings resulted in federal corruption charges being filed against him before the election. The subsequent drop in voter support in the weeks that followed resulted in Torricelli's decision to withdraw from the race on September 30, 2002. After overtures were made to retired Senator Bill Bradley, Congressman Frank Pallone, and future Senator Robert Menendez to take over as candidate, the New Jersey Democratic Party called upon Lautenberg and he accepted the nomination. This was met with an almost immediate challenge by Forrester and the Republicans as New Jersey law forbade the replacement of candidates on the ballot after a certain deadline. The ballot name change was unanimously upheld by the New Jersey Supreme Court, who cited that the law, as written, did not consider the possibility for an emergency resignation and said that Forrester would have an unfair advantage if Torricelli was left on the ballot. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case. With the popular Lautenberg now in the race, Forrester's lead in the polls evaporated and Lautenberg won the election by a 54%-44% margin. Back in the Senate Despite having served over 18 years in the Senate, upon Lautenberg's return he was treated like other freshman senators with respect to seniority. This was despite the fact that he had agreed to run for office with the implicit understanding that Democratic