#Hugin vs menendez debate pro#

“Hugin is going to have to explain to the people of New Jersey why he denied access to affordable drugs in a way that even Donald Trump’s administration said was outrageous.” “Greedy drug company CEO Bob Hugin is going to have to answer for his record of driving up prices for cancer patients while making millions for himself,” Menendez adviser Michael Soliman said in a statement. Hugin has his own baggage, which the Menendez campaign is looking to exploit. Melgen, in a separate case, was convicted of Medicare fraud and sentenced to 17 years in prison. But the committee did not specify how much Menendez owed, and he has argued the $58,500 he reimbursed Melgen in 2013 for two private jet flights should suffice - even though prosecutors described many more flights during the trial. The Senate Ethics Committee, in a harshly worded letter, admonished Menendez for the gifts he took from Melgen, saying he broke federal law by not reporting them, and demanded the senator pay back Melgen. The feds said the actions Menendez took on behalf of Melgen included taking up Melgen’s Medicare fraud case with the secretary of Health and Human Services.

#Hugin vs menendez debate pro#

The gifts were never disputed, but prosecutors failed to convince most jurors there was a quid pro quo between the men. In exchange, prosecutors alleged, Melgen plied Menendez with private jet flights, stays at his villa at a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic, an expensive Paris hotel room and hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions. Menendez was charged with doing official favors for Melgen, who was locked in a multimillion-dollar Medicare payment dispute with the federal government. “The Senator cannot escape that he broke federal law and both his fellow Democrats and Republicans found that he needed to repay his ‘best friend’s’ gifts.” “In November, voters will have a clear choice between bad Bob Menendez’s embarrassing and corrupt behavior and Bob Hugin, a self-made job creator and former Marine,” Hugin spokeswoman Megan Piwowar said in a statement. He retired from the company earlier this year. He became the company’s COO in 2006 and its CEO in 2010. He then began working in finance, joining Celgene in 1999. Hugin, 63, attended Princeton University and, after graduating, served active duty in the Marines for six years. He is currently the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. House of Representatives before being appointed to the Senate seat in 2006.

He was elected to the Union City school board at age 20 and gradually climbed the political ladder, becoming Union City’s mayor, a state legislator and member of the U.S. Menendez, 64, went to college in nearby Jersey City, then straight into politics.

Hugin and Menendez grew up in the same era in Union City, a densely packed Hudson County working class city within view of the New York City skyline, though they attended different high schools. The Cook Political Report ratesthe November race as a “likely” Democratic victory. Menendez won with 62 percent of the vote. Hugin and Menendez won their party primaries on Tuesday, though Menendez’s margin of victory over publisher Lisa McCormick, a political unknown, was closer than anyone anticipated. That could change, however, if it tightens - amplifying what is already shaping up to be a nasty race, with both candidates likely to have enough money to spend on attack ads and plenty of ammunition to use for them. So far, neither national party has set foot in New Jersey to help with the race. Holding the New Jersey Senate seat is imperative for Democrats, who need a net gain of two seats to take control of the chamber.

Hugin supported and donated heavily to President Donald Trump’s 2016 election effort and headed a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company that raised prices 20 percent in less than a year on a key cancer drug, parked money overseas and made it harder for companies to produce a generic version of its drugs.