DEMS/ELECTION/GOP/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “They’ve circled each other for eight months, shouting epithets over the airways. Republican Bob Hugin has called Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez ‘corrupt.’ Menendez has called Hugin, a former pharmaceutical executive, ‘greedy.’ But Wednesday [10-24-18] evening, for the first time, Hugin and Menendez actually spoke to each other at length, during their first and only debate. But they never shook hands…This is a race Democrats weren’t anticipating. Menendez, a 12-year incumbent, wouldn’t be vulnerable under normal circumstances in New Jersey, a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by almost a million, and where Republicans haven’t won a Senate election since 1972. But New Jersey’s senior senator last year went through a bruising and damaging federal corruption trial over allegations he did official favors for Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen — now a convicted Medicaid fraudster — in exchange for campaign cash, private jet flights and lavish Dominican vacations. Menendez avoided conviction when a mistrial was declared, but the Senate Select Committee on Ethics severely admonished him and demanded he pay back the value of Melgen’s gifts.”
–Matt Friedman, “Trump looms large during Menendez-Hugin debate,” Politico, October 24, 2018 11:00 pm