WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton will help embattled U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez raise money for his re-election next month, a campaign spokesman said Tuesday.

Clinton will be the featured guest at an event raising money for Menendez, his leadership political action committee, and the New Jersey State Democratic Committee. at the Liberty Prime Steakhouse in Jersey City on Oct. 15. Tickets range from $500 to $5,400, according to an invitation posted on Twitter.

The fundraising dinner chairs include two unsuccessful Democratic congressional candidates, Lisa Mandelblatt and Linda Weber.

Menendez, D-N.J., supported Clinton's presidential campaigns in both 2008 and 2016, against her Democratic primary opponents. In endorsing Clinton shortly before the June 2016 New Jersey primary, he called her opponent, Donald Trump, "an unmitigated disaster."

"She knows what's at stake in this election and knows that New Jersey needs to send Senator Menendez back to Washington," Menendez campaign spokesman Steven Sandberg said.

His Republican challenger, former Celgene Corp. executive Bob Hugin, was a big financial supporter of Trump. He donated the maximum $5,400 to Trump's campaign and gave an additional $233,200 to the Republican National Committee in support of the president, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Hugin has lent his campaign $15.5 million of his own money through June 30, giving him a financial advantage over Menendez, $16.7 million to $9 million. Menendez's fundraising started off slow as he faced a trial over federal corruption charges and then was "severely admonished" by the Senate Ethics Committee.

Well this is interesting: @HillaryClinton doing a fundraiser for @BobMenendezNJ at Liberty Steakhouse in mid October.



From $500 to $5,400 per person pic.twitter.com/p6doDgMn8p — Nick Corasaniti (@NYTnickc) September 25, 2018

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.