WASHINGTON -- Bob Hugin, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, fought efforts to open Princeton University's famed all-male eating clubs to women, going so far as to call the ultimately successful attempt "politically correct fascism."

Hugin opposed the efforts as president of one of the all-male eating clubs, the Tiger Inn, a position he assumed after graduating from the university.

Undergraduate student Sally Frank, who had been denied membership, sued to open them in 1979 in a case that dragged on for 13 years, long after the institutions began admitting women.

After the last lawsuit was settled in 1992, Hugin in a statement described Frank's successful campaign as "politically correct fascism."

"If that's still his attitude, that's problematic," Frank, a Bayonne native who now is a professor at Drake University Law School, told NJ Advance Media. "That would be something that deserves some answers. Does he still think a suit about discrimination is that inappropriate and problematic?"

Hugin acknowledged Thursday night that he made an error decades ago.

"If I could go back in time, I would not use those words," Hugin said in a statement. "It was a mistake and I take responsibility for that."

Hours after being asked for comment by NJ Advance Media on his role in blocking women from joining the Tiger Inn, Hugin raised the topic himself at a event in Mountainside with women to discuss equal pay and challenges that women face at work. His campaign issued a statement at about 9 p.m.

"Everyone evolves over time," Hugin said at the roundtable. "I view many things differently today than I did 25 years ago."

Hugin is facing U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., this fall. Menendez's campaign chairman, Mike Soliman, called Hugin's remarks, "absolutely disgraceful."

"This wasn't youthful naivete," Soliman said. "Bob Hugin was in his late 30s and married for five years at the time."

Princeton's eating clubs served as gathering places for a majority of juniors and seniors, who dined there instead of at on-campus cafeterias.

The clubs claimed they were private organizations and had the right to determine their own membership, but the state Division on Civil Rights ruled in 1987 that they really were public venues that could not discriminate on the basis of sex, and had violated the law by not admitting Frank.

The New Jersey Supreme Court upheld that ruling in July 1990.

"The clubs and Princeton have an interdependent relationship that deprives the clubs of private status and makes them subject to the division's jurisdiction," the court said. "There is no question that the clubs discriminated against women. It is undisputed that the clubs had a general policy that excluded females from consideration as members."

The clubs appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case in January 1991.

One of the groups, the Ivy Club, then took its case to the federal courts, arguing that the state court ruling violated its constitutional rights to freedom of association.

The Tiger Inn joined the suit after the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in August 1991 that it could proceed. Hugin became president around that time.

They pressed on for 10 months, even as the clubs opened their membership rolls to women, including 27 for the Tiger Inn alone in 1991.

"The Tiger Inn becoming co-ed was a very positive development for the organization and has strengthened it on every level," Hugin said Thursday. "The decision, made by the undergraduate members, to admit women back in the early 90s was without question the right thing to do. Personally, I wish I had taken a leadership role in making it happen sooner."

The final lawsuit ended in June 1992 with the Tiger and Ivy clubs each paying $43,000 in legal fees to the New Jersey American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Frank. She originally had asked for $900,000 in legal fees.

Even then, Hugin was unbowed.

"We're disappointed we didn't go to trial because we had a strong case and a high probability of winning," Hugin said at the time, according to The Times of Trenton. "But given all our options, now is the time to end this and put it behind us."

Hugin said at the women's roundtable that his changing views should be seen as a strength, not a weakness.

"I am proud to say that my views on issues have evolved over the years," Hugin said. "Forty-years ago, discussion about gay marriage was nearly non-existent and women being the breadwinners in their homes was a rarity. Today, thankfully, both of those things have changed, and America is a better place for it."

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