This year's U.S. Senate race presents the most depressing choice for New Jersey voters in a generation, with two awful candidates whose most convincing argument is that the other guy is unfit to serve.

But please, don't walk away. Being a patriotic American is not just about fighting enemies abroad or helping flood victims at home. It's about making our democracy work, even when pulling the lever brings no joy.

Why no joy? Because both candidates are slippery characters, even by Washington standards.

Before he was caught in 2015, Sen. Robert Menendez broke Senate rules by routinely accepting expensive gifts, including private jets to luxury resorts abroad. He kept those gifts secret, breaking another rule. He then used his office to promote the personal and business interests of the man who paid the bills. All that was the unanimous conclusion of the Senate ethics committee, including all its Democrats.

It's a miracle that Menendez escaped criminal conviction, and an act of profound narcissism that he stayed in the race despite this baggage, putting a Democratic seat at risk while Donald Trump sits in the White House.

Bob Menendez, the Democratic incumbent defending his seat in the U.S. Senate, visited with The Star-Ledger to chat with Tom Moran as part of editorial board meeting in Newark. Posted by NJ.com Opinion on Thursday, October 18, 2018

The Republican challenger, Bob Hugin, is no better. He's using the closing weeks of his campaign to spread the most vicious lie of this election season in New Jersey -- the suggestion that Menendez patronized child prostitutes in the Dominican Republic.

Hugin estimates that he earned up to $200 million at Celgene, a pharmaceutical firm known for its vigorous fight to keep cheaper generics off the market so it could repeatedly hike the cost of its expensive cancer drugs.

It gets worse. Celgene paid $280 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit charging that the firm deliberately deceived doctors by concealing potentially fatal side effects of its cancer drugs. If that shocking accusations is false, then why did Celgene pay such an enormous sum without a fight?

The suit also charged that Celgene under Hugin defrauded Medicare. If that's also untrue, then why did Celgene direct more than $250 million of that settlement to the federal government? Hugin has no credible answer to those questions.

Which candidate is worse when it comes to personal ethics? Ask a philosopher, because to us it seems neither man can claim much advantage.

And when you get past ethics, the central issue in this race is Donald Trump. The question is which candidate can best fight Trump's toxic policies, his grotesque appeals to racial and ethnic tribalism, and his corrosive attacks on the pillars of our democracy, starting with the rule of law.

That makes this an easy decision: Menendez is the better choice, by far. He has our endorsement.

* * *

Menendez has his flaws, but when he says he is a fighter for New Jersey, and against Trump, he's telling the truth.

During his long career in state and federal politics, his colleagues in both parties have consistently ranked him as highly effective. He's produced concrete results on parochial issues like securing help for Sandy victims, and on weighty national issues like health care and immigration.

Menendez helped draft Obamacare and has fought hard against relentless Republican efforts to weaken it, including its protections for people with pre-existing conditions like cancer or diabetes.

He was a principle author of the bipartisan Senate bill on immigration in 2013, which found a sensible middle ground by fortifying the borders while providing a path to citizenship for law-abiding immigrants who are here illegally. That bill won 68 votes before dying in the Republican House, but it remains the best hope for a solution. No one has fought harder to protect the Dreamers, those who came here illegally as children and now face the risk of deportation.

Unlike Hugin, Menendez is facing the epic challenge of climate change. He favors a cap-and-trade system, or some alternative means to deeply curb emissions. He has led efforts to clean up toxic sites and ensure that polluters pay. He has a 94 percent lifetime rating from the League of Conservation voters.

Even Republicans offer grudging respect for his political skills.

"He keeps his word when he gives it," says Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina. "And he can push back against a lot of political pressure, which is hard in my business."

* * *

The secret of this campaign is that Hugin knows very little about public policy. Dig beyond the sound bites, and he seems lost.

Would he have voted for Obamacare? He's not sure.

Would he have voted for the repeal of Obamacare? "I'd have to know the specifics."

Would he have backed the 2013 immigration reform that Menendez helped write? He doesn't know.

Does he favor a cap-and-trade system to control carbon emissions? "I'd have to really see and understand the trade-offs."

Does he favor Sen. Cory Booker's bill to protect Robert Mueller from being fired? "I'd have to look at the specific legislation."

Folks, this is not normal. Hugin is asking for a seat in the U.S. Senate, and has no fluency on any of these meaty issues. He is a newcomer to politics, and he hasn't done his homework.

But the bigger concern is Hugin's admiration for Trump. Many Republicans felt duty-bound to support Trump in 2016, but Hugin charged to the front of the parade and waved the flag.

He gave more than $200,000 to the Trump cause. He volunteered as Trump's finance chair in New Jersey. He served as a Trump delegate at the convention. He praised him on Fox TV as a "constructive and engaged" president.

Fire Tom MacArthur. Put Andy Kim in Congress.

Now Hugin is emphasizing his differences with Trump. He says he supports abortion rights and gay marriage, and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. He says he opposes the Trump tax cut, and plans by party leaders to cut Medicare benefits.

Maybe this is sincere, but it could be a fox-hole conversation brought on by polls showing that Trump is radioactive in New Jersey. And even if Hugin is sincere, why would a voter who supports abortion rights, for example, back Hugin when his election would inevitably strengthen Trump's hand? There is no political logic to it.

Hugin's fight against admitting women to Princeton eating clubs is troubling as well. It lasted well into his adulthood. And his angry dismissal of efforts to pry open this bastion of male privilege as "politically correct fascism" has the whiff of Trump to it.

It's a disgrace that Democratic leaders like Sen. Cory Booker and Gov. Phil Murphy rallied to support Menendez early on, when a stronger candidate could have beaten him in a primary. This race is a rated as a tossup now, in a year when a generic Democrat could win in a walk.

Our hope is that voters remember that Trump is on the ballot, that they choke down their reluctance and vote for Menendez. He's no gem, but he's better than Hugin.

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