It was a theme that Republican Bob Hugin hammered at several times in his first and only debate with U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez: He will be a beacon of bipartisanship, a builder of compromise and conciliation. If elected, Hugin vowed, he would not to be a rubber-stamp, Donald Trump loyalist, but an independent guided by what's best for New Jersey.

"I'm not a Trump Republican. I am an independent Republican," Hugin said at one point during the one-hour debate, televised by NJTV.

Yet in a time of bitter partisan division, when the angry bases of both parties are demanding combat, not collaboration, Hugin's message seemed outdated. This is the polarized era of Donald Trump, when the political middle has vanished and moderates have been vanquished.

In another, less-divided era, Hugin's message of moderation and independence might have struck a chord with a broader electorate, argued Patrick Murray, the Monmouth University pollster. But for now: "You gotta fight for your team."

NJ Senate 2018:Trump, corruption dominate only debate between Bob Menendez and Bob Hugin

Murray, who served as an NJTV debate analyst, said most New Jersey voters have already made up their minds. Trump is deeply disliked here, and by almost 2-to-1, Trump will be a major factor for voters in their decisions, Murray said.

Hugin has worked relentlessly to paint Menendez as a corrupt failure. And those attacks, fueled by almost $24 million that Hugin lent his campaign, have succeeded in keeping the race far more competitive than many expected. Hugin has relied heavily on Menendez's federal corruption trial last year and is recycling old and debunked rumors that Menendez engaged in trysts with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic.

By casting himself as a refreshing bipartisan voice, Hugin is hoping to peel away some undecided independents and some disillusioned Democrats who may be too disgusted to vote for Menendez.

At times during the debate, Hugin drew from his success as an executive at Celegne Corp., a Summit-based pharmaceutical company, and his 14-years of service in the Marine Corps, which he joined after graduating from Princeton University in the 1970s.

"When I joined the Marine Corps, there was no Democrat or Republican. It was all green,'' he said. "We have to restore civility, get bipartisanship working again, so we put people ahead of party and politics."

And to offer evidence of his buck-the-party-line style, he often found himself agreeing with Menendez on a variety of issues. Both oppose offshore oil drilling, which is being considered by the Trump administration. Both support abortion rights. Both vowed to fight for funding for the Gateway rail tunnel project under the Hudson River.

Yet Menendez argued that Hugin's true identity was as a Trump loyalist, reminding the audience of Hugin's donations to Trump, his service at the Republican National Convention in 2016 as a Trump delegate.

Menendez pointed out that Hugin was a silent CEO when Trump gave cover to white nationalists who paraded in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year, and accused Hugin of supporting Trump's tax cuts, which are highly unpopular in New Jersey because of a limit on state and local property tax deductions. Hugin said he wouldn't have supported the bill because of that deduction cap.

And Menendez pointed to Hugin's attempts to prevent women from joining the eating clubs at Princeton University, a fight Hugin maintained years later as an alumnus and after most clubs had already accepted women. Menendez's point boiled down to this: Hugin's antagonistic views toward women are perfectly aligned with Trump's attitude and policies toward women.

Hugin argued that he regretted taking that position some 40 years ago but said his views have evolved since then. He argued that his ability to change is a virtue. "You can't change in 60 minutes what you have been for 60 years,'' Menendez shot back.

Bipartisanship did, for a time, shape the 2016 presidential campaign of Chris Christie, a Hugin ally. Christie's pitch then was that Washington is broken and only an outsider who successfully crafted bipartisan compromises could break the logjam in a dysfunctional Washington, D.C.

And he lost. To Trump.