Randy Bergmann

We don’t take the political endorsement process at the Asbury Park Press lightly. We spend a lot of time talking to candidates, examining their track records and backgrounds, assessing their positions on issues and their character, and debating who would best represent constituents.

In the U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Bob Menendez and Republican Bob Hugin, we were faced with one of our toughest endorsement choices in years — for all of the wrong reasons. We don’t like either of them. Ultimately, we decided not to endorse. We chose not to simply hold our nose and back the candidate we felt was least flawed.

We have long believed that if we don’t feel strongly about something, we shouldn’t waste our time taking an editorial position on it.

In the case of the Menendez-Hugin Senate race, we actually did feel strongly — strongly that neither of these ethically challenged candidates warranted an endorsement.

Our non-endorsement doesn’t mean we think you should avoid voting for one of them. You need to decide yourself whether you think any ethical shortcomings are secondary to their positions on issues.

Menendez, Hugin stances on key issues

Stockton poll has Menendez leading by double digits

How to get full election coverage from USA Today Network — New Jersey

Menendez is a staunch liberal. Some of his policies have been good for the state; others not so much. Hugin, former CEO of Celgene, a pharmaceutical company, has tried to sell himself as a moderate in the mold of former N.J. Gov. Tom Kean. But his serving as chairman of Trump’s New Jersey presidential campaign and his $200,000 in campaign donations to him strongly suggest otherwise. And on the health care issue, which voters have identified as their top concern in New Jersey and elsewhere, Hugin’s actions as head of a drug company don’t bode well for patient-centered reforms.

Bottom line: We can’t get past both candidates’ ethics. It’s depressing that the Democratic Party couldn’t come up with someone to better represent New Jersey than a sleazy incumbent, and that the Republicans chose to line up behind the poster child for drug company greed — yet another candidate who is wealthy enough — at the public’s expense — to try to buy an election.

Menendez’s ethical problems related to his dealings with Salomon Melgen, a wealthy Florida opthamologist now serving 17 years in prison for Medicare fraud, have been well chronicled — and underscored by the millions Hugin has spent on negative ads against him. Menendez has managed to keep his seat and run for re-election because a hung jury failed to convict him on corruption charges. But he was severely admonished by his Senate colleagues.

In exchange, the government alleged, Menendez received gifts of nearly $1 million in campaign contributions and gifts, including private plane trips around the world and a Paris hotel stay for the senator and his girlfriend. Menendez’s trial ended with a deadlocked jury, and the Justice Department declined to try him again after a federal judge acquitted him of some of the charges. But he was later “severely admonished” by the Senate Ethics Committee.

Hugin received $100 million in compensation over a three-year period by presiding over a company that jacked up the price of a cancer drug and kept competitors at bay by preventing generics from entering the market.

A class action lawsuit alleges that Celgene refused to provide the samples of the cancer-fighting drug Revlimid, the chief source of Celgene’s profits, to generic manufacturers needed to replicate the drug, while reaping huge profits from its success. Hugin was one of the chief beneficiaries of those profits.

Last year, Celgene agreed to pay $280 million to settle fraud allegations related to the promotion of two cancer treatment drugs for uses not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

At an editorial board meeting with USA Today Network — New Jersey editors last week, Hugin tried to defend Celgene’s actions. His defense wasn’t convincing. There is no reason to believe Hugin’s behavior as a U.S. senator would be any different than it was at Celgene. And we already know what to expect from Menendez.

Unfortunately, one of them will win on Tuesday.

Randy Bergmann: 732-643-4034; rbergmann@apjp.com; @appopinion.