Bound to the hip with Trump, ex-Cel­gene chief Bob Hug­in gets whipped in New Jer­sey Sen­ate race

This wasn’t Bob Hug­in’s year to start a new ca­reer in pol­i­tics.

The ex-Cel­gene ex­ec, wide­ly laud­ed in the in­vest­ment com­mu­ni­ty for the com­pa­ny’s fast growth un­der his lead­er­ship, wound up los­ing the race for the Sen­ate seat for New Jer­sey to Bob Menen­dez, de­spite spend­ing $35 mil­lion of his per­son­al for­tune on the quest.

In one of the most bru­tal con­fronta­tions dur­ing a di­vi­sive mid-term elec­tion, the ex-Ma­rine Hug­in ham­mered his op­po­nent on ethics fol­low­ing Menen­dez’s in­dict­ment — end­ing in a hung ju­ry — for cor­rup­tion re­lat­ed to a pletho­ra of free gifts from a lo­cal doc he helped out. The doc­tor was lat­er con­vict­ed for plun­der­ing Medicare.

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