#Bob hugin commercial tv

Sport fans from Hudson County of a certain age will remember the annual Thanksgiving Day football game between Emerson and Union Hill. After Roosevelt, he attended Union Hill School, which was nine blocks away at 38th Street and Hudson Avenue.Ĭity Hall, where Menendez’ political career truly was launched, is one block west of Union Hill.Īt the same time, Hugin was attending Emerson High School 20 blocks to the south. Menendez said he learned to speak English early in life and had little trouble adjusting to school. Still, the Menendez family’s arrival predated the wave of Cuban immigration that materialized after Castro’s 1959 takeover of the government. There had been some Cuban immigration to northern Hudson County during the early 1950’s, primarily from the town of Fomento. Looking back six decades and reflecting on his mother’s political perceptions, the senator noted a bit ruefully that a left wing dictatorship is as bad as a right wing one. She did not like Batista’s rule, but as Menendez put it, his mother was also wary at “what was happening in the Sierra Maestra Mountains.” That was where Fidel Castro and his followers had established a guerrilla base before the revolution. The senator says his mother was the driving force behind the relocation. They migrated to the United States in the early 1950’s when the island was controlled by Fulgencio Batista. It has been probably assumed by many over the years that Menendez’ parents fled a Castro-run Cuba.

Young Bob Menendez could walk to school without having to cross a street. The elementary school he attended – Roosevelt – is literally down the block from 4607 Hudson. Menendez was born in New York City, but moved across the river when he was an infant. The house in which the senator was raised is a four-story building that today houses many families. In small, but congested, Union City, we’re talking about probably a mile or so. It’s on the other side of town from where Hugin grew up. So, we chatted over the phone about his Union City roots.īut first, the senator’s old neighborhood.

I offered Menendez the same opportunity, but was told his schedule would not allow it. Late last month, Hugin accompanied me on a walking tour of his old neighborhood – he lived on 12th Street. In what is an odd coincidence, both Menendez and Republican candidate Bob Hugin grew up in Union City at about the same time – the late 1950’s and 1960’s. The other day, I visited the tenement in question at 4607 Hudson Avenue. The now-senator recalls that his old building had heat and hot water, but not all the time.

#Bob hugin commercial tv

In fact, one of his first TV commercials this campaign made precisely that point.

This fact is meant to convey two related themes – he rose from very modest roots and has not forgotten them. Bob Menendez says many times that he grew up in a “tenement” in Union City.