Hugin adds $3.5 million more to his campaign

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Hugin has pumped another $3.5 million of his own money into his bid to unseat Bob Menendez, bringing the total to $36 million so far, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Hugin also received $5,000 from Leadership Matters for America PAC, former Gov. Chris Christie’s political action committee.

Bloomberg’s Greg Giroux was the first to report Hugin’s most recent filing.

Since filing his October 15 FEC report, Hugin reported putting $1 million in on October 19, $2.5 million on October 24, $1.5 million on October 26, and $3.5 million on October 30.

Hugin still falls short of the New Jersey record for self-funders.  Jon Corine spent $60,200,967 to win a U.S. Senate seat in 2000.  But his $31 million eclipses the Republican record set by Douglas Forrester, who spent $7,485,000 against Bob Torricelli – and then Frank Lautenberg.

Independent polls show the race to be close.  Real Clear Politics has Menendez ahead by an average of 6.5%.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 11:18 AM.