ELIZABETH - Jack Ciattarelli says he wants to make in-roads in the Latino community, often talking about a willingness to go "anywhere" in hopes of connecting with people. To that end, he was in Paterson Thursday night.

Yes, Rep. Rob Menendez said on Friday, Ciattarelli is trying. But there is another side of the story.

He said he knows the GOP candidate has been dropping in on Dominican barber shops and sponsoring floats in local Hispanic parades.

But the outreach goes no further than that.

"Jack will shake your hand, slap you on the back, but when he walks out the door and goes to different parts of New Jersey, he's not talking about the Hispanic community," Menendez said.

The congressman from Hudson County joined House colleague Nellie Pou, Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz, Assemblywoman Annette Quijano and local leaders outside a Colombian steakhouse Friday to stress that the only candidate who truly cares about New Jersey Hispanics is Mikie Sherrill.

The bottom line: It's about issues and policies, not marching in a parade.

Key to the group's assessment of Ciattarelli was the Republican's support of Donald Trump. During a recent debate, Ciattarelli gave the president a grade of A.

Ruiz recalled when school started this fall, she met with two youngsters whose fathers were being detained by immigration authorities.

Just how would a "Governor Ciattarelli" react to such a situation?

Ruiz said she knows that a "Governor Sherrill" would condemn it and fight it.

Menendez made a similar point, noting that Ciattarelli supports policies that are harmful to the Latino community - like the possibility of National Guard troops in the street.

"Every day, we see our communities being ripped apart," he said.

When this issue comes up, Ciattarelli says National Guard troops will never be needed in New Jersey if he is elected governor.

Another point was that tariff-related economic uncertainty threatens to hurt the Hispanic community more than some others.

Sherrill, they said, understands the community, and more important than understanding demographics, knows what the government needs to do to help Hispanics.

All acknowledged that Trump and Republicans picked up support last fall in the Latino community; that was a nationwide phenomena.

The obvious goal of the day was to stop that from happening again.