New Jersey Senate race taking shape
Newark mayor seeks Democratic nomination
NEWARK, N.J. — Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who formally declared his candidacy for U.S. Senate on Saturday, now finds himself competing in a primary against like-minded Democratic congressmen that will be decided in mid-summer, when exceptionally low voter turnout threatens his early advantage.
Booker made his candidacy official at a news conference in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, which he has led since 2006. He is vying to fill the seat of U. S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died Monday at age 89.
Reps. Frank Pallone and Rush Holt are also planning to enter the Democratic primary. Candidates have until Monday to file.
Booker, 44, said he would travel the state to earn every vote. He’ll have to hurry; Gov. Chris Christie set the primary for Aug. 13 and a special election for the balance of Lautenberg’s term for Oct. 16.
Experts say the race could be an interesting one.
“It will be a question of who can get organizational support from county parties or labor — support from those who will knock on doors and get people out to vote,” said political analyst Patrick Murray of Monmouth University. Booker has the national profile and Pallone has more money banked — $3.7 million to Booker’s $1.9 million, as of the end of March.
The only Republican running so far is Steve Lonegan, a former Bogota mayor who runs the New Jersey office of Americans for Prosperity.
Booker started fundraising for a 2014 Senate campaign after announcing he would not run against Christie for governor, citing his desire to finish his term in Newark, which expires in June 2014.
Booker is considered the early front-runner, though election observers agree anything can happen in a hastily called summer election.
Pallone, 61, has union ties. Holt, 64, a physicist, has $800,000 on hand.
The winner of the October special election will hold the seat until November 2014, when voters will elect a senator for the regular six-year term.
Booker has 1.4 million followers on Twitter — or five for every resident of the city where he’s the mayor. He tweets fre- quently, answering questions about city services, posting about his workouts and, perhaps most often, trying to provide inspiration.
His life story is compelling. He grew up in Harrington Park as the son of civil rights activists who were among the first black executives at IBM, went to Stanford, was a Rhodes Scholar, earned a law degree from Yale and took a job at the Urban Justice Center, which provides legal and other services to the vulnerable. He also moved to a public housing complex in Newark.
Booker’s critics in Newark see him as an ambitious interloper who spends too much of his time outside the city.