Booker wins Senate seat
The popular Newark mayor will complete the 15 months remaining on the term of his predecessor.
trenton, n. j. » Newark Mayor Cory Bookerwon a special electionWednesday to representNewJersey in theU.S. Senate, giving the rising Democratic star a bigger political stage after a race against conservative Steve Lonegan, a former small-townmayor.
With 70 percent of the vote counted late Wednesday, Booker had 56 percent to Lonegan’s 43 percent.
Booker, 44, will become the first black senator from New Jersey and heads to Washington with an unusual political résumé. He was raised in suburban Harington Park as the son of two of the first black IBM executives, and graduated from Stanford and law school at Yale with a stint in between as aRhodes Scholar beforemoving to one of Newark’s toughest neighborhoods.
He has been an unconventional politician. His Twitter following of 1.4 million is five times the population of the city he governs. With dwindling state funding, he has used private fundraising, including a $100 million pledge fromFacebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, to run programs inNewark, a strategy that has brought his city resources and him both fame and criticism.
Booker was elected to complete the 15 months remaining on the term of Frank Lautenberg, whose death in June at age 89 gave rise to an unusual and abbreviated campaign. If hewants to keep the seat for a full six-year term— and all indications are that he does— Booker will be on the ballot again in November 2014.
Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican with a national following of his own, appointed his attorney general, Jeffrey Chiesa, to the Senate temporarily and scheduled a special election for a Wednesday just 20 days before Christie himself is on the ballot seeking re-election. Christie said he wanted to give voters a say as soon as legally possible.
Democrats challenged the timing, saying Christiewas afraid of appearing on the same ballot as the popular Booker. But courts upheld the governor’s election schedule.
Lonegan stepped down asNewJersey director of the anti-tax, pro-business Americans for Prosperity to run. Lonegan, who is legally blind, got national attention as mayor of the town of Bogota when he tried to get English made its official language.
After two runs in Republican gubernatorial primaries and as the leader of successful campaigns against ballot measures to raise a state sales tax and fund stem-cell research, Lonegan was a favorite of New Jersey’s relatively small right wing.