Booker's sexuality is issue in NJ race

Booker has a double- digit lead in polls of likely voters

Cory Booker says he's straight but doesn't mind questions about his sexuality because it challenges people's prejudices about gay people, a stance the scotch- drinking, cigarsmoking Steve Lonegan deems " kind of weird."

Speculation about Booker's sexuality, specifically, that the Newark, N. J., mayor is gay but keeping that a secret, took center stage in the Senate campaign this week. In a series of interviews with national media outlets, Booker and Lonegan raised the temperature in the special- election campaign with comments about an issue that has trailed Booker, who is single, since he first ran for office in Newark.

Booker, a Democrat, generally doesn't answer when asked about his sexuality, but in interviews has referred to former girlfriends and dating women. In a July 22 interview with Gannett New Jersey newspapers' editorial boards, he noted he is “a voice for marriage equality that had me the national speaker in Washington, as a straight male, the national speaker for the Human Rights Campaign."

This week, in an interview with The Washington Post, Booker, 44, talked about his “great dismay" that he has not “settled down with a life partner." He said he has been dating more at the encouragement of a pastor friend but tries to keep that part of his life private.

“Because how unfair is it to a young lady to put them in the spotlight if they haven't signed up for that yet?" Booker said. “And people who think I'm gay, some part of me thinks it's wonderful. Because I want to challenge people on their homophobia. I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I'm gay, and I say, ‘ So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I'm straight.' "

He told one person who had asked him about the rumor he's gay, using derogatory language, that, “Your bigotry is no less heinous than race bigotry." When another person encouraged Booker not to lower himself by responding to such comments, Booker wrote back, “Hate filled Trolls need to be called out."

In an interview Tuesday with Newsmax, Lonegan called Booker's remarks to The Washington Post “kind of weird." The Republican said he didn't know whether Booker is gay. The two square off in an Oct. 16 special election that will decide who will serve out the term, ending in January 2015, of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died June 3. In recent polls about the race, Booker has an almost 20- percentage- point lead, according to Real Clear Politics.

“It's kind of weird. As a guy, I personally like being a guy. I don't know if you saw the stories last year. They've been out for quite a bit about how he likes to go out at 3 o'clock in the morning for a manicure and a pedicure," Lonegan said.

Lonegan was referring to an interview Booker did last summer with a newly launched magazine, Du Jour, in which he talked about getting manicures and pedicures. Lonegan said his team looked but was unable to locate such a business in Newark that is open 24 hours a day.

“Maybe that helps to get him the gay vote, by acting ambiguous. That I can't address," Lonegan said.

“All I know is I don't like going out in the middle of the night, or any time of the day, for a manicure and pedicure," Lonegan said.

Contributing: Susanne Cervenka, Asbury Park ( N. J.) Press