As early primary battles start heating up between Tea Party and establishment Republicans in states like West Virginia and Georgia, it's looking more and more like Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) wants to run for U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg's (D. NJ) seat. Only problem is Lautenberg hasn't stated yet if he wants to run again or retire:
http://www.nydailynews.com/...
Before Newark Mayor Cory Booker can ascend to a higher level of government, he needs 88-year-old New Jersey Democrat Frank Lautenberg to get out of the way. Although Booker has not officially announced he's running for Lautenberg's Senate seat in 2014, he's very strongly suggested it, opting not to take on Chris Christie, a more immovable obstacle, for governor. "I want to give him the space to make his own decision," said Booker of Lautenberg today on CNN, thereby doing exactly the opposite. "He's been loyal. He's been there for a long time." Hint hint.
Lautenberg, who will be 89 this month, is the oldest member of the Senate. "This is not the time for political distractions, and the senator will address politics next year," his spokesman said when Booker announced his intentions to pursue the currently occupied spot. - New York Daily News, 1/7/13
Another poll came out today showing Booker with a lead over Lautenberg as the ideal candidate for U.S. Senate:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
A survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind gives Booker a 66 percent approval rating; Lautenberg clocks in at 45 percent. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, 42 percent prefer Booker to Lautenberg in a head-to-head match-up. Only 20 percent prefer Lautenberg to Booker. Both are very well known; 83 percent of voters are familiar with Lautenberg, 75 percent with Booker.
“These numbers suggest that some difficult days may lie ahead for the incumbent senator should he seek reelection,” said poll director Krista Jenkins. - Washington Post, 1/10/13
You can read the actual poll here:
http://publicmind.fdu.edu/...
Lautenberg will be 90 years old when it's time for him to run again next year so it's understandable why New Jersey Democrats want a fresh new face in the U.S. Senate but at least Booker is being polite and patient about talking to Lautenberg one on one about running for his seat:
http://www.usatoday.com/...
On Monday, Booker avoided the question of whether he would run in a primary against Lautenberg. "I want to give him the space to make his own decision,'' he said on CNN. "I've announced my intention to run, but the reality is, we've got a good senator. He's been loyal. He's been there for a long time. And I think he's got a decision to make."
Booker said he has tried, unsuccessfully, to set up a meeting with Lautenberg. - USA Today, 1/7/13
Congressman Frank Pallone (D. NJ) is also interested in the Senate race and is trying to be patient and polite as well:
New Jersey Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone, a regular Lautenberg ally, also wants in, saying on MSNBC on Sunday: "The senator knows that I'd like to run, and I, of course, have been talking about this for a long time. It's definitely something that I'm considering and I'm interested in." But Pallone added, "I think maybe we should be worrying about this Senate race a little later. I'm not saying I can't beat (Booker). I'm just saying we need to concentrate now on getting these (Sandy relief) bills passed in Washington and deal with the Senate race later.'' - USA Today, 1/7/13
PPP released a poll last month showing that though Lautenberg certainly has high approval ratings and would easily win re-election if he were to run again but PPP also showed that Democrats in the Garden State want a fresh face and that face just happens to be Cory Booker:
Democratic primary voters are pretty happy with Lautenberg right now too. 63% approve of the job he's doing to 18% who disapprove. Nevertheless they're ready for a fresher face in the Senate. Only 36% of them think Lautenberg should seek another term in 2014, while 45% think he should retire and 20% are not sure.
If Lautenberg was to retire- or even if he doesn't- the choice of New Jersey Democrats to be their next Senator is clear: Cory Booker. By a 59/22 margin Democrats say they would prefer their candidate in 2014 be Booker than Lautenberg. And Booker emerges as the strong favorite in an open seat situation too. 48% would want Booker as their candidate compared to 17% for Rob Andrews and 13% for Frank Pallone, both Congressmen who have shown an interest in moving up. - PPP, 11/29/12
PPP's poll also showed that though Lautenberg would easily beat any of his potential Republican challengers, Booker has bigger leads amongst all GOP contenders tested. Booker beats Republican Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno 52 to 29 while Lautenberg beats Guadagno 48 to 33. The other reason Jersey Democrats prefer Booker over Lautenberg is he has a huge approval rating not just with his party (60/13) he's also very popular with Independents (45/21). Booker even gets 21% of Republican voters when tested against Guadagno. So even though Lautenberg is a sure winner, Booker is that fresh face to will excite voters in Jersey to come out and vote for him.
But Lautenberg has yet to make up his mind. He's been sick with the flu and he's been heavily focused on making sure New Jersey receives the right amount of federal funding for Hurricane Sandy relief:
For now, Lautenberg has declined to comment. He is "focused on passing a robust Sandy relief bill for the people of New Jersey who are struggling, and he'll turn his attention to politics once the Sandy relief package is set," said his spokesman, Caley Gray.
"Right now, it appears that Lautenberg wants to run. At the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if he changes his mind,'' said Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report, a non-partisan newsletter. "If he does run, a three-way primary would be the best thing for him. It divides whatever anti-Lautenberg vote that may exist.'' - USA Today, 1/7/13
Booker has to be polite and patient for the camera because it doesn't look good for him to try and squeeze Lautenberg out of running:
"It's not quite Brutus and Caesar, but it can be awkward if wondering out loud is taken as callous or disrespectful. Or seen as an overly ambitious newcomer anxious to push out a fellow party member,'' said Ruth Mandel of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
But Booker's political career is so closely watched that when he passed on challenging Christie, he had little choice but to say what job he does want, Mandel said. "It would have been a little disingenuous for him to say 'I might be, but I don't know.' 2014 is such an obvious date in people's minds since Sen. Lautenberg's term is up.'' - USA Today, 1/7/13
It makes sense given Booker's high profile both as a public servant and his use of social media sites like Twitter to help address his constituents concerns:
http://www.time.com/...
After a blizzard started blanketing the Northeast on Dec. 26, an event that earned the Twitter hashtag #snowpocalypse, Booker turned the microblogging site into a public-service tool. Residents of the city, which has a population of around 280,000, swarmed Booker's account (@CoryBooker) with requests for help, and the mayor responded. He and his staff have bounced around Newark shoveling streets and sending plows to areas where residents said they were still snowed in. "Just doug [sic] a car out on Springfield Ave and broke the cardinal rule: 'Lift with your Knees!!' I think I left part of my back back there," he reported in one message. One person let Booker know, via Twitter, that the snowy streets were preventing his sister from buying diapers. About an hour later, Booker was at the sister's door, diapers in hand. - Time Magazine, 12/29/10
And lets not forget that Booker made the national press again when he bravely saved a woman from a burning building:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark carried a woman out of a burning house and was treated for smoke inhalation on Thursday night.
Mr. Booker arrived to his home in the Upper Clinton Hill neighborhood to find a neighbor’s house on fire, said Anne Torres, a spokeswoman. The Fire Department had not yet arrived, she said, and Mr. Booker went inside with two members of his security detail and rescued one woman. The mayor was treated at a hospital and released at 11:30 p.m. “Everyone is O.K.,” Ms. Torres wrote in an e-mail.
Mr. Booker, in fact, was well enough to post a Twitter message. “Thanks 2 all who are concerned,” he wrote after 10 p.m. “Just suffering smoke inhalation. We got the woman out of the house. We are both off to hospital. I will b ok.” - New York Times, 8/13/12
Booker even went on a one week challenge to live only on food stamps to highlight the sever poverty problem we have in this country:
http://www.nj.com/...
Mayor Cory Booker’s week living in the life of a food stamp recipient is over and with it much of the national conversation surrounding the issue.
The media-savvy mayor may have lived on a meager diet of beans and yams, but he created a feast of publicity, both for himself and for the issue of government-assisted nutritional programs for the nation’s poor.
There were appearances on the Piers Morgan Show on CNN, Face the Nation on CBS and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, and an endless stream of online posts. We learned about the vagaries of caffeine withdrawal, how to make meals last longer and forcing down a burnt yam when it’s all you have. - The Star Ledger, 12/14/12
And with legalized gay marriage highly favored in the Garden State, Booker's passionate speech in support of gay marriage will certainly gain him huge support in with the gay vote in New Jersey:
And lets not forget his awesome speech at the DNC:
So yeah, it's easy to see why Democrats love Booker and want him to run. But not all of Booker's press has been great. He's been criticized for not spending enough time in New Jersey and more time in New York:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
“There’s a lot of frustration and disappointment,” said Assemblyman Albert Coutinho, a Democrat representing Newark. “People feel that the mayor basically is out of the city too much and doesn’t focus much on the day-to-day.
“In fairness, he has had some tremendous success as a result of those travels, but the reality is, a city needs its mayor, needs to see its mayor on a regular basis. It makes people feel that the issues that are important to them are important enough for their mayor to come spend time with them.”
“While he genuinely does care for the citizens of Newark,” Mr. Coutinho added, “a lot of people here feel that he’s been looking beyond Newark for a long time.”
Asked about complaints from residents and business owners that garbage is not picked up, abandoned buildings are not boarded up and public spaces are in disrepair, the mayor talked about a new system that allows him to track which streets need snowplows and which departments are paying for too much overtime — even when he is out of town.
He invited a reporter to see the system in action. He then called to apologize that he could not be there: “I’m in and out of New York all day.”
Instead, his staff demonstrated the system. Mr. Booker was on his way to host a reading at a bookstore on the Upper West Side, filmed by CNN. He then spoke at a benefit at Cipriani and attended a movie premiere at Google’s New York headquarters. Afterward, he announced on Twitter, “I sat on a panel with Richard Branson.” - New York Times, 12/13/12
But Booker has defended his criticism about being an absentee mayor:
Mr. Booker defends the time he spends away from the city, saying his networking has brought as much as $400 million in philanthropic contributions to the city, including a $100 million donation to the schools from Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. “No city has had the kind of renewal we have had, in the worst economy since the 1950s,” the mayor said. - New York Times, 12/13/12
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Booker, unsurprisingly, doesn't think that's a fair assessment and pointed out that the Times story neglected to mention the context of the events that took him out of Newark that night.
The Upper West Side reading -- covered by C-SPAN, not CNN -- was for a book on teen homelessness that he wrote the forward to and which features a Newark youth. Booker said he and Kevin Ryan, the book's author, have raised more than $200,000 for non-profit charity Covenant House "and have leveraged the book to raise awareness and action on a too often overlooked issue."
The Cipriani benefit was for children's charity K.I.D.S. (Kids In Distressed Situations). "They were giving an award to Newark Now, a nonprofit I founded, and have raised over $150,000 worth of clothes and toys for deserving Newark kids and families during the winter and holiday season," Booker said, noting that such aid is especially needed following Hurricane Sandy.
The "movie premiere" at Google's New York headquarters was for "Breaking the Taboo," a film about the failed drug war. Zernike quoted only the first part of Booker's tweet, which read: “Sat on a panel with @RichardBranson last night for the premiere of this film about the failure of the war on drugs.“ - Huffington Post, 12/17/12
Booker also caused progressives to think again about his legitimacy when he came out against President Obama's attacks of Presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R. MA) time at Bain Capital:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Newark N.J. Mayor Cory Booker (D) expressed reserve about the Obama campaign's Bain strategy against Mitt Romney, telling "Meet The Press" viewers on Sunday that he was "uncomfortable" with the line of attacks.
"This kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides," Booker said. "It's nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity."
Booker was referencing the Obama campaign's Monday release of a series of documentary-esque Bain videos. The clips depicted Romney as a job destroyer at places like GST steel -- a company purchased by Bain that later saw hundreds of workers lose their employment.
The mayor's comments also questioned the Bain attacks' public value, noting that they diverge from the "real issues" affecting voters. - Huffington Post, 5/20/12
Of course Booker reiterated his support for President Obama's re-election campaign via Twitter but Booker's remarks have caused progressives to question Booker's authenticity and his loyalty to the financial industry. I for one think Bill Maher had one of the best defense of Booker's statement:
“Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, has to beg rich people to subsidize his city. Mark Zuckerberg gave 140 million dollars… to the Newark school system because we now have to beg rich people for money, otherwise known as feudalism… I’m not defending what Cory Booker said, I’m saying I understand why he has to kiss the asses of the rich people on Wall Street because there’s no other way to keep his city afloat.” - Bill Maher, 5/26/12
I for one take Maher at his word but I can't blame anyone from being hesitant about Booker's candidacy. But I for one would still like to see Booker run for a higher office because I think he can do great things for the country. He can get the base excited and can be an influential figure in the Democratic Party. I also really like Lautenberg, he's a great progressive but the fact of the matter is he is getting old. When you reach 90 years old that's usually around the time to retire. If Lautenberg was in his 70s, I would argue that he can still run at that age but his age and health are a great concern. Lautenberg does have the support of top Democrats like Senators Chuck Schumer (D. NY) but that may not be enough to sway Jersey Democrats. Also, Lautenberg only came back to the Senate in 2002 because he had to:
Lautenberg, first elected in 1982, retired in 2000. But he didn't like it. When Sen. Robert Torricelli withdrew from his re-election race facing scandal, Lautenberg ran for his seat and rejoined the Senate in 2002. - USA Today, 1/7/13
Grant it Lautenberg may have had a chance of heart since coming back to the Senate in 2002 but he's served the people of New Jersey well and he shouldn't feel obligated to stay. So if he wants to leave, Booker and Pallone are ok with that but if he decides to run again, his re-election as the party's nominee is far from a sure thing.