Cory Booker used to tell at story of T-Bone, a Newark drug dealer, who once threatened his life and later asked him for help avoiding arrest and prison. Booker told the story “millions of times” on the stump in Newark, at colleges and at fundraisers where the moving tale separated donors from their money.
Booker stopped telling the story after The Star Ledger questioned its veracity in 2007, even though Booker insisted T-Bone is both “1000 percent real” and an archetype.
Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Cory Booker will be attending a private meeting of the Monmouth Democrats Chairman’s Club on Friday, August 30th at a yet to be determined location in eastern Monmouth County, according to a Democratic source familiar with Booker’s schedule.
The event is closed to the press and is open to Chairman’s Club members only, according to the source.
Chairman’s Club members donate $35 per month or $50 per couple (married or civil union) per month to the Monmouth County Democratic Organization.
He’s not coming out. He’s not saying he’s straight either. Just like his income, he’s not saying.
But he wants us to consider the possibility that he is gay, so that we can confront our homophobia, so he told The Washington Post:
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.
OK. I considered it. I don’t care and I am not voting for him because I presume he’s straight.
Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Cory Booker has not released his tax returns, despite a promise to do so, according to the New York Post.
“We will release his tax returns,” vowed Booker campaign spokesman Kevin Griffis more than two weeks ago, yesterday claiming Booker “will continue to raise the bar on transparency — both in this election, and if elected, in the US Senate.”
GOP nominee Steve Lonegan provided three years of returns exclusively to The Post. The paper said that Lonegan earned $515,280 in 2012, mostly from property sales, and paid nearly $100,000 in federal taxes.
Lonegan said Booker is refusing to release his returns because he used his office, Newark Mayor, to accumulate personal wealth.
“It’s indicative of the fact that he’s got something to hide,” Lonegan told The Post. “It’s clear to me that Booker leveraged the office of mayor . . . to gain wealth.”
The Post has previously reported that Booker received an undisclosed amount in an equity payout from the law firm he was a partner in before being elected mayor. The payout was made from 2007 through 2011. During that time the firm, Trenk DiPasquale, collected more than $2 million in fees from local agencies that Booker has direct influence over.
The New York Times reported in May that Booker has earned $1.3 million in speaking fees since becoming mayor and that his Newark home is assessed at $406,000. He earns a salary of $174,496 as mayor.
GOP U.S. Senate nominee Steve Lonegan went toe to toe on UP with Steve Kornacki this morning and drew a clear contrast between himself and Democratic nominee Cory Booker.
It sure sounds like it in the beginning of this video as the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate sings Governor Christie’s praises during an appearance in Newark yesterday, while GOP Senate candidate Steve Lonegan’s campaign manager Rick Shaftan on was hand to video the event.
Those young campaign staffers do the darnedest things.
Anxious to promote President Obama’s endorsement of Newark Mayor Cory Booker for U.S. Senate earlier this week, a Booker staffer searched for a photo of Obama and Booker together to post of the campaign website. The problem, apparently the only time Booker and the President have been photographed together was at the 2009 rally for former Governor Jon Corzine’s failed reelection bid.
The kid was savvy enough to know that Booker really doesn’t want to be associated with the disgraced former governor who remains under investigation for the missing $1.2 billion in customer funds that disappeared during the MF Global collapse.
So he/she put a text box over Corzine’s head.
Lachlan Markay caught it and shared it with the world before the adults in the Booker campaign had it taken down.
Booker responded on social media. He’s a kind politician, not a new kind of politician.
Hmmm. This post might give New Jersey more insight into Booker’s foreign policy philosophy than the Lonegan campaign’s “silly and childish” tweet during a Democratic primary debate. Let’s be kind to terrorists and our foreign enemies. That fits with the Obama/HClinton/Kerry foreign policy of apologizing for America.
Patrick Murray’s poll of likely voters continues to show Booker beating GOP nominee Steve Lonegan by double digits. Today’s 54%-38% Booker lead is nearly identical to the pre-primary 53%-37% lead the Newark Mayor enjoyed in June. In other words, Lonegan has gained no ground by deploying his anti-Obama campaign strategy in the last two months.
But despite his huge victory, the Democratic primary took something of a toll on Booker’s favorability ratings, which have dropped 12 points net since June. Given how easy Congressmen Frank Pallone and Rush Holt went on Booker during the primary, a 12 point drop is significant.
photo via facebook
In order to close the gap and make the Special Senate Election competitive, Lonegan needs to scrap the idea of making the campaign a referendum on President Obama’s policies. We had that referendum last November and Obama won in New Jersey by 18 points. Lonegan has said that Obama’s numbers are going to drop. They have dropped a bit, only 49% of New Jersey likely voters told the Monmouth University poll that they approved of the President, while 43% disapprove. If those numbers suddenly plunge, Lonegan will benefit without trying. If Obama’s approval stays stubbornly positive, as they have through various scandals, Lonegan stands to gain little ground.
50% of those who said they have a favorable opinion of Booker also said they could change their minds. Booker’s favorables are soft. Obama’s have proven to be stubborn.
“I have a handicap, you know. I’m a white guy, running in the State of New Jersey. That’s my handicap. “
“I took down an inappropriate, silly tweet after 20 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes. 5 months later, Anti-Semitic, hate filled videos are still posted on Cory Booker’s website. Where’s the race card now? Where’s the media now? “Where’s the liberal left now in defending us against this kind of hate filled Anti-Semitism?”
~Steve Lonegan
Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, the front runner in the August 13 Republican primary for the nomination to replace the late U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, held a press conference in Kinnelon yesterday afternoon to address the reaction to the tweet(pictured to the right) posted by his campaign on Thursday night during the Democratic Senate Debate.
Lonegan billed the event as a “press conference on political correctness” but the tweet and his opponents “pulling the race card” was the topic. In classic Lonegan fashion, the candidate confronted the problem and flipped the criticism back on his opponents. In this case, his opponents being Booker, who is expected to win the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, the “liberal media” and Dr. Alieta Eck, his opponent for the Republican nomination.
Lonegan said the tweet, which was removed quickly, was posted by a young staffer who remains employed by the campaign. “He made a mistake. I’m not going to ruin his career by firing him. I don’t do that. I will help him learn from it,” Lonegan said.
“Racism, racism, racism. They can’t wait to play the racist card,” Lonegan said of the Booker campaign and the media, “They couldn’t wait for the opportunity, any opportunity at all, a silly map, which is meaningless, sent out by some kid in a campaign, that had no intent other than to ah, whatever the intent was, I don’t even know what the intent was. But they can’t wait to pull the race card. Cause that’s how they play politics.
