Did Booker Endorse Christie?

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.

Booker remains hopeful

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Booker Has Corzine Covered

Off With His Head!

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.

So far the New Jersey media is not making a big deal about this gaffe, like they did about the Lonegan staffer’s gaffe on twitter. But Business Insider picked it up for fun.

Lonegan did not fire his staffer for the “silly, childish” tweet that caused a stir.

Booker’s daily inspirational social media message this morning indicates that he might not be so forgiving.

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Monmouth Poll Shows Booker’s Weakness

Lonegan can close the gap

New Jersey voters do not buy that Newark Mayor Cory Booker is a “new kind of politician,” according to the Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Poll released this morning.

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.

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Lonegan’s Own Words

GOP U.S. Senate nominee declared in his primary victory speech last Tuesday night that he would not that he would not alter his message nor parse his words during his special election campaign against Democratic nominee Cory Booker.

In his appearance with NJTV’s Michael Aron this weekend (video not yet posted), Lonegan presented himself as a reasonable fiscal conservative focused on the economy.  He distanced himself from the Tea Party, which he characterized as an eclectic, leaderless network.

During an appearance MSNBC’s Weekends with Alex Witt yesterday afternoon, the former Bogota mayor again comes off as reasonable, not a radical, framed Booker as an extreme liberal and stuck to economic issues:

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This morning on Fox and Friends (also not yet posted Save Jersey has the video), Lonegan emphasized his Ridgefield Park roots, 32 year marriage, and two Gold Star Girl Scout daughters to make the case that he is representative of New Jersey and its values and that Booker is the liberal extremist.

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Where was Vin?

South Jersey Democratic boss George Norcross invited the “reconfigured power elite” of the state Democratic Party to dinner in Colts Neck last night, according to a report at PolitickerNJ.

Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal was not there; not invited to a high powered Democratic gathering in his county.

Also not present, gubernatorial nominee and head of the party in name only, State Senator Barbara Buono.  Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, not there. U.S. Senate nominee Cory Booker represented Essex County.  Essex County Executive Joseph Divencenzo, who has endorsed Governor Chris Christie for reelection, was not invited.

Gopal would not comment on this story. He said via text that he is traveling and would call back Monday.

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The Candidates

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AP Calls Booker The Winner

With 18% of precincts reporting, the Associated Press has declared Newark Mayor Cory Booker the Democratic nominee to replace the late Senator Frank Lautenberg in Washington.

As of 8:52PM,. Booker has 33,296 votes to Congressman Frank Pallone’s 15,424.  Congressman Rush Holt has 8,060 votes and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver 2,744.

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Booker Strong In Vote By Mail Returns

PolitckerNJ is reporting that Newark Mayor Cory Booker blew away in Vote By Mail (VBM) ballots in Hudson County and is outperforming the field in Bergen, Essex and Passaic  counties.

In Monmouth County, Charles Measley drove past Congressman Frank Pallone’s house on the way to the Pallone celebration at McCloon’s.  Frank’s Chevy is parked in the driveway.

Measley will be reporting for MMM from Pallone Headquarter throughout the night.

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A map that favors Pallone?

 The Special Senate Primaries are today.

Turnout is always low in primaries, normally held on the first Tuesday in June.  In the last competitive Democratic Senate primary, 2008 when Congressman Rob Andrews challenged incumbent Senator Frank Lautenberg because he was too old, approximately 325,000 New Jersey Democrats voted.  About 159,000 Republicans voted in the 2008 Senate primary between former Congressman Richard Zimmer and State Senator Joseph Pennacchio.

Voter turnout was always expected to be low for today’s primaries being held on the second Tuesday in August.   The polls indicate that Newark Mayor Cory Booker will easily win the Democratic primary and that former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan is essentially unopposed in the Republican primary. But no one has a historical model by which to predict voter turnout on the second Tuesday in August.

That’s why Congressman Frank Pallone has been running hard like he doesn’t believe, or care about the polls.  Pallone told MSNBC last week that the turnout will be very low, that the polls don’t mean very much at this point, and that he has a strong field operation to get his supporters to the polls.

In the last day of the primary campaign, Booker had Eva Longoria on his bus, Congressman Rush Holt went on The Colbert Report, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver picked up the last minute endorsement of the Woman Political Caucus of NJ, and Pallone rented a fleet of vans to take voters to the polls.

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Lonegan Takes The Offensive

“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.

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