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Cory Booker on track for U.S. Senate seat as New Jersey voters go to the polls
For a time, it was thought that Booker would challenge the state’s Republican governor, Chris Christie, who is up for re-election in November. But Christie’s popularity has remained high since superstorm Sandy crashed into the Jersey Shore last October.
Instead, last December, Booker said he was exploring a bid for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat. A month later, Lautenberg announced he would retire.
In June, Lautenberg died of pneumonia and Christie called a special election to fill the seat.
Booker, a Rhodes scholar and Yale Law School graduate who was first elected Newark mayor in 2006, rocketed to fame as a booster for a city 12 miles from Manhattan that was struggling with a persistently high crime.
Booker’s first run for mayor was documented in the Oscar-nominated film “Street Fight,” and he is known for rubbing shoulders with celebrities. Lonegan, who unsuccessfully challenged Christie in the 2009 Republican gubernatorial primary, has dubbed Booker a “Hollywood wannabe” more concerned with his own celebrity than with governing.
