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Rising political star Cory Booker easily wins New Jersey Democratic Senate primary
As mayor of a city known for crime, corruption and poverty, he’s courted hundreds of millions from philanthropists, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
In his acceptance speech Tuesday night in Newark, he talked about not following political convention and trying to find common ground with adversaries, but also about some core liberal beliefs: raising the minimum wage, rewriting the tax code, protecting Social Security and Medicare and securing equal pay for women and the right to marry for gays.
“It’s a campaign that seeks to give testimony to the truth that the lines that divide us are insignificant compared to the ties that bind us,” he said.
Lonegan, 57, who also grew up in suburban Bergen County and played college football, served three terms as mayor of the small community of Bogota and then became the New Jersey director for the anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity, wasted no time Tuesday going after Booker’s approach and his celebrity, dismissing him as the candidate “anointed by Hollywood” and supported by “Silicon Valley moguls.”
“It’s going to look like a conservative versus a far-left liberal who’s going to paint a picture of a utopia where government can meet all of our needs,” Lonegan said in an interview with reporters. “I think government is a problem.”
While Booker is a close ally of Christie on Newark issues, the Republican governor said this week that he “fully anticipates” endorsing the winner of the Republican primary.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
