All Salon
Cory Booker’s backyard fallout
Former N.J. Governor Dick Codey assesses how Cory Booker’s Bain defense might affect his statewide ambition
Cory Booker (Credit: AP/Seth Wenig) (Updated below)
Richard J. Codey, a fixture in New Jersey politics who spent years as the state Senate president and a 14-month stint as governor, knows Cory Booker very well. He isn’t exactly surprised at the mess the Newark mayor has made for Barack Obama by challenging his campaign’s emphasis on Mitt Romney’s private equity background.
“He’s someone who’s been courting big money ever since he first ran for office,” Codey told Salon today. “It is what it is – not that there’s anything wrong with doing that if you want to. But what Mr. Romney and his fellow millionaires did at Bain Capital is fair game, no question about it.”
Money from Wall Street and the investor class has played a big role in Booker’s rise, helping him level to the playing field in his 2002 mayoral bid against incumbent Sharpe James and to ward off serious competition in his follow-up campaigns in 2006 and 2010. His cultivation of and sympathy for Wall Street, though, may come as news to many of Booker’s rank-and-file Democratic admirers.
“People inside politics have always understood it,” Codey said. “He’s just played that game very, very well. And if you run for statewide office like it looks like he wants to, that’s going to be helpful for you.”
Booker’s name is frequently touted in connection with next year’s gubernatorial race and Frank Lautenberg’s Senate seat in 2014. The state’s most powerful Democratic boss, George Norcross of South Jersey, cited Booker as the party’s top contender to face Chris Christie just a few days ago. Booker’s statewide popularity, in fact, is probably stronger than ever, thanks to his recent dash into a burning building to save a young woman.
But behind the scenes, Booker’s relationship with Norcross has deteriorated, and insiders suggest that Norcross, who has emerged as Christie’s most important political ally in the state, sees him as the perfect sacrificial lamb – not likely to beat Christie in ’13, but strong enough not to hurt the down-ballot Democratic candidates that the Norcross empire depends on. Booker himself enjoys a solid working relationship with Christie, whose poll numbers are up of late, further complicating a potential campaign next year.
This is why the assumption is that Booker will wait until the 2014 Senate race to make his move. The 88-year-old Lautenberg is vowing to run again, but he’s now locked in a very public feud with the Norcross crowd, and it seems inevitable that he’ll draw a primary challenger (or challengers).
Codey, who has been both an ally and enemy of Booker’s in various Democratic turf wars, said he thinks the Bain story will be forgotten by Democratic voters long before Booker embarks on a statewide campaign.
What may be most surprising to those who know Booker as one of the biggest stars of New Jersey politics is how shaky his standing is in his Newark base. He became a national star through his near-miss challenge of Mayor Sharpe James in 2002, and when the embattled James stood down in 2006, the rest of the city’s old guard essentially gave Booker a pass. But running against feeble (and now imprisoned) opposition in 2010, Booker failed to clear even 60 percent of the vote.
It was proof of the suspicions that linger among many residents over whether Booker, who was raised in the suburbs and has made himself into something of a national celebrity, is really one of them. His willingness to undercut Obama on Bain, who enjoys super-human popularity in Newark, and to stand instead with the Wall Street crowd could exacerbate this image problem.
“I think there’s always going to be the story that he’d rather be with those kinds of people than with his own constituents,” Codey said. “And whether that’s something the people of Newark think and how they feel about it, that’s for them to decide.”
The next Newark mayoral race is in 2014. If Booker runs, the expectation is that he’ll get a serious opponent this time around. Two political legacies, Donald Payne Jr. and Ron Rice Jr., are both now vying in a special election for the Newark-based congressional seat vacated by the death of Payne’s father. Whichever of them falls short will probably look hard at the mayor’s race — another incentive, perhaps, for Booker to look outside Newark for his political future.
Update: Lautenberg has now put his name on a campaign email that pillories Romney over his private equity past and argues that Obama “must” highlight it during the campaign. The contrast with Booker’s remarks is as obvious as it is intentional.
Steve Kornacki writes about politics for Salon. Reach him by email at SKornacki@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @SteveKornacki More Steve Kornacki.
Google’s darkening agenda
The company's attitudes toward privacy have grown increasingly dismissive. Now some countries are taking notice
In this May 11, 2011 file photo, attendees chat at the Google IO Developers Conference in San Francisco. (Credit: AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) In 1999, Scott McNealy, the former head of Sun MicroSystems, reportedly declared, “You have zero privacy anyway….Get over it.” He unintentionally let the proverbial cat out of the bag of the digital age.
In 2009, McNealy’s assessment was confirmed by Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt. In an interview with NBC’s Mario Bartiromo, he proclaimed, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Schmidt’s words have become Google’s new mantra. Welcome to 21st-century corporate morality.
Innocent, but broke
Glen Chapman was exonerated from death row in 2008. Why hasn't he received the $750K he deserves in compensation?
Glenn Edward Chapman Glen Edward Chapman, or “Ed,” was exonerated in 2008 after spending 15 years on death row for crimes he did not commit. Though North Carolina is one of the 27 states with statutes that provide some level of compensation for the wrongfully convicted, the state continues to refuse Chapman any compensation for the loss of his freedom, reputation, family, friends and much more.
Chapman was sentenced to death in 1994 at the age of 26 for the murders of Betty Jean Ramseur and Tenene Yvette Conley in Hickory, N.C. After more than a decade of court appeals, Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin ordered a new trial based on revelations that detectives “lost, misplaced or destroyed” several pieces of evidence that pointed to another suspect. It was also discovered that lead investigator Dennis Rhoney lied on the witness stand at Chapman’s original trial. Shortly thereafter, the district attorney dismissed all charges against Chapman due to lack of sufficient evidence leading to his exoneration in 2008.
Continue Reading CloseOre. track coach takes student to prom, loses job
PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) — The daughter-in-law of Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman has been dismissed as a volunteer track coach at a small Eastern Oregon high school because she escorted a 17-year-old boy to last month’s prom.
Melissa Bowerman, 41, who had been coaching the Condon/Wheeler track and field team with her 73-year-old husband, Jon Bowerman, was ousted this month in a phone call from the superintendents of the Condon and Fossil school districts.
“There was an investigation done and through that investigation, there were some potential details that arose,” Condon superintendent Jan Zarate told the East Oregonian newspaper of Pendleton (http://is.gd/pBVR6a). “We started an investigation that led to us asking her to un-volunteer.”
Continue Reading CloseWill Bilderberg endorse Rubio?
Secret world-controlling society yet to weigh in on Mitt Romney running mate pick
Marco Rubio and Mitt Romney (Credit: AP/Jae C. Hong) So when it comes to Mitt Romney’s running mate pick, I like Rob Portman’s odds, because he is incredibly boring and nothing will go disastrously wrong if Mitt Romney picks him. But on the other hand, there is a case to be made for picking Marco Rubio, and that case can be summed up as “Republicans think all Hispanics will vote for Mitt Romney if he runs with a Cuban-American.” It’s not just imagined ethnic solidarity that Rubio has in his favor, though: There’s also the machinations of the mysterious Bilderberg Group!
Continue Reading Close
Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.
The making of the term ‘pink slime’
A simple nickname that forever changed an entire industry
FILE - In this March 29, 2012 file photo, the beef product known as lean finely textured beef, or "pink slime," is displayed during a plant tour of Beef Products Inc. in South Sioux City, Neb., where the product is made. Gerald Zirnstein, the microbiologist who coined the term "pink slime," says it came to him in the spur of the moment as he was composing an email to a coworker at the U.S. Department of Agriculture a decade ago. Although it's been used as a filler for decades, the product became the center of controversy only after Zirnstein's vivid moniker for it was quoted in a 2009 New York Times article on the safety of meat processing methods. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)(Credit: AP) NEW YORK (AP) — “Pink slime” was almost “pink paste” or “pink goo.”
The microbiologist who coined the term for lean finely textured beef ran through a few iterations in his head before pressing send on an email to a co-worker at the U.S. Department of Agriculture a decade ago. Then, the name hit him like heartburn after a juicy burger.
“It’s pink. It’s pasty. And it’s slimy looking. So I called it pink slime,” said Gerald Zirnstein, the former meat inspector at the USDA. “It resonates, doesn’t it?”
Continue Reading ClosePage 1 of 15445 in All Salon
