TRENTON, N.J. (AP/The Daily Caller) — Newark Mayor Cory Booker won a special election Wednesday to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate, defeating conservative Steve Lonegan, a former small-town mayor.
With three-quarters of precincts reporting, Booker had almost 56 percent of the vote to Lonegan’s 43 percent.
The first reaction from Booker, who is better known for his obsessive presence on social media than for his management of the Garden State’s crime-ridden, impoverished, rapidly deteriorating largest city, came in the form of a tweet: “Thank you so much, New Jersey, I’m proud to be your Senator-elect.”
Thank you so much, New Jersey. I’m proud to be your senator-elect: https://t.co/vs9ew7iOkd
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) October 17, 2013
Booker, 44, will become the first black senator from New Jersey. Booker’s historic election means that this will be the first time the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body has had two black senators since July.
Booker was elected to complete the 15 months remaining on the term of Frank Lautenberg, whose death in June at age 89 gave rise to an unusual and abbreviated campaign. If he wants to keep the seat for a full six-year term — and all indications are that he does — Booker will be on the ballot again in November 2014.
Booker has led a charmed life. He was raised in suburban Harington Park as the son of two of the first black IBM executives, and graduated from Stanford and law school at Yale with a stint in between as a Rhodes Scholar before ostensibly moving to one of Newark’s toughest neighborhoods.
A recent investigation by The Daily Caller found no evidence that Booker has actually lived at any of the residences he claims in Newark. Neighbors and local residents claim that he is rarely in the city. (Related: Neighbors: Cory Booker never lived in Newark)
When she attempted this week to contact Booker’s putative landlord, a National Review reporter was screamed at and told to leave.
Booker’s defeat of the legendarily corrupt Mayor Sharpe James in 2006 replaced what Salon’s David Sirota called comparatively petty “Tammany Hall-style crimes” with “Mahogany Paneled Conference Room Graft.” (Related: Cory Booker named in Newark corruption suit)
But Booker’s ascension also fired the imaginations of liberals elites and wealthy techsters who are not generally known for their interest in Brick City. Despite a massive influx of fundraising, including a $100 million pledge from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Newark continued to decline on Booker’s watch, with failing schools and a spiraling crime rate. (Related: 10 murders in 10 days in Newark!)
With the city decaying, Booker devoted himself to an outlandish campaign of tweeting and publicity stunts, regaling the media with tales of a heroic fire rescue, a tragic shooting death, a drug dealer who reformed thanks to the mayor’s healing powers, and more. Many of these stories have been at best hard to document, as have Booker’s many claims to have interceded on behalf of troubled locals. (Related: Cory Booker breaks promise to help woman with raccoon infestation)
Booker had a running start on the senate special election. Before Lautenberg died, Booker passed up a chance to run against Gov. Chris Christie this year, saying he was eyeing Lautenberg’s seat in 2014, in part so he could complete a full term as mayor — something he won’t do now that he’s heading to Washington.
He won an August primary against an experienced Democratic field including two members of Congress and the speaker of the state Assembly in a campaign that was largely about ideas.
The general election was about deeper contrasts, both ideological and personal.
Lonegan stepped down as New Jersey director of the anti-tax, pro-business Americans for Prosperity to run. Lonegan, who is legally blind, got national attention as mayor of the town of Bogota when he tried to get English made its official language.
After two runs in Republican gubernatorial primaries and as the leader of successful campaigns against ballot measures to raise a state sales tax and fund stem-cell research, Lonegan was a favorite of New Jersey’s relatively small right wing.
Gathered with supporters Wednesday evening in Bridgewater, he told supporters, “Unfortunately for whatever reason the message we delivered together … did not win the day.”
The two candidates portrayed each other as too extreme for the job.
Throughout the campaign, Lonegan was aggressive, criticizing Booker during a string of homicides in Newark, holding a red carpet event to mock the time Booker spent fundraising in California and declaring that “New Jersey needs a leader, not a tweeter.”
Lonegan also criticized Booker when a Portland, Ore., stripper revealed a series of not-so-salacious Twitter messages she’d exchanged with Booker, who’s single. The topic resurfaced last week when Lonegan fired a key adviser after a profane interview in which the adviser suggested Booker’s words sounded “like what a gay guy would say to a stripper.”
Lonegan had called it “strange” that Booker won’t say whether he’s gay. Booker, for his part, has said his sexuality should not matter to voters and has been elusive on the subject.
At a debate this month, Lonegan responded to Booker’s comments about the need for environmental regulations to clean a river through Newark. “You may not be able to swim in that river,” he said. “But it’s probably, I think, because of all the bodies floating around of shooting victims in your city.”
Booker seemed stunned at the remark, and his campaign has criticized Lonegan for it.