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Tag Archives: Steve Lonegan

AP: Cory Booker Wins New Jersey Democratic Primary

13 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by joed5k in Headline News, New Jersey Coverage

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Cory Booker, New Jersey, politics, Steve Lonegan


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Well, who is shocked?  But its official, the winner of the Democratic primary in New Jersey to fill out the unexpired term of the late Frank Lautenberg is Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

Booker, the charismatic Mayor who has charmed the pants off many for his various stunts and highly active Twitter feed, is expected to trounce Republican opponent, former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan.  Booker’s candidacy has received some criticism from progressives (including yours truly) but he is clearly to the left of Lonegan who is nothing short of a conservative firebrand.

Attention will turn to the general election which will be at the end of October but really, we will see what Booker does after he is sworn into office.  Will we see him on TV a lot?  Probably as I can imagine David Gregory has a seat warm for him on Meet the Press but will we see him trek to Iowa and New Hampshire?

Will he be a mainstream Democrat on many issues?  Definitely.  Could he infuriate progressives from time-to-time?  Possibly.  But I will be voting for Mr. Booker come October, as New Jersey needs the most progressive voice it can get; given its blue hue, any of the three major candidates (not including Sheila Oliver) would be the overwhelming favorite in a general.  Still Booker should be a good voice on LGBT issues and I expect him to go all-in on raising the minimum wage as he needs something to run on nationally.

I enjoyed supporting Rush Holt this year by the way, I’m glad I was able to do my best in trying to get him exposed to as many people as possible.

Appointed Sen. Jeffrey Chiesa did not run to fulfill the entirety of the term.

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New Jersey Senate Live Blog Thread

13 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by joed5k in Headline News, New Jersey Coverage

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Alieta Eck, Cory Booker, Frank Pallone, New Jersey, politics, Rush Holt, Sheila Oliver, Steve Lonegan


Follow us on Twitter @PolliticsToday for more insight, commentary and updates concerning this blog or “LIKE” us on Facebook.  To get alerts on our newest articles, sign up for our alert system.  Seriously, do those things; we could use more followers and support!

To finish our coverage of the primary of the New Jersey Senate race, we will be liveblogging the results, vote tallies and winners here.  While we expect to have a pretty short night in terms of finding out who won both primaries, we will be trying to give you as much information as possible.

So use the comments section if you want, we could use more voices to add to more discussion!

8:48PM ET:  Here’s our Booker piece.  The liveblog will slow down now, we’ll be back later tonight for number crunching.

8:46PM ET:  AP calls it for Booker.

8:43PM ET:  Booker is running train right now in Essex County which is his home county.  Has about 65% of the vote with 9% of precincts reporting.  Oliver is in third here.

8:39PM ET:  AP calls Republican primary for Steve Lonegan.

8:38PM ET:  Booker is taking off.  57% of the vote goes to him and 12,000+ votes.  Pallone trails at 25%, Holt at 14% and Oliver at 5%.

8:34PM ET:  AP has Booker with over 6,000 votes and 55%.  Pallone follows with 3k and 27%, Holt at 15% and 1,750 and Oliver at 3% with almost 400 votes.  Booker is dominating Gloucester County with nearly 65% of the vote with 42% reporting.

8:30PM ET:  Booker now hovering at 50% with 51.3%.  Pallone follows at 29.2%, Holt at 15.8% and Oliver at 3.7%.  Hudson shows Booker dominating and Pallone has Monmouth County (his backyard).

8:22PM ET:  Booker is now over 50% in the early going at 53% according to AP.  Pallone in second at 25%, Holt at 17% and Oliver at 4%.  Ocean County now starting to report.  Pallone needs to do well here.

8:17PM ET:  Booker now launches ahead.  47.4%, 29.2% for Holt, Pallone at 19.9% and Oliver at 3.4%.  Somerset and Gloucester Counties are now filling in.  Gloucester is in the South Jersey area (my neighboring county) and Booker has pretty much shored up the entire South Jersey area.

8:12PM ET:  New numbers from POLITICO.  Holt is at 47.6%, Booker is at 32.7%, Pallone at 17.1% and Oliver at 2.6%.  Keep in mind this is from Hunterdon County which is Holt country.

8:04PM ET:  POLITICO is keeping tabs on the race.  Very, very, very early totals show Booker with 39.4%, Holt with 34.3%, Pallone with 20.2% and Oliver with 6.1%.  This has come from Warren County.

8:01PM ET:  According to a source to PolitickerNJ, Booker blew away the field in Hudson County in terms of vote via mail.  Booker received an estimated 72% of the vote with Pallone getting 18%, Holt getting 7% and Oliver receiving 4%.

8:00PM ET:  Polls have closed.

7:50PM ET:  Our final guesses are:  Booker-49%, Pallone-24%, Holt-22%, Oliver-5%.

7:40PM ET:  Polls close at 8pm and results are expected to file in immediately after with the potential of the AP, CNN, NBC, FOX all calling the race for Booker and Lonegan.

7:22PM ET:  Another last minute plea to not vote for Cory Booker by Democratic site, Crooks & Liars.  This one is a bit more in-depth version of the piece by Salon’s Alex Pareene today.  What kind of upsets me about this is that there is more bringing down Booker than propping up his opponents.  Booker has his flaws, no doubt about that, but you hear more about him (even by people complaining about his popularity) than you do Frank Pallone, Rush Holt and Sheila Oliver combined.  Let this be a memo to those who are against a certain candidate, you’ll get more bang for your buck propping up someone instead and comparing them to the other one.

6:55PM ET:  Turnout is expected to be low today thanks in part to a few facts.  One, its mid-August and plenty of people are probably enjoying the end of their summers at the shore or on vacation elsewhere.  Two, its widely assumed Cory Booker will win (and Steve Lonegan on the Republican side) and that might depress some of the vote.  Three, New Jersey got HAMMERED by a storm this morning; our local CBS affiliate was on the air all morning for what its worth.  At my polling place, there were about three voters there including myself.  My sister at 10am said she was the only voter in the house there as well.  Then again, expect plenty of mail-in ballots as well.

6:45PM ET:  Before we get to some of the results, it appears Cory Booker has been dealing with some ethical woes.  Okay scratch that, completely alleged ethical woes.  Booker’s ties with the internet start-up Waywire have been examined for the past week and we still don’t have all the answers.  We do know that Booker started the company and that it has netted him between $1 and $5 million.  Check out the latest post from ABC News.

New Jersey Senate Coverage: The Final Countdown

09 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by joed5k in New Jersey Coverage

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Cory Booker, Frank Pallone, New Jersey, politics, Rush Holt, Sheila Oliver, Steve Lonegan


Follow us on Twitter @PolliticsToday for more insight, commentary and updates concerning this blog or “LIKE” us on Facebook.  To get alerts on our newest articles, sign up for our alert system.  Seriously, do those things; we could use more followers and support!

Well this is it.  This is set to be our last update in our coverage of the New Jersey Senate race, at least before the Democratic and Republican primaries that are set to take place on August 13th.  We will at least do something next week that will look at the numbers, what they mean and all of that jazz but right now; this is it.

We had some troubles with WordPress last week so I apologize for not getting an update on this race (or the site in general) last weekend.

But let’s take a look at the candidates and what they’ve been doing.

Cory Booker

Booker is probably going to win this.  I say probably because you never know what low turnout could do in a special election.  Booker has released a new ad, another one that mixes between color and black and white (why does he do this anyway?) and has unveiled a campaign bus (for real) that will tour the state encouraging people to vote for the popular Newark Mayor.

Booker has largely been doing a victory lap over the past month but has had a lot of support including that from Martin O’Malley, a potential 2016 candidate and the Governor of Maryland.  O’Malley is a bit more progressive than Booker, yes, but its a smart move considering O’Malley clearly wants to make a national run and allying himself with a big name like Cory Booker is a good help for him.

Booker has faced a bit more criticism in the closing days for his Internet start-up company “Waywire” which hired a 15-year old son of CNN head honcho Jeff Zucker.  Andrew Zucker left Waywire but Booker has faced a bit of criticism that is probably unique to him.  Booker has very close ties to Wall Street and Silicon Valley but will it make a dent into his popularity?  Unlikely.

Still Booker has done a solid job in this campaign and one that might help him nationally.  He didn’t face “token” opposition and its probably best for his electoral future to have to deal with louder criticism from rivals.  I have no intentions on voting for him in this primary but I can in the general and if your candidate doesn’t win, I hope you consider it as well.  Is he perfect?  Certainly not, will he probably be a “New Democrat” on some?  Yes.  But there will be some issues in which he definitely shines on, including hopefully raising the minimum wage.

Rush Holt

I’m rooting hard for Rush Holt, will cast my one vote for him and I hope you at least give the man a chance or another look.   Holt has made some movement in the last week as he has released his new ad which touts his progressive credentials and dings Booker for his lack thereof.  Its a pretty genial ad, it is far from nasty, but its the closest thing we had to an attack ad in this fairly polite primary.

Holt has made a bit of a name for himself as being the candidate for the left and has received endorsements from Glenn Greenwald, former Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Civil Rights leader Edith Savage-Jennings.  His bid has been largely grassroots and quixotic but he’s done about as good of a job that could be expected given his lower name recognition and less money.

If I could make one critique, I wish he really tried to push the grassroots more.  If I were in charge of his campaign, I would’ve tried to appeal for money at the DailyKos and other like-minded blogs.  There could’ve some more money raised and created a bit more buzz amongst the progressive netroots.

Still, Holt ran a solid campaign and deserves his reputation as a tough campaigner.

Sheila Oliver

Sheila Oliver could’ve ran a great campaign, and I’m nearly certain of it.  While she didn’t have the support of the Democratic machine that essentially got her elected as Speaker of the General Assembly in New Jersey; she could’ve made more inroads.  She could’ve been a historical candidate as there has only been one African-American woman in the U.S. Senate (Carol Moseley-Braun in the 90s) and she does have a pretty good title.

But instead, she really hasn’t done much.  She raised a paltry amount of cash and really didn’t make any noise until the middle of campaign when she started making a name for herself.  It was all too late though.

There are whispers that Oliver might not run for another term as Speaker which really makes you wonder, why did she do this?

Frank Pallone

If there was one candidate that could’ve likely went toe-to-toe with Cory Booker, it was Rep. Frank Pallone.  Pallone is a pretty skilled legislator, was sitting on a couple million and represented the Jersey Shore.  He had some solid progressive credentials and had been bandied about as a Senate candidate since 2002.

Pallone has been the only candidate who had multiple TV ads this primary which really hammered his middle-class roots and the fact that he drove a Chevy not a limo.  He often touted his role in passing the Affordable Care Act and his efforts to preserve Social Security, something that Booker has received some mild criticism over.

But Pallone really should’ve been on TV a lot earlier than mid-to-later July as he would’ve been able to maybe crack the mid-20s and possibly gained some late race momentum.

To his credit though, Pallone via Josh Lautenberg (one of the sons of Frank) has started to rev up attacks against Booker; but it all reeks of too little, too late.

Polling

Quinnipiac: Booker-54%, Pallone-17%, Holt-15%, Oliver-5%

This is the best performance by the field against Booker (individually) but Booker has been hovering around 50% all campaign long.  Pallone and Holt may or may not be fracturing the vote against each other but if you put both of them together; you get a far more credible candidate and one that would be more likely to get closer.

For what it’s worth Booker trounces likely GOP nominee Steve Lonegan by a 54 to 29% margin.

Debates

The Democrats had two debates (with the full field) and really the major story was that Booker received attacks from both Holt and Pallone who essentially tag-teamed the Mayor.  Booker got hit pretty hard for a bevy of reasons including his work as Mayor of Newark (and his time away from the city), his vague generalities about “unifying”, his ties with Waywire, and other charges to which Booker responded with talk of Holt and Pallone being part of the Washington problem.

It was fairly interesting and probably again, too little too late.  Booker has kept mostly quiet on the issues (his campaign website offers more specifics) and instead talking about “changing” Washington.  His label as a “Wall Street Democrat” will be impossible for him to mostly shake off and the Waywire deal isn’t going to help his cause.  Holt and Pallone really have little chance at toppling Booker but they had to go on offensive eventually.

The problem is the only people that tend to watch the debates are party diehards, and it probably won’t make much of a difference.  By now, I assume there are very few undecided voters.

Pulse of the Race

For Cory Booker to win, all he has to do is not get caught in a scandal and he’s probably punching his ticket to Washington.

Rush Holt has to root for a beautiful day and very low turnout.  I feel his diehards are on par with Booker’s and Holt’s are most likely to vote for their man no matter what.

Sheila Oliver should root for a time machine.

Frank Pallone’s best bet is that people want the Washington guy in office and turnout is low too.  Theoretically, he’ll likely be “closest” to Booker for what its worth.

Prediction

Alright, I’ll give it a go.

  1. Booker – 49%
  2. Pallone – 24%
  3. Holt – 22%
  4. Oliver – 5%

These are based off of nothing.

Days Until The Primary

4 Days

Frank Pallone Hits The Airwaves: New Jersey Senate Coverage

26 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by joed5k in New Jersey Coverage

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Alieta Eck, Cory Booker, Frank Pallone, New Jersey, politics, Rush Holt, Sheila Oliver, Steve Lonegan


Follow us on Twitter @PolliticsToday for more insight, commentary and updates concerning this blog or “LIKE” us on Facebook.  To get alerts on our newest articles, sign up for our alert system.  Seriously, do those things; we could use more followers and support! 

As I’ve hinted earlier, since I’m a New Jersey resident and the Garden State has two big elections this year (Senate and gubernatorial), I have decided to do a weekly recap of New Jersey news.  I’ve been sticking with the contested Democratic primary to fulfill the seat vacated by the death of longtime Sen. Frank Lautenberg as it offers the most intrigue.  

Even though this week was slightly barren of news, we do have some things to keep you updated on regarding the candidates.  Let’s take a look at what the candidates have been doing.

Cory Booker

Booker continues to play a fairly safe campaign.  He has extensively toured the state appearing at local farm fairs (in my home county) and doing small runs with some prospective voters which is kind of neat to me.  Booker has maintained his high profile Twitter account but has largely shied away from speaking in-depth about a bevy of issues and hasn’t really acknowledged his opponents.  

Really it does look like Booker’s race to lose as we creep closer to the primary but he has been doing a very safe campaign and considering the legislative accomplishments of two of his opponents, its a good choice by him.  Booker’s personality and charisma have really defined the race thus far.

I’ll give credit where credit is due though.  Even though he has the most resources on him, there are plenty of people in South Jersey who feel ignored by the political establishment.  Booker making appearances down here is good for him and good for the area as we don’t see our candidates enough.  

Booker though seems to be running into some trouble as his field organization, which is more expansive than the other candidates, have issued frustrations with his Senate campaign.

Rush Holt

Holt’s campaign, endorsed by me, has been quixotic and intensely grassroots to say the least.  But nonetheless, he has been doing exactly what he should be doing in rallying the progressives across the internet.  He’s had easily the best web ads of all the candidates and recently did an “Ask Me Anything” with the popular social media website Reddit.  Holt’s focus appears to be trying to spark a fire with the diehards who are more likely to vote in a primary and I have to say, he’s done well.  He probably could’ve used a few more weeks though.

Holt has also gotten into a war of words with Republican frontrunner Steve Lonegan over the topic of climate change.  Lonegan called Holt’s ad talking about the potential of millions dying form climate change as “silly hysteria”.  

Sheila Oliver

Sheila Oliver is now finally starting to enter the race and seems to be hellbent on attacking Booker.  I guess someone had to do it and Oliver does have a captivating profile as the Senate is barren of African American women.  Still Oliver’s really late run at things ruins her chances but I wouldn’t be shocked if she makes a small dent in the race as she is the only woman running on the Democratic side.

Frank Pallone

Cory Booker has released three ads since entering the race and has largely been by himself on the airwaves.  That is no longer the case as Rep. Frank Pallone has finally released his first ad of the primary season.  Pallone’s ad is mostly biographical with a narrator talking about Pallone’s achievements in Congress as well as his own life.  The ad itself is nice and all but the intermixing between the narrator and constituents talking to Pallone is kind of distracting.  

Pallone also received more backing from the Lautenberg family though I’m unsure how much of a difference that’s going to make.

Polling

Monmouth Polling:  Booker-49%, Pallone-12%, Holt-8%, Oliver-3%

That Monmouth poll is from about a week and a half ago but it does offer some insight.  Booker has stayed at or around 50% since polling began and hasn’t budged much.  The real battle continues to be who wants second place though Pallone has finally cracked above 10% which shows that he has at least some movement.  

Candidate Forum

Recently a candidate forum took place with Cory Booker and Steve Lonegan not in attendance.  Booker not attending the event could be perceived in a number of different lights though he was likely at a campaign event.  Still, voters got to see Holt, Oliver, Pallone and Republican Alieta Eck.

Pulse of the Race

Booker is maintaining his lead in the race and is obviously playing it safe by avoiding the other candidates and waiting for the two debates which will take place in the last week of the campaign.  Booker is the frontrunner thanks to his high name recognition but considering his ties to Wall Street and his “fiscal conservative, socially progressive” credentials; there is room to run against him.

Holt probably would benefit from going on the air but he is running a campaign that needs to go viral.  He’s making all the right moves as he is running as the progressive of the race and given New Jersey’s blue hue; its not a losing strategy.  The one guarantee that I would give Holt is that the people who say they will vote for him, WILL stick with him through and through.

Oliver can benefit the other candidates by slamming Booker more and more but it only matters if she goes on the air as opposed to going to Democratic forums.  I wonder if EMILY’s List would look into her candidacy.

Pallone is the only candidate that can spend money close to Booker and he’s NOW starting to do just that.  I expect him to have another ad before the primary occurs but he’s really got to place himself as something other than a D.C. insider which might not be a winning strategy.

Countdown To The Primary

17 Days

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