Why New Jersey might elect a Tea Party to the Senate

[mota bhai 2,675]

Newark Mayor Cory Booker was addressing a rally last week in a union hall in North Brunswick. The subject was the referendum to raise the minimum wage that will be on the Tuesday, Nov. 5 ballot.

...

Booker didn’t disappoint. First he told some tear-jerking stories about people mired in poverty. Then he told an anecdote about showing up at the polls in 2008 and finding long lines of Newark residents waiting to vote for President Obama.

...

It was a masterful performance, but only about 50 people witnessed it — even though the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers was offering an open bar and a roast-beef dinner.

In case you’re wondering why Booker lost his big lead in the polls, wonder no more. He’s running the perfect television campaign — in a state without a major broadcast television station.

Meanwhile his opponent is engaging in good, old retail politics. Invite Steve Lonegan to a pancake breakfast and he’ll bring the syrup. Bring him to your barbecue and he’ll hand out the hamburgers.

That’s the way politics works in New Jersey, but Booker’s people seem not to have noticed. They’ve been seduced by what you might call the Football Fallacy: the idea that the points gained early in an election campaign will still be on the scoreboard at the end.

They won’t, yet Booker’s been trying to run out the clock while he should be on the field bashing heads. I’ve been checking his campaign schedule for two months now and I’ve noticed he rarely ventures out in public — and then only within his comfort zone, some safe bastion of liberalism such as Montclair or Princeton.

I'd expected him to be all over the Shore in the summer, shaking hands with sunbathers and kissing babies. But the Raritan seemed more a barrier to him than the Rubicon was to Caesar.

Booker’s people don’t seem to have noticed that the center of gravity in this state has moved in recent years. In 2009, Chris Christie won the governorship only because he ran up margins in the big suburbs in the central part of the state large enough to offset Jon Corzine’s big wins in the cities.

Booker’s people assured me they have a get-out-the-vote effort planned for the cities that will give their man Corzine-like margins there. Perhaps. But that would still leave the race to be decided by the swing vote out there in those big suburbs. These days, some of them are really big. In 2009, for example, about 30,000 ballots were cast in Toms River compared with about 40,000 in Newark.

Figures were only slightly lower in other towns in the sprawling suburban waistline of this state that Booker’s been ignoring.

Lonegan, by comparison, has taken his campaign right onto Booker’s home turf in Newark. He got lots of coverage because of the Booker supporters who’ve shown up to shout him down — as well as the Booker opponents who showed up to shout at the Booker supporters.

All of this helped Lonegan highlight the negative side of Booker’s reign in Newark, such as the recent spate of murders and the high unemployment rate. Booker, meanwhile, has only recently started going negative on Lonegan. He’s highlighting Lonegan’s stances against abortion and in favor of guns. But then so is Lonegan. He figures he’s firing up the Republican base.

As for who Booker’s firing up, with just 10 days to go in the race that’s a mystery to me.

And to him, I imagine.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2013/10/cory_bookers_people_arent_gett.html

[Pooky 3,838]

It's slightly more likely to happen than me winning the lottery, but it would be really funny if it did.

[mota bhai 2,675]

It's slightly more likely to happen than me winning the lottery ...

It's about as likely as Ted Cruz winning the GOP nomination in 2016. I'd give both odds of 3 out of 10.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

It's about as likely as Ted Cruz winning the GOP nomination in 2016. I'd give both odds of 3 out of 10.

Cruz has given the Republicans something they have been lacking - balls. The more moderate Republicans say they don't like balls, but deep inside, they pay homage to a man that can display them proudly.

[mota bhai 2,675]

If lying to the dumber than bricks base shows balls, then yes...

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

You are looking for the mythical intelligent voter - hard to find in any political party. Have you tried a pillowcase and a flashlight?

Edited October 9, 2013 by The Patriot

[Crashed~N2~Me 970]

You are looking for the mythical intelligent voter - hard to find in any political party. Have you tried a pillowcase and a flashlight?

Kids & their naïve exuberance...it's cute & annoying at the same time.

Like a puppy looking sad after being punished for p!ssing on the carpet.