The Briefing Room
General Category => Politics/Government => Topic started by: mystery-ak on October 17, 2013, 01:41:01 am
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just breaking....was there any doubt
http://www.northjersey.com/news/Democrat_Cory_Booker_wins_special_US_Senate_election_over_Lonegan.html (http://www.northjersey.com/news/Democrat_Cory_Booker_wins_special_US_Senate_election_over_Lonegan.html)
Democrat Cory Booker wins special Senate election over Lonegan
Wednesday, October 16, 2013 Last updated: Wednesday October 16, 2013, 10:00 PM
BY MELISSA HAYES
STATE HOUSE BUREAU
The Record
New Jersey's social media-happy incoming senator has given his first reaction to his election victory with a tweet.
Cory Booker says, "Thank you so much, New Jersey. I'm proud to be your Senator-elect."
With two-thirds percent of precincts reporting, the Democratic mayor of Newark has 56 percent of the vote to Republican Steve Lonegan's 43 percent to serve out the remainder of the late Frank Lautenberg’s term.
Although the race was close early on, Democrats were quick to declare Booker the winner. Only 40 minutes after polls closed at 8 p.m., the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was declaring victory. A short time later, state Sen. Barbara Buono, who is running against Governor Christie in the Nov. 5 election, offered her congratulations to Booker.
Several North Jersey residents said the federal government shutdown was a factor in their vote Wednesday. Lonegan supported the shutdown, which was led by a faction of his party that wanted to remove funding from the spending bill for President Obama’s healthcare overhaul. Booker has chastised the partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C. saying if elected he would work with members of both parties.
Booker has built a national following for his consensus-building and his personal story. He was a suburbanite who went to Stanford and Yale Law before moving into a tough Newark neighborhood promising to do good before he ran for office. He's also been a pioneering politician on Twitter.
Lonegan is a conservative former mayor of the town of Bogota. He dismissed Booker as more connected to Hollywood and the Silicon Valley than New Jersey.
Booker was elected to complete the 15 months remaining on Lautenberg's term, 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.
Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican with a national following of his own, appointed his attorney general, Jeffrey Chiesa, to the Senate temporarily and scheduled a special election for a Wednesday just 20 days before Christie himself is on the ballot seeking re-election. Christie said he wanted to give voters a say as soon as legally possible.
Democrats challenged the timing, saying Christie was afraid of appearing on the same ballot as the popular Booker. But courts upheld the governor's election schedule.
Booker had a running start on the election. Before Lautenberg died, Booker passed up a chance to run against 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 Associated Press contributed to this story.
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No doubt, especially when we started receiving reports of names totally missing on GOP voter rolls and people saying they were told someone else had already voted in their name. Chris Christie must be soooooooooooo proud.
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No doubt, especially when we started receiving reports of names totally missing on GOP voter rolls and people saying they were told someone else had already voted in their name. Chris Christie must be soooooooooooo proud.
Hannity was reporting all the irregularities on his radio show today....typical Dem tactics.
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Well, guess it don' matter now whether Cory lives in Newark or not...
He won' be livun' there no mo'!
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So how long before he get indicted on corruption charges?
Not that it will matter since he's a black Democrat.
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@DanRiehl 1h
Upside for Booker, he won't have to make up compelling stories about himself, now. The DC media will do it for him.
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Booker's victory places the so-called 'antics' of Chris Christie into better focus....doncha think? :whistle:
Thinking maybe he should drop the handshake and tongue kiss Barack Obama next time the opportunity presents itself.
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Booker gets 56 percent and Christie gets 66 percent from the same electorate. Ain't democracy fun?
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Yup, and Booker will be in the Senate 'til he's Frank Lautenberg's age. He'll have a year to become safely ensconsed, then he'll be re-elected in 2014, no sweat.
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There are some bright spots among the ruins and I know it's a Democrat thing to look at moral victories but:
Lonegan did do relatively well considering the demographics of NJ and the celebrity and Washington support Booger received.
Lonegan did well considering the shutdown was still in effect. Based upon media reports, GOP were gone for good.
Lonegan did quite well in a Deep blue state while being attacked as a Tea partier and "too extreme".
Just a few thoughts.
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You know I could see New Jersey from my backyard. It looks a lot like Russia.
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Truth be told, I've not followed this. But, couldn't Gov. Christie has appointed (a Republican) to the seat???
Or am I wrong?
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Truth be told, I've not followed this. But, couldn't Gov. Christie has appointed (a Republican) to the seat???
Or am I wrong?
IIRC, he did, but that person didn't run.
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Truth be told, I've not followed this. But, couldn't Gov. Christie has appointed (a Republican) to the seat???
Or am I wrong?
He put in a placeholder who proceeded to vote with the Democrats in the Senate.
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IIRC, he did, but that person didn't run.
No ... couldn't he have appointed someone ... w/o an election? Or have I got that wrong?
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No ... couldn't he have appointed someone ... w/o an election? Or have I got that wrong?
Old North Church can answer it for us...... but I think he had to call a special election to finish out the term.
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Old North Church can answer it for us...... but I think he had to call a special election to finish out the term.
Damn. I thought that was one of the perks of having a Republican (?) Governor. :shrug:
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Damn. I thought that was one of the perks of having a Republican (?) Governor. :shrug:
Is Christie a Republican?..LOL
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Damn. I thought that was one of the perks of having a Republican (?) Governor. :shrug:
Not if he is Chris Christie.
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While going for a walk this afternoon I listened to Mark Levin who pointed out some interesting facts about this election. Note: I am just recalling what Mark said so I provide no documentation.
(1) Lonegan received absolutely no support from the RNC. Priebus visited NJ about 12 hours before the vote and that was about it. Just by coincidence Lonegan was a Conservative and a Tea Party supporter.
(2) Booker won the election by 10 points. A rather decisive victory until one considers Obama beat Romney in NJ by 18 points and Menendez beat some moderate Republican nobody by almost the same amount (16 points, IIRC).
So in other words a supporter of the despised Tea Party who had no national assistance from his own Party saw the amount of victory of a reportedly very popular Dem in a very blue state cut by nearly a half compared to the moderate Presidential candidate of his Party just 2 years ago.
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We have to face it, the RNC and the RNSC does not want a conservative in the senate. They hate that they have two there now. This man could have won.
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It depends on the state. In some, the governor appoints a replacement who is there until the next regularly scheduled election such as the upcoming congressional elections next year.
Other states appoint someone and then have to schedule an election within so many days of the seat becoming vacant. Some even require the temporary replacement to be from the same party as the individual who vacated the now empty seat.
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It depends on the state. In some, the governor appoints a replacement who is there until the next regularly scheduled election such as the upcoming congressional elections next year.
Other states appoint someone and then have to schedule an election within so many days of the seat becoming vacant. Some even require the temporary replacement to be from the same party as the individual who vacated the now empty seat.
I was driving up to Lake Powell in June when Christie announced the fill in and people were aghast at what he did... they said that day he could have done some real good for the GOP with his fill in and instead gave the shiv to conservatives and the GOP.
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We have to face it, the RNC and the RNSC does not want a conservative in the senate
That was pretty much the conclusion Mark has come to, btw.
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We have to face it, the RNC and the RNSC does not want a conservative in the senate. They hate that they have two there now. This man could have won.
:thumbsup:
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I hear lots of campaign ads out of New Jersey playing in the New York market. It's a hoot hearing all these democrat congressmen for reelection running on Christie's coattails. The ad typically says how politician A crossed the aisle to work with Christie to cut taxes and balance the budget blah blah and accomplish all these fantastic things in New Jersey because they put the people before their party.
Of course Christie will be easily reelected.
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While going for a walk this afternoon I listened to Mark Levin who pointed out some interesting facts about this election. Note: I am just recalling what Mark said so I provide no documentation.
(1) Lonegan received absolutely no support from the RNC. Priebus visited NJ about 12 hours before the vote and that was about it. Just by coincidence Lonegan was a Conservative and a Tea Party supporter.
(2) Booker won the election by 10 points. A rather decisive victory until one considers Obama beat Romney in NJ by 18 points and Menendez beat some moderate Republican nobody by almost the same amount (16 points, IIRC).
So in other words a supporter of the despised Tea Party who had no national assistance from his own Party saw the amount of victory of a reportedly very popular Dem in a very blue state cut by nearly a half compared to the moderate Presidential candidate of his Party just 2 years ago.
Interesting, thanks for posting it. I read someone's page on FB, and he said there was a huge disparity between Booker's war chest and what Lonergan had, so that makes it even more impressive. Maybe some RNC $$ will come his way now for the 2014 election?
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While going for a walk this afternoon I listened to Mark Levin who pointed out some interesting facts about this election. Note: I am just recalling what Mark said so I provide no documentation.
(1) Lonegan received absolutely no support from the RNC. Priebus visited NJ about 12 hours before the vote and that was about it. Just by coincidence Lonegan was a Conservative and a Tea Party supporter.
(2) Booker won the election by 10 points. A rather decisive victory until one considers Obama beat Romney in NJ by 18 points and Menendez beat some moderate Republican nobody by almost the same amount (16 points, IIRC).
So in other words a supporter of the despised Tea Party who had no national assistance from his own Party saw the amount of victory of a reportedly very popular Dem in a very blue state cut by nearly a half compared to the moderate Presidential candidate of his Party just 2 years ago.
That is indeed very telling! Makes one wonder what might have happened had the party made even a token effort on Lonegan's behalf!
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That is indeed very telling! Makes one wonder what might have happened had the party made even a token effort on Lonegan's behalf!
He would have won.
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By the way, we in the New York/New Jersey market have heard Steve Lonigan on radio for years as the voice of AFP's high profile commercial spots touting their latest campaign to influence politics in New Jersey. As state director of Americans for Prosperity, he was well known to the people of New Jersey.
The great thing about Lonigan is he's a businessman—not a lawyer. Would've made a great senator for the conservative cause.
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From my understanding, there were two conflicting laws regarding appointments of senators and elections. I mentioned one previously, there couldn't be Gubernatorial and Senatorial elections on the same day.
There was a Dem assemblywoman (state congress), who filed suit to hold the election the same day but was ruled against by the state supreme court. The Dems were basically hoist by their own petard because they were the one's who set the election law.
NJ is a very odd bird politically. There is (or was) a solid, independent (not Republican) Conservative party about 50,000 - 75,000 that may use chicken innards. There is a very healthy Libertarian presence in NJ. There is also a strong collegiate political scene used by the socialists from Democrats to Greens. Finally, the Dems have a 750,000 voter advantage over Republicans.
These are numbers from various news organizations.
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[[ We have to face it, the RNC and the RNSC does not want a conservative in the senate
That was pretty much the conclusion Mark has come to, btw. ]]
Well of course, dummy!
The LAST THING they want is another Ted Cruz or Rand Paul.
Can't have none of that, nope!