Quinnipiac: 51 Percent Of N.J. Dems Want Booker Over Lautenberg

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Talking Points Memo

A majority of New Jersey Democrats would back Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker (D) over Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) in a 2014 intra-party primary, according to a poll from Quinnipiac University released Wednesday.

Fifty-one percent of registered Democrats in the Garden State indicated they would prefer Booker to be the party's nominee in next year's U.S. Senate race, compared with 30 percent who gave the nod to Lautenberg.

The poll also showed that Booker is more personally popular among all New Jersey voters than Lautenberg. Fifty-four percent have a favorable opinion of the high-profile mayor, compared with 16 percent who have an unfavorable opinion. Lautenberg, meanwhile, is viewed favorably by 42 percent of voters while 32 percent have an unfavorable opinion of the incumbent senator.

It's the second poll this month to suggest that Lautenberg's time in the Senate may be running out. A survey released earlier this month from Fairleigh Dickinson University showed a plurality of New Jersey Democrats supporting Booker over Lautenberg in a hypothetical primary.

Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/quinnipiac-51-percent-of-nj-dems-want-booker

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Today is Senator Lautenberg's birthday. He is 89.

[vi5]

1. I'm torn....

I think Lautenberg is past his prime and we do need to get someone new in there before his health starts to go and god forbid something happen to him and Christie gets to appoint a successor.

That being said I don't trust Booker in the least and would prefer it not be him.

[naaman fletcher]

2. It's time for Lautenberg to go

The party continually needs fresh blood. While a "dinosaur" or two can be a good thing (perhaps Robert Byrd), Lautenberg doesn't add anything special.

Whether or not Booker is the answer is another story, but I like him.

[JoeBlowToo]

3. Booker is beholden to Wall Street money in a big way...

Cory Booker's defense of Wall Street may hurt his status with liberals, but it won't hurt his bank account

NEWARK — Cory Booker may have riled liberal factions with his support of Bain Capital on "Meet The Press" last weekend, but his defense of Wall Street is more than just high-minded discourse.

The Newark mayor has taken at least $491,000 in political contributions from the financial services industry in the last nine months — more than a third of his total fund-raising this election cycle, according to campaign filings with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission and the Federal Election Commission.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/bookers_defense_of_wall_street.html

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. A lot of people who work on Wall Street live in NJ

[Ken Burch]

14. And the Garden State residents who work for Wall Street vote GOP, so what's your point?

A Dem who sides economically with the 1% isn't going to back the 99% on anything that matters.

[frazzled]

7. His bank account?

You may be talking about campaign funds to run for office, but to suggest this is a man with a huge bank account and investments, who lives the high life is ridiculous.

In your caricature of Booker, you will need to explain how this money-grubbing man decided to take his degrees from Stanford University and Yale Law School, and his Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford, and ... instead of taking a corporate job or a position at a powerful law firm ... decided to work as a staff attorney for the Urban Justice Center in New York and as a program coordinator for the Newark Youth Project. Oh, and then that next money-grubbing financial ploy was to run for City Council in Newark, New Jersey, that hotbed of wealth and riches.

You'll need to explain where he was hiding his bank account when he lived for eight years, from 1998 to 2006, not in a mansion but in Brick Towers, "a troubled housing complex in Newark's Central Ward," where he organized tenants to fight for improved conditions. How he stayed there till the end, and finally left for the top unit in a three-story rental on Hawthorne Avenue in Newark's South Ward, an area described as "a drug-and gang-plagued neighborhood of boarded-up houses and empty lots."

This guy sure decided to cash in and live the high life, eating $50 steaks (oh, I forgot, he's a vegetarian) and hobnobbing with the financial moguls.

Sure he wants to attract business and industry to his blighted city, and sure he will take political contributions. But to ignore the way that Corey Booker has lived among and for the people is simply making a cartoon up in your own head.

[JoeBlowToo]

9. I merely used the headline that the Star Ledger put on the article...

Perhaps you should read before reacting so vehemently. It was obvious to me that they meant his campaign fund. I read the article. And there is a comment by a poli sci professor who claims the contributions are not significant.

His public defence of Bain Capital happened at exactly the wrong moment, and it did seem likely that he came out with those pronouncements at the behest of his Wall Street pals. He should have just said "no comment."

[duffyduff]

11. He was bankrolled by the far right Bradley Foundation

as a way to get African Americans to support charter schools.

He's a tool and should be avoided at all costs.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

4. Corey defended Bain Capital last year. Democrats need to arm themselves with information

on who Cory Booker is. I like him, but I distrust him. But my father and brother--who both live Jersey--are being duped by Booker and Chris Christie. Why are Democrats so gullible??!?!

[Wabbajack_]

6. Fuck ageism

Frank is doing a great job.

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. There is a better that 50% chance that he would not live to finish his term if he were reelected

If he is still serving as Governor, Chris Christie would get to appoint a replacement.

[Wabbajack_]

12. He seems healthy to me

Anyone can die at any time.

A Republican Senator from Georgia that wasn't that old died of a massive stroke.

Mark Kirk who is pretty young for a Senator almost died.

Crissy's appointed Senator would only last till the next election.

And I for one have not given up on defeating his fat ass later this year. Or get the pugs to do it for us, conservatives hate him right now, conservative challengers have beat Jersey republican officeholders before. A Senator back in the 80's I think.

[Freddie Stubbs]

16. But the odds of him finishing his term if reelected is still less than 1/2

And as hard as you are going to work to get rid of Cristie, you still have to admit that it is an uphill proposition.

[Ken Burch]

15. Would you be pushing this hard for Booker if he wasn't an economic royalist?

Why should NJ Dems nominate somebody we can assume would be anti-labor(and thus anti-worker in general)?

I get it that, on a good day with a following wind, Booker might be a Rockefeller Republican, but do we have to settle for that in a deep-blue state?

New Jersey isn't DLC, Freddie.

Maybe Lautenberg needs to go...but NJ Dems could do better than Booker.

[Freddie Stubbs]

17. You are assuming a lot

There is no evidence that Booker is anti-worker.

[Cal33]

8. If I remember correctly, Lautenberg came out of retirement during the

Bush years to help the Democrats win. Now that the Dems. are the
majority in the Senate, Lautenberg would probably be glad to go back
to retirement, especially since he is already 89. And bless him for
his loyalty and having done a good job, when the Dems. needed him
the most!

[MADem]

13. He did--his predecessor (a Dem) had significant "ethics" problems.

As a consequence, he bowed out of running for a second term.

How soon everyone forgets "the Torch!!!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Torricelli