Newark Mayor Cory Booker yesterday officially dived into the race to finish the Senate term of the late Frank Lautenberg.
The Democrat launched his bid at a Newark news conference beside Bill Bradley. The ex-Knick star, who held that Senate seat for 18 years, called Booker, 44, “the right person for the right office at the right time.”
Lautenberg died Monday. Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, said last week that there would be primaries on Aug. 13 and a special election on Oct. 16.
He’s frequently gotten public attention, from staging a hunger strike to protest drug-dealing to rescuing a woman from a burning home last year. His life story is also captivating. He grew up in Harrington Park as the son of civil rights activists who were among the first black executives at IBM, went to Stanford, was a Rhodes Scholar, earned a law degree from Yale and took a job with the Urban Justice Center, which provides legal and other services to the vulnerable. He also moved to a public housing complex in Newark.
Booker’s critics in Newark see him as an ambitious interloper who spends too much of his time outside the city.
According to a Senate campaign filing made in May, Booker has brought in $1.3 million for 90 speeches he has given around the country since 2008. His campaign says he has donated the majority of that money to charities that serve Newark.
Booker’s campaign has said that the networking he does ultimately helps the city.