Booker captures N.J. Senate seat

NEWARK, N.J. – Newark Mayor Cory Booker won a special election Wednesday to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate, giving the rising Democratic star a bigger political stage after a race against conservative Steve Lonegan, a former small-town mayor.

With nearly all precincts reporting, Booker had 55 percent of the vote to Lonegan’s 44 percent. The first reaction from the social-media savvy victor came, of course, on Twitter: “Thank you so much, New Jersey, I’m proud to be your Senator-elect.”

In a speech later to supporters in Newark, Booker spoke, as he often does, of the unity of the American people.

“That’s why I’m going to Washington – to take back that sense of pride. Not to play shallow politics that’s used to attack and divide but to engage in the kind of hard, humble service that reaches out to others.”

Booker, 44, will become the first black senator from New Jersey and heads to Washington with an unusual political resume. He was raised in suburban Harington Park as the son of two of the first black IBM executives, and graduated from Stanford and law school at Yale with a stint in between as a Rhodes Scholar before moving to one of Newark’s toughest neighborhoods with the intent of doing good.

He’s been an unconventional politician, a vegetarian with a Twitter following of 1.4 million – or five times the population of the city he governs.

With dwindling state funding, he has used private fundraising, including a $100 million pledge from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, to run programs in Newark, a strategy that has brought his city resources and him both fame and criticism.

Booker was elected to complete the 15 months remaining on the term of Frank Lautenberg, 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.

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.

Booker won an August primary against an experienced Democratic field including two members of Congress and the speaker of the state Assembly.

Lonegan stepped down as New Jersey director of the antitax, pro-business Americans for Prosperity to run. Lonegan, who is legally blind, got national attention as mayor of the town of Bogota when he tried to get English made its official language.

After two runs in Republican gubernatorial primaries and as the leader of successful campaigns against ballot measures to raise a state sales tax and fund stem-cell research, Lonegan was a favorite of New Jersey’s relatively small right wing.

Gathered with supporters Wednesday evening in Bridgewater, he said, “Unfortunately for whatever reason the message we delivered together … did not win the day.”