Booker for U.S. Senate: Star-Ledger endorsement

Steve Lonegan, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, is a libertarian of undoubted conviction who relishes a good political fight.

His model is Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas rookie who has become a leader of the rejectionist wing of the Republican Party. Lonegan says he supports the shutdown, and vows he will never vote to increase the debt ceiling.

He opposes raising the minimum wage on principle. He wants to replace the progressive tax with a flat tax that would favor the rich. He fervently opposes efforts to limit carbon emissions, and says climate change may be a net benefit to mankind.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is a heavy favorite to win the special election on Oct. 16.


He believes it was a mistake to establish Social Security and Medicare, and that safety-net programs like them should be left to charity. He promises to support any tax-cut proposal that crosses his desk, with business tax cuts at the top of his list.

As mayor in Bogota, he led protests over a McDonald’s billboard that advertised in Spanish, saying it was offensive to his constituents. He would ban gay marriage and prohibit abortions even in cases of rape and incest.

So if you want to reinforce the partisan divisions that are crippling this great nation, Lonegan is your man. If you want to aggravate the divide between rich and poor, shred the safety net and invite the government into your bedroom, then vote for him on Oct. 16. On virtually every issue, he takes the most extreme right-wing position, as if checking boxes on a form.

Worse, he regards compromise as weakness. And like Cruz, he is willing to escalate the fight by threatening to damage the country with shutdowns and defaults to get his way.
Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, is almost the opposite of Lonegan, so the choice here is stark.

Booker is a practical politician who looks for opportunities to make bipartisan deals. He was a key ally of Gov. Chris Christie in the fight to scale back benefits for public workers, a policy that most Democrats opposed. He supports the promising education reforms that Christie is pushing in cities like Newark, including the expansion of charter schools, reform of tenure and merit pay for the best teachers. He infuriated orthodox Democrats by objecting to President Obama’s demagogic attacks on Wall Street.

Booker is known as a liberal, and that is true when it comes to bedrock economic, environmental and social issues. He is a firm supporter of Obama’s health care reform, a higher minimum wage and greater assistance to college students. He wants to scale back subsidies for oil and gas interests, and take urgent action to combat climate change.

But as mayor, Booker has been a pragmatic centrist. He raised taxes, but he also reduced the city workforce by roughly 25 percent, a record of austerity that even Christie cannot match. He has convinced big companies such as Prudential and Panasonic to make major investments in downtown Newark. Last year, the city accounted for 30 percent of the state’s new building of commercial and apartment buildings, measured by square footage.

The knock on Booker is that he is an absentee mayor, more show than substance. And there is a sliver of truth to that. He is out of town roughly one in four days, according to a Star-Ledger review of his travel. He has lost control of a city council that was elected under his name, and leaves behind no lasting political organization. And while he made impressive progress against crime in his early years, much of the gain has evaporated. Violence remains endemic as he approaches the end of his second term.

But overall progress in Newark is undeniable. Booker’s travels have helped him raise more than $300 million in philanthropy for schools, affordable housing, parks and police. The building boomlet has gone beyond the downtown into the neighborhoods. And the corruption that has cursed Newark for generations has been checked.

A vote for Lonegan is a vote for pointless political bickering. He is a danger to the environment and the economy, he would widen the gap between rich and poor, and he would use extreme tactics that threaten the nation’s welfare.

Booker, an African-American, would add needed diversity to a Senate that remains mostly a white men’s club. He is a compelling spokesman for progressive causes who is always on the lookout for sensible compromise. This one is not a close call.