Cory Booker’ Plays the “Gay Card”
Gay to get elected?
Michael Symons, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press 10:45 a.m. EDT August 29, 2013
‘I want to challenge people on their homophobia,’ Booker says.
RENTON, N.J. — Cory Booker says he’s straight but doesn’t mind questions about his sexuality because it challenges people’s prejudices about gay people — a stance the scotch-drinking, cigar-smoking Steve Lonegan deems “kind of weird.”
Speculation about Booker’s sexuality — specifically, that the Newark, N.J., mayor is gay but keeping that a secret — took center stage in the Senate campaign this week. In a series of interviews with national media outlets, Booker and Lonegan raised the temperature in the special-election campaign with comments about an issue that has trailed Booker, who is single, since he first ran for office in Newark.
Booker, a Democrat, generally doesn’t answer when asked about his sexuality, but in interviews has referred to former girlfriends and dating women. In a July 22 interview with Gannett New Jersey newspapers’ editorial boards, he noted he is “a voice for marriage equality that had me the national speaker in Washington, as a straight male, the national speaker for the Human Rights Campaign.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/08/29/cory-booker-gay-or-nay/2726237/
Is Gov McGreevey behind him on this issue?
Just to be clear here, the headline in the APP is:
“Cory Booker’s sexuality becomes issue in Senate campaign against Steve Lonegan”
The “staff of the Ridgewood Blog” came up with the inflammatory “Gay Card” headline.
no its typical politician pandering to get votes and we called him on it
It matters because there are millions of Americans who need to know that being gay is not something to hide. Otherwise we may as well be back in the stone ages. Mayor Bookers reluctance to give a simple yes or no denigrates all those who are looking to him for support and freedom from hiding in the closet. His lack of an answer leads all of us to believe that he is doing it for Political reasons and if he can’t give a simple yes or no then how can he represent us in the Senate. We will all be missing Frank very soon!
Bring back Sharpe James.
Booker’s trying to get Lonegan to make a false move, but Lonegan is and has been ready for this tactic and a lot worse. As long as he keeps his cool this latest tactic being employed by Booker will blow up in Booker’s face.
Lonegan can suggest that it is Booker who is on the ‘fringe’ because Lonegan is through-and-through a New Jersey native whose life story and family life is familiar to us his neighbors. Booker leaves New Jersey every chance he gets to meet wealthy people in places like California who shower him with adulation and feed his ego. If we elect Booker as our senator, he will go to D.C. and never look back.
I heard one person recently say that the problem with our federal representatives in the Senate and House is that they we give them our vote expecting them to represent our interests to Washington, D.C., but once they’re elected, have been in D.C. there for a while, and come back for a visit, they end up representing the government to us. Meaning they are no longer interested in the lives and concerns of their former neighbors but moreso in helping the federal leviathan grow.
Time will tell, but Lonegan’s message so far has been tailored very carefully to convey to voters that he shares their concerns in this regard and intends to do everything he can to rein in our out-of-control federal government and faithfully represent the interests of ‘we the people’.
I am looking forward to Wednesday, October 16th to cast my vote for Steve Lonegan. We are going to send a loud message to the rest of the world that the state in which the most battles were fought during the Revolutionary War still has some fight left in it!
It is silly there is nothing that points to him being gay, but someone wants to make it an issue. He gave a great answer, not threatened by the question.
I do not care if he is gay, straight or celibate. He is running for the US senate not boy scout leader.
it is not insulting to be accused of being gay. Booker is great whether he is gay or straight. Who cares?
If Booker is gay, then he’s an ineffective gay mayor. If he’s black, then he’s an ineffective black mayor. If he’s a man, then he’s an ineffective male mayor.
I just see him as an ineffective mayor – period. Nice guy, but he is more interested in his celebrity than doing anything that makes a difference. I predict he’ll be an ineffective senator.
I predict he will be an ineffective not-senator.