Posted on

The PolitickerNJ Interview: Bell on Fox: ‘If you get Jamie Fox out of Democratic Party strategizing, that’s a service for the Republican Party’

Jeff Bell

The PolitickerNJ Interview: Bell on Fox: ‘If you get Jamie Fox out of Democratic Party strategizing, that’s a service for the Republican Party’

Jeff Bell knows Jamie Fox. The Republican nominee for U.S. Senate met the new Department of Transportation (DOT) commissioner over a decade ago. (Pizarro/PolitickerNJ)

https://www.politickernj.com/82431/politickernj-interview-bell-fox-if-you-get-jamie-fox-out-democratic-party-strategizing-s-servi

Posted on

We Could Use a Lil’ Voodoo,Right Now Mr. Senator!

Obamanomics-vs-Reaganomics

We Could Use a Lil’ Voodoo,Right Now Mr. Senator!
Sep. 08 Cory Booker

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

Cory Booker (D-Twitter) launched his U.S. Senate reelection campaign last week, Save Jerseyans, but the man who prides himself on being a post-partisan and supremely hip leader chose to rely on some antiquated hyper-political rhetoric.

Specifically? For starters, he accused the GOP nominee Jeff Bell of peddling “voodoo economics.”

This is objective truth; it’s not up for debate. Booker’s buddy President Obama hasn’t come close to touching it. We’re all intimately aware that the former mayor of Newark didn’t perform too well during his time at the helm of New Jersey’s largest city.

The precise details of Reagan’s success, placed in contrast with the current Democrat regime, are even more stunning. Paul Kengor of Fox News recently did a great job of breaking it down:

Real income for a median African-American family had dropped 11 percent from 1977-82; from 1982-89, coming out of the recession, it rose by 17 percent. In the 1980s, there was a 40 percent jump in the number of black households earning $50,000 or more. Black unemployment under Reagan in the 1980s actually fell faster than white unemployment. The number of black-owned businesses increased by almost 40 percent, while the number of blacks who enrolled in college increased by almost 30 percent (white college enrollment increased by only 6 percent).

There were likewise impressive numbers for Hispanics, who saw similar to higher increases in family income, employment, and college enrollment. The number of Hispanic-owned businesses in the 1980s grew by an astounding 81 percent, and the number of Hispanics enrolled in college jumped 45 percent.

Liberals often decry the income gap between men and women. Well, under Reagan, women went from earning 60 cents for every dollar a man earned to 71 cents, and their employment and median earnings outpaced their male counterparts. Women enrolled in college in record numbers.

Moreover, the youth of the 1980s certainly got off to a stronger start than my contemporaries:

The peak period of youth unemployment for 16-24 year olds under Reagan was 1982, when it was 17.3%. Reagan reduced it to 10.9% by 1988. Under Obama, the peak for that same group was 19.1%. By 2013, the number was 16.3%.

The unemployment data for 16-19 year olds is even more pronounced. Under Reagan, it fell from 24% in 1982 to 14.8% in 1988. Under Obama, it declined from a high of 25.9% in 2010 to only 22.9% in 2013. The numbers for black Americans aged 16-19 are even stronger in Reagan’s favor. They fell from 49.4% in 1982 to 31.9% in 1988—a vast improvement. Under Obama, they declined from 43.0% in 2010 to only 38.8% in 2013.

So call it whatever derisive term you’d like, Senator. We could use a little “voodoo” right now. You and your president could, too, with the Senate on the line.

– See the full article  more at: https://savejersey.com/2014/09/cory-booker-jeff-bell-voodoo-economics/#sthash.5zrCyl58.dpuf

Posted on

Cory Booker and big bucks: Perfect together

cory_booker_theridgewoodblog.net_

Cory Booker in Ridgewood , by Boyd Loving

Cory Booker and big bucks: Perfect together

Sharpen your pencils, boys and girls. Here’s a little quiz:

Last spring the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in the case of McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission that removed the limit on total campaign contributions by an individual.

In response, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker issued a news release that included the following sentence:

“This ruling further concentrates power in the hands of the very wealthy and enhances their ability to dramatically influence elections.”

Here’s the question: Was Booker praising the court’s decision or panning it?

After last week, I’m not sure. On Thursday, the Democratic candidate for re-election released his financial statement for 2013. The report offers further proof that Booker has as much talent as anyone on the American political scene when it comes to taking money out of the hands of the very wealthy and depositing it in his own pockets.

We already knew that Booker was among the very best at getting campaign contributions. He ranks No. 2 on the Center for Responsive Politics “Who Raised the Most?” list for senators, with a staggering $16,171,449 raised in the current cycle. The top three types of contributors were big law firms, big investment firms and big real estate interests.

https://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/08/cory_booker_and_big_bucks_perfect_together_mulshine.html#incart_river#incart_hbx#incart_best-of

Posted on

Is Booker hearing footsteps?

10557389_549199061876557_4938017392736288528_n

Jackson: Is Booker hearing footsteps?

AUGUST 10, 2014, 6:00 PM    LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, 2014, 11:39 PM
BY HERB JACKSON
RECORD COLUMNIST
THE RECORD

Sen. Cory Booker last year saw what ignoring a little-known opponent can do. He was slammed for not winning a special election by the landslide his celebrity and overwhelming financial advantage suggested was possible.

Now he’s running again, and a new poll shows him under the 50 percent mark that signifies a safe incumbent. And that’s with virtually unknown and underfunded Republican opponent Jeff Bell trailing by just 10 points.

So once again, Booker faces questions about expectations.

The Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Booker would receive 47 percent of the vote and Bell 37 percent if the election were held now. The poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points, meaning Booker’s true support could be as low as 44.1 or as high as 49.9.

Bell, the surprise winner of June’s low-turnout primary, who also won an upset in the June 1978 Senate primary, is almost within striking distance — even though 77 percent of voters haven’t heard of him and his latest disclosure report shows his campaign $46,000 in debt, while Booker’s campaign has $3.5 million to spend.

The poll’s findings caught the attention of some national political writers who were focusing on other states in this year’s Senate races, but there is also historical evidence that a truly competitive race from Bell could be just a mirage. Summer polls, taken before candidates start advertising and voters pay attention, have been off the mark before.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/jackson-is-booker-hearing-footsteps-1.1065293#sthash.Bi1g1E2n.dpuf

Posted on

Don’t Give Booker a Pass

11070348-large

Don’t Give Booker a Pass

Why are Republicans so soft on “Cory”?

By Eliana Johnson, National Review Online

https://www.nationalreview.com/article/384952/dont-give-booker-pass-eliana-johnson

Cory Booker may be the most puzzling man in the Senate. We don’t know where he lives. We don’t know whom, if anyone, he lives with. And he’s been caught in lie after lie about his heroics. Yet, this enigma of a man has emerged as the king of odd-couple bromance, using selfies and Instagram posts to burnish his stardom even as he appears surprisingly vulnerable in his upcoming bid for reelection.

But Booker is less popular in New Jersey than he is in Washington. He is polling below 50 percent in his matchup against Bell, a policy wonk and virtual unknown in the state who has received little support from the national party. Though he was expected to breeze to reelection, a Quinnipiac poll released on Wednesday has Booker ahead by just ten points, 47 to 37 percent.

Many of Booker’s fiercest ideological opponents, however, are riding the Booker juggernaut rather than going in for the kill. Cory Booker can be beaten, at least the polls suggest so. So why are they so eager to cozy up to him, so hesitant to take him on?

Take Rand Paul, with whom Booker appeared last week on PBS, CNN, and MSNBC. They were touting their proposal for reforming the country’s criminal-justice system. Paul was one of the few Republican stars who campaigned energetically against Booker last year, but at a cocktail party hosted by Politico’s Mike Allen, they discussed the origins of their “bromance” and joked about co-starring in a reality show. This is the same Rand Paul who has knocked leaders of his own party for being insufficiently conservative, but there he was, arm-in-arm with a man who represents the blue-state liberalism he spends most of his time denouncing.

New Jersey’s junior senator is popular in Washington. His Republican opponent, former Reagan official Jeff Bell, even got a chilly reception from Ted Cruz, according to a source who attended the meeting the two had – the same Ted Cruz who precipitated the confrontation over the government shutdown last year. Cruz, according to the source, grilled the staunchly conservative Bell about why he hasn’t raised more money and asked him, pointedly, “How do you think you can win?” (Cruz’s office describes the conversation as a “fairly standard” one that it has with lots of candidates, and it is true that the latest Federal Election Commission filings show that Booker has nearly $3.5 million cash on hand while Bell has $0.) Cruz was spotted breaking bread with Booker in March, and Booker later gushed about their “great intellectual discussion.”Booker has spent much of his nine months in office charming his colleagues, partly by photographing himself with them. He’s in the midst of a campaign to take selifies with each of his fellow senators. In the pictures he’s posted to his Instagram account, he’s praised Senate majority leader Harry Reid as a “profoundly kind, caring, compassionate, and decent man” and South Dakota Republican John Thune as a “valued colleague and friend who challenges me on issues in constructive ways.” You get the idea.

It’s Booker’s second statewide race in a year, and it’s the second time polls have shown him unexpectedly vulnerable. “It’s been surprising both times,” says John Weingart, associate director of Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics. Last year, Booker was expected to trounce long-shot candidate Steve Lonegan in October’s special election, but after national media began for the first time to scrutinize his record, he stumbled on the campaign trail.

The New Jersey Republican party didn’t put up much of a fight. “The refusal to expose Cory Booker is frustrating,” says a Republican operative who has worked on campaigns both nationally and in New Jersey. “In 2013 the state GOP appeared to be on lockdown, refusing to go after both Cory Booker and Bob Menendez.” Even without that sort of institutional opposition, Booker saw a 30-point lead narrow to an 11-point win on Election Day.

https://www.nationalreview.com/article/384952/dont-give-booker-pass-eliana-johnson

Posted on

In Senate race to watch, Jeffrey Bell is running against Janet Yellen

imgres

In Senate race to watch, Jeffrey Bell is running against Janet Yellen

Why isn’t the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee coming in for Jeffrey Bell in New Jersey? He’s in a remarkable political fight, running surprisingly close to the incumbent, Cory Booker, despite having zilch in his campaign account. Yet he can’t get his phone calls returned by the national GOP. This is all the more amazing because Mr. Bell is framing a national issue — the failure of the Federal Reserve to create jobs. It’s almost as if Bell’s real opponent were not the glad-handing Booker but Janet Yellen, the Fed chairman. (Lipsky/The New York Post)

https://www.nysun.com/new-york/in-senate-race-to-watch-brjeffrey-bell-is-running/88806/

Posted on

U.S. Senate candidate Bell says his focus is economy

imgres

U.S. Senate candidate Bell says his focus is economy

With less than 100 days until the November election, recent polls have shown Republican candidates coming on strong. U.S. Senate Republican candidate Jeff Bell told NJTV News Anchor Mary Alice Williams that he has been a man for big ideas and that his campaign is focusing on the economy. (Williams/NJTV)

https://www.njtvonline.org/news/video/u-s-senate-candidate-bell-says-his-focus-is-economy/

Posted on

Jeff Bell’s surging senate race against Cory Booker

jeff_bell_theridgewoodblog.net

Jeff Bell’s surging senate race against Cory Booker

In his Senate run against Cory Booker, Republican Jeff Bell is doing nothing the experts tell you a candidate should do — and everything they say you shouldn’t. But here’s the extraordinary thing: He continues to close the gap against a man who is supposed to be “unbeatable.” (The New York Post)

https://nypost.com/2014/08/03/jeff-bells-surging-senate-race-against-cory-booker/

Posted on

Reader Says Booker turned out to be a massive disappointment.

saint-cory-booker

Reader Says Booker turned out to be a massive disappointment.

Newark, run by Sharpe James, was the Zimbabwe of America. Despite what seemed like massive obstacles, this bright and seemingly inteligent man took on the James machine and finally took over. Hope for Newark, right? Not so fast. The unthinkable happened and Newark’s terrible statistics actually got worse. Then, we entered an alternate universe. Booker’s abysmal performance as Mayor was completely ignored, and he was picked up on the national radar, heading for bigger and brighter things. The man is an empty suit with a good media personality.

We get the policians we deserve.

TaylorMade RBZ Stage 2show?id=mjvuF8ceKoQ&bids=205477

Posted on

Shock Poll Bell Closes Bookers lead to 7pts and leads with Independents

url

Shock Poll Bell Closes Bookers lead to 7pts and leads with Independents
July 28,2014
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, The New York Times and CBS News released a poll yesterday that shows Jeff Bell within striking distance of incumbent Cory Booker, who is ahead by just 50 to 43 percentage points. Even more interesting Bell is leading among independent voters by eight points. You can read about all the Senate polls taken here:https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/upshot/republicans-senate-chances-rise-slightly-to-60-percent-.html?rref=upshot

The stunning result follows the first poll of likely voters taken by Rasmussen in early June, which had Bell down 13 points and tied with independents. What’s remarkable is that Jeff Bell’s midsummer polling surge has come with no advertising or any other mass voter contact.

It seems New Jersey voters are simply dissatisfied with the job that Cory Booker’s done in Washington and are looking to replace him with someone who has a different approach to the job.

TaylorMade R1 Driversshow?id=mjvuF8ceKoQ&bids=205477

Posted on

Federal report on Newark police department may come back to haunt Cory Booker

cory_booker_theridgewoodblog.net_

file Photo by Boyd Loving

Federal report on Newark police department may come back to haunt Cory Booker

JULY 28, 2014    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JULY 28, 2014, 1:40 AM
BY HERB JACKSON
RECORD COLUMNIST
NORTHJERSEY.COM

When the U.S. Justice Department issued a damning report last week about civil-rights abuses by the Newark Police Department, Sen. Cory Booker — who served as the high-profile mayor of the city while the abuses were piling up — said the federal involvement was a positive step.

As mayor, Booker recalled, he had worked with the American Civil Liberties Union — which first requested the federal investigation — to improve procedures and “even ended up calling for the federal assistance being announced today.”

What Booker didn’t say was that he had tried to stop the investigation back in 2010, before it ever began.

Or that he said in 2011 that it would be “ridiculous” to hire a federal monitor to oversee the department — a step that the city agreed to take last week.

Booker’s shifting reaction to federal oversight of the 1,000-member police force has had little immediate impact on his rising national reputation, even though similar issues have become major liabilities for other elected officials.

But they could be damaging in the future.

“For somebody who built his career around turning Newark around, a Justice Department finding is a very clear 
statement that, well, you didn’t turn this part around,” said University of Nebraska-Omaha Professor Samuel Walker, who has written a book about police practices and was familiar with the ACLU’s efforts in Newark.

Though best known for his openness with strangers on Twitter to the point of inviting people to shower at his apartment during the post-Superstorm Sandy blackout, Booker has tightly controlled press access since becoming a senator. For example, he generally ¬declines requests for comment from reporters who swarm around senators heading to and from votes and has turned down invitations to appear on network news shows.

And last week, after the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced the scathing findings from a three-year investigation of the Newark police, he declined to discuss the police misconduct and instead only issued statements through his Senate office.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/jackson-federal-report-on-newark-police-department-may-come-back-to-haunt-cory-booker-1.1058139#sthash.hPRkDl6o.dpuf

Posted on

St. Cory’s Stunningly Shallow Worldview

saint-cory-booker-1

St. Cory’s Stunningly Shallow Worldview

Jul. 27 Cory Booker

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

There are three dominant camps in the modern Democrat Party when it comes to the plight of Israel, Save Jerseyans:

1 – Those who straight-up hate Jews;

2 – Those who are so ideologically liberal and morally relativistic that they’re also reflexively anti-war/colonialism/military; the end result is unthinking, unsubstantiated and automatic opposition to the militarily-superior participant in any conflict regardless of any other considerations; and

3 – Those who, frankly, are naive and dumb enough in equal measure to believe that humanity can “Care Bear stare” its way out of any conflict with sufficiently positive social media activism.

I’ve seen no evidence that Cory Booker (D-Twitter) shares anything other than a party registration (which is bad enough) with group #1; as for camps #2 and #3, however, it’s obvious enough to anyone paying attention that our state’s celebrity junior center is living in a different reality from the rest of us (and certainly the poor citizens of Israel who weather a daily barrage of rocket fire).

This is the MOST substantive quote I could find from him on the subject tangentially related to Gaza:

 @CoryBooker 

“We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” ― Jonathan Swift



Wow. Thanks for that, Senator.

– See more at: https://savejersey.com/2014/07/cory-booker-israel-gaza/#sthash.KcrbPXwW.dpuf

Posted on

Bergen County Exec’s race: Booker says “I’m going to come in very hard” for Tedesco

cory_booker2_theridgewoodblog.net_

file photo Boyd Loving

Bergen County Exec’s race: Booker says “I’m going to come in very hard” for Tedesco

MONTCLAIR – Bergen County native U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) paused from speaking out in favor of a bill seeking to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case to look homeward to the 2014 Bergen County Executive’s race. (Bonamo/PolitickerNJ)

https://www.politickernj.com/77071/bergen-county-execs-race-booker-says-im-going-come-very-hard-tedesco

Posted on

Booker wants his picture taken with every senator

103113-video-cory-booker-sworn-into-us-senate

Booker wants his picture taken with every senator

Like a high schooler collecting yearbook messages before summer break, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is roaming the halls of the Senate before August recess asking his peers to pose for selfies. (Itkowitz/The Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/wp/2014/07/12/booker-wants-his-picture-taken-with-every-senator/