Yes, you read that headline right, Save Jerseyans. I have been giving it a lot of thought over the past year. There was a time when I thought Mayor Cory Booker would be a thorn in the side of a Christie Administration. A force to reckoned with and a strong candidate to take the Governor on in 2013. But a lot can happen in a year. No longer are the same liberal talking points flying from the mouth of the Mayor of Brick City. The Cory Booker who co-chaired President Obama’s 2008 campaign in New Jersey has gone politically AWOL. Somewhere in between those many, many tweets about nothing, Mayor Cory Booker seems to have changed his tune, or at least his priorities. The time has finally come for you, Mayor Booker, to switch parties. Here’s why:
1. Education Reform
Its on everyone’s mind. The Sweeney Democrats and the NJEA hate anything other than the status quo that happens to be failing students in over 200 schools across the state. However, Mayor Booker, even with a ‘D’ next to his name, comes down on the right side of this issue. He runs one of the worst Abbott district cities in the entire state. Everyday he gets to see what a mess the New Jersey Supreme Court started making of the public school system in the 1980s.
Mayor Booker has forged what can be described as nothing less than a robust alliance with the Governor on this issue. Everything that the Governor stands for, Booker has supported. In fact, his State of the City speech last week (where Education Commissioner Cerf was a front row attendee) started with the issue of education and was literally cast in the image of Governor Christie’s remarks in February’s budget address.
Booker supports charter schools, school choice, and the Opportunity Scholarship Act, which is currently making its way through Assembly committees and has drawn the ire of anti-anything-good groups like the NJEA and the ACLU. Not only does Booker support the bill, but he came in to testify on its behalf. I heard much of Booker’s testimony live. He was more passionate about the issue than almost anyone, on either side, in literally packed room. Mayor Booker was also instrumental in the Christie-Booker-Zuckerberg deal to bring $100 million to Newarks failing schools, where only 54% of students graduate annually.
Thinking more like a Republican, Booker is seeking practical solutions to his district’s problems rather than just wasteful (i.e. liberal) ones, and he is putting his statewide reputation as a democrat on the line to do so.
2. Property Tax Reform
Unlike the Democrats in the Legislature, Mayor Booker understands that the taxes in New Jersey are not just
killing jobs, but also forcing families from their homes. He realized early on that the status quo for property taxes is unacceptable and unsustainable, and he came right out to let everyone know that he supported the Governor’s call for Cap 2.5 (before it became Cap 2.0 in the compromise). But Booker did not stop there, he also endorsed all 33 Toolkit measures that Senate President Sweeney and Speaker Oliver refuse to put through their houses while they waste time with electric car chargers and soviet style economic advisory boards. Booker said,
The property tax problem is at the center of New Jersey’s affordability crisis and the people of this state are calling for their leaders to join them in pursuing — and finally enacting — a real remedy. Governor Christie, with his clear focus and determined drive, is putting meaningful and potent property tax relief within reach. I am proud to join the bipartisan and growing list of State and municipal leaders who are advocating for deep and durable reform — reform that stitches a 2.5% property tax cap into the fabric of our state while providing a critical toolkit capable of preventing key municipal costs from ballooning.
If I gave you that quote without a name before it, would you have known it was a New Jersey Democrat? I think not. Another interesting footnote on this issue is that when Cap 2.5 was still around in its purest form, it existed as a hard cap to be added as a constitutional amendment. This meant that there were no exceptions for public employee health benefits and pensions that have been plaguing our state budget process. It was a risky move, but again, it was the right one.
3. Unions and the Newark Budget
Democrats are pro-union. This is not a secret. The events in Wisconsin and around the nation, including in our own state capital just last week, show the power that the unions have to mobilize a constituency that many Democrats and generally slow individuals have a hard time ignoring in order to solve the real problems of our day. Not only did Booker support Toolkit bills championed by Christie that would reform things like pensions, health benefits, and arbitration, but he also took on an incredibly powerful union in his own city to save the budget (sound familiar?).
Booker put his foot down with layoffs in Newark. If the police union would not concede to help fix the deficit, then 167 officers would need to go. In a typical display of old guard union members backstabbing the young talent on the force, the union refused to back down. Being a democrat, they expected Booker to cave, but Booker was no Corzine. He was more of a Christie.
4. Liberals are Coming Out Against Him
With Mayor Booker taking these proper positions on these important issues, it is no surprise that some of the most nefarious groups in New Jersey are coming out against him. Groups that normally would be more willing to through a million dollars at a blue blooded bleeding heart liberal than ever throw an insult.
The most recent group to criticize Booker is the NAACP. Normally the NAACP would be all of the advancement of an African American male in politics, especially in the Democrat party, unless of course they happen to make tough decisions to do right for their city and happen to be pragmatic rather than blindly liberal.
Even more puzzling is what the NAACP is upset about. They are requesting all conversations and contacts between Booker, Zuckerberg, Christie, Oprah, and anyone else involved in the collection of private funding for the Newark Public Schools. They are suspicious of a gesture of good will that seeks to help solve what is truly the civil rights issue of our time.
5. It would be Quite the Quid Pro Quo
Let’s face it. With all of the aforementioned strikes against him in the eyes of a Democrat, Mayor Booker does not have any true opportunity for upward movement in the ranks of his own party. There is a possibility that he could someday end up knocking off Senator Rice in the 28th (assuming redistricting does not screw with those lines at all, which is honestly a likely scenario) but other than that, he is not destined for statewide office any more. Two years ago, it was a strong possibility. I’ll even go a step further to say the he was the best the Democrats had coming out of the disaster that was Jon Corzine. But those days are long behind him now.
As a Republican, Booker would be an instant star. A young, urban Republican with a real reform agenda to tackle the problems that plague our cities? What is not to love about that narrative? He would have room for his career in politics to grow. He could even one day serve in the future Christie Administration (yes, of course I mean in Washington, not Trenton). He would be a fresh face and a prominent voice from the get go.
But what would be in it for the GOP? Well Save Jerseyans, 2012 is not all about the Presidency. That’s right. Booker would be a prime candidate for the Senate nomination to run against Bob Menendez. I know the field for people who want that nod is vast and growing, but none of those potentials, at the moment anyway, have the statewide and nationwide notoriety that Booker does. He could run and win in cities where Republicans had only dreamed of even being competitive. Newark is his constituency, the love him, and he could take that reputation and that message to Trenton, Jersey City, Patterson, Atlantic City, and Camden. With the right backing from Christie and our prominent legislators, Booker would have no problem wooing the suburban Republicans to achieve the turnout necessary to topple Senator Menendez.
And yes, I understand that a Senator Booker would look an awful lot like Senator Brown from Massachusetts. He is simply not the most conservative guy around. But on the issues that are important to us today, like taxes, education, and governmental reform, Booker has his head in the right place. Plus, having a Republican Senator from New Jersey, a place where it would almost never be expected at this point in time, would do more for achieving a GOP majority in that body than anything else. As long as he remembers who helped him get to where he is, I have a feeling we would not have as many disagreements as some might think when it comes to key votes.
In conclusion I will say this. In New Jersey we do not just have R’s and D’s. On some sub-partisan level, we have two types of politicians. Those who seek to maintain the status quo, hold on to their party machines and political kingdoms, and make sure that nothing can change or ever get better, and those who see the problems facing Save Jerseyans like yourself everyday and seek to fix it, or who can see the problems of the present creating the disasters of the future and seek to stop it. Governor Christie and Mayor Booker may sit on opposite sides of the aisle, but they are both the latter type of leader. So, Mayor Booker, we probably disagree on a whole range of issue, but right now, where it counts you are right on the mark. Think it over, and I think you could find a nice home on the right side of the aisle.
Think of the impact on Memendez if Booker flips. Even if he did not run. The Republican candidate would have a big voice in Bob M's backyard.
I thought Cory Booker was a great guy for a while now. I'm a real Conservative Republican, but I told people if I lived in Newark I'd vote for Cory! He's the best mayor Newark has had in a long time. It's tough to turn around a place like newark but he's making good things happen there, he really does care about the residents there!
Great article Brian. Very well thought out. I hope Mayor Booker reads it.
Amen! This is the best article that has ever been on this site. As an urban Republican I'd love to have the Newark mayor join our party. By the way, theres a few other reform Dems in the Newark-JC Corridor who could join the GOP, like a certain Gold Coast councilman in Jersey City.