By Matt Rooney
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If there’s one thing about Gropacus (“Cory Booker”) which is generally agreed upon on both sides of the American political divide?
He’s never been focused on his job at hand.
He’s always looking at, and striving towards, “the next thing.”
The Daily Beast (hardly a right wing rag!) famously obliterated his absentee tenure as mayor of Newark.
As our junior U.S. Senator? Booker spends more time tweeting, campaigning, and grasping for headlines in distant battleground states than actually working to improve New Jersey’s quality of representation on Capitol Hill. It’s called “running for president.”
And to help him get there, just yesterday, a bill was introduced before the N.J. Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee which is up for formal consideration on Monday 10/22. S-3106 (sponsored by Senate President Steve Sweeney) provides that a New Jersey incumbent United States Senator CAN run for U.S. Senate and U.S. President at the same time. Coincidentally (lol), Booker is up for reelection in 2020.
So this is really “Cory’s Law.” (h/t Michael Symons).
The political angle: Democrats don’t want a messy U.S. Senate primary in 2020; Murphy gets to decide how he’s replaced if he wins, and if he doesn’t, they’re in the same position. They also want Booker on the ballot for under-card reasons.
Of course, what’s best for (1) the N.J. Democrat Party and (2) the taxpayers of New Jersey is not one in the same!
Last I checked, Save Jerseyans, our federal government was designed BY and FOR the people, not FOR “Cory Booker’s latest ambition” or anyone else’s. New Jerseyans of all stripes — ranging from the most ardent MAGA zealots to the angriest anti-Trump partisans — deserve a chance to elect a U.S. Senator in 2020 whose highest ambition is to SERVE New Jersey. We never got that with Gropacus. It’s a scandal that his political allies are trying to deny us the opportunity for a full-time senator in two year’s time.
Tax reform. Health care. The Gateway project. Etc. and so on. The list of ongoing issues directly impacting our state is growing, not shrinking.
Cory Booker has NEVER demonstrated an ability to effectively multi-task.
If Senator Gropacus plans to once again give our state less than 100% of his attention over the next two years? And shortchange the voters of New Jersey who deserve a REAL election? Shame on our legislators for enabling him.
Find your legislators’ contact information HERE and tell them to OPPOSE this nonsense.
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MATT ROONEY, founder and blogger-in-chief of ‘Save Jersey’ as well as a sought after speaker and media commentator, is also a practicing New Jersey attorney.
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