Tom Moran is the editorial page editor of the Newark Star-Ledger, New Jersey's top newspaper. This morning before dawn he ws writing about Cory Booker's official, but not unexpected, announcement that he is running for president. He's probably not as bad as some of the other moderates-pretending-to-be-progressives but he's not someone I'd want to see as the Democratic nominee. Better than Trump? Duh. Better than Gillibrand, Biden, Bloomberg? Um... probably around the same, maybe a tad better that Gillibrand. Better than Bloomberg. Same as Beto. I wrote about my own impressions here so I won't repeat them today. Instead, I'll repeat Moran's, as he notes that Cory is "about to face brutal and unrelenting attacks from competing Democrats, wary Republicans, and probably a few dozen Russian bots."
He’s a rich target in crazy times like this, because he’s not a normal guy. He’s a vegan and a Rhodes Scholar, and he never touches alcohol or tobacco. He meditates daily, and Tweets quotes from Jewish scholars and Buddhist priests. He once supported vouchers for private schools, and he attends prayer meetings with a Republican senator who thinks climate change is a hoax.I like all that, myself. We’ll see how it goes over with factory workers in Toledo.But put that aside. The core criticism of Booker is that he is a showboat with a silver tongue, a man whose real talent is promoting himself, not getting stuff done.That last part-- about not getting stuff done-- is wildly unfair. He may be famous for that silver tongue, but he carries an iron hammer to work.In Newark, Booker beat the corrupt old guard and became the first mayor in 45 years to leave office without being indicted. He cut the city’s workforce by 25 percent, a record of austerity unmatched in the state. He doubled the supply of affordable housing. He drove down crime sharply, at least until a cut in state aid forced police layoffs. He was a key figure in expanding charter schools that now educate one-third of city students, and are rated as among the best in the country by outside experts.Showboat? The man likes a camera, granted. But there’s a lot more to him than that.In the Senate, Booker had cringe-worthy moment on national TV in September during the confirmation hearings from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when he threatened to break ethics rules by releasing confidential records on Kavanaugh’s attitudes towards racial profiling. “This is about the closest I’ll probably ever have in my life to an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment,” he said.Ouch. It was self-aggrandizing, and it turned out the documents had been released several hours earlier by the committee itself. “That was a little over the top,” says Rutgers professor Ross Baker, one of the nation’s leading experts on the U.S. Senate.But, again, look at the larger record. Booker was a leading negotiator of the most important bipartisan effort since President Trump was elected, the criminal justice reform signed in December that shortened sentences and reformed prison practices. It was a chief goal of Booker’s since his election in 2013, and he nailed it.A few years back, I wondered how Booker was doing in the fight to get money for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River, New Jersey’s top priority in Washington. I called Tony Coscia, the chairman of Amtrak. He gushed about Booker’s success in finding support from Republicans for a critical low-interest loan program.“It was stalled, and he played a huge role in getting it moving,” Coscia said. “Now we’re making real progress.”Sorry, folks, the effort to finance the tunnel has gone south since Trump took office. But you get the idea.“The showboat accusation is a cheap shot,” Baker concluded.Could Booker win? Baker believes he has a shot, but he wonders if America is ready to elect a second African-American president four years after Barack Obama.“Glass ceilings that are broken are often repaired, unfortunately,” he said.Aside from race, Booker has important vulnerabilities. The Newark police, on Booker’s watch, accumulated a horrifying record on race and brutality that prompted federal intervention in 2016. A Justice Department review found that police targeted blacks in a stop-and-frisk operation that was out of control and used excess force as a matter of routine.“That stuff was going on way before Booker,” says the current mayor, Ras Baraka. “I grew up in the city and I know how those guys behaved, and some still do behave.”Booker is one of the Senate’s leading recipients of money from Wall Street and Big Pharma, and that may cost him in a Democratic primary as well.It’s a tough rap because Booker does not dance for those dollars. He wants to sharply raise taxes on Wall Street by closing the carried interest loophole, and he opposes efforts to soften the Dodd-Frank banking regulations. On pharma, he co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Bernie Sanders to allow imports of cheap Canadian drugs and wants to use Medicare’s market power to negotiate lower drug prices, both positions deeply hostile to the industry.Still, the money trail from these industries into Booker’s treasury will make for a spicy 30-second attack ad.A final problem: The staggering corruption at the Newark Watershed that was revealed after Booker left office-- one manager alone admitted taking $1 million in bribes. It is a non-profit agency overseeing the city’s watershed properties and delivery systems, but Booker was an ex-officio trustee and never attended a single board meeting.I won’t try to handicap Booker’s chances, especially after the Shock and Horror of 2016.I just hope that if he loses, it’s not because he’s seen as a tool of Wall Street, or a showboat without substance. Those things are just wrong.Baraka used to slam Booker as a showboat, back when they were rivals. “Whenever there’s a real issue in the city that needs to be resolved, the mayor is nowhere to be found,” Baraka said of Booker in 2013. “The only way you can see the mayor is if you turn on Meet the Press.But Baraka has changed his tune. “I did once think he was just glory seeking. But he does the work, whether it’s business development or crime, he does the work. And he’s found his voice in the Senate. He’s fearless. He’s passionate. Ten years ago, I never would have said that. But even my mother supports Cory Booker now.”Six years ago, I was in the newsroom when a report came across that Booker had charged into a burning building to save a woman screaming for help. Oh please, I thought.But we looked into it, and it was true. Booker burned his hand when flaming debris fell from the ceiling as he charged through the smoke-filled house carrying the woman, Zina Hodge, over his shoulder. He needed medical treatment for smoke inhalation.Hodge later said she was glad to be alive. Her mom added this, on Booker: “I think he’s a super mayor, and he should stay mayor and then be president.”That’s one vote. Now comes the long march to drum up millions more.
A couple of friends and I were sitting around trying to come up with a one word phrase to help Nancy with her official portrait of Cory for DWT. We settled on an unflattering term: chameleon.
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