Politics & Government

South Jersey Democrats Hail Booker as Bridge-Builder

The U.S. Senate primary frontrunner got plenty of support at a stop in Camden County Wednesday.

Ralph Roberts threw his arm around Newark Mayor Cory Booker and grinned beneath a graying moustache as flashbulbs popped around them at Camden County Democratic headquarters in Cherry Hill Wednesday.

This was not just Roberts’ guy, but the one for the entire state when it comes to the U.S. Senate race, the former Camden City chief fire marshal said, citing Booker’s experience running Newark and its similarities to Camden.

“Historically, North Jersey always seems to get the best of things,” Roberts said. “I think he’s able to bridge that gap…he’s experienced what we’ve experienced.”

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That was the sense around the room, as Democrats from Camden and Gloucester counties turned out in force, packing more than 200 people in the room to hear Booker deliver his campaign message and hold a meet-and-greet with dozens who hung around for nearly an hour afterward to get a chance to meet the frontrunner in the Democratic primary race.

Just having the Senate candidate in town, acknowledging the importance of South Jersey voters and giving them equal treatment, was a welcome sign, said Cherry Hill councilwoman Melinda Kane.

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“It’s his respect for this area, which means a tremendous amount,” she said.

Kane, who met Booker at the Democratic National Convention last summer, said there was no question in her mind which candidate would get her vote when Democrats began declaring for August’s special primary.

“I was very, very impressed with [Booker],” she said. “When I found out it that he was running for senate, my support immediately went to him.”

Booker already has widespread Democratic support in the seven southern counties—party leaders from Burlington down to Cape May endorsed him as their candidate at an event last month, and Wednesday’s gathering, Booker’s third stop in South Jersey in two weeks, served to emphasize that point.

The Senate candidate brought themes of unity and cooperation in his campaign speech to the crowd, which invoked some of the themes—a hope for the future, especially—of President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.

As people raised smartphones and cameras and tablets to snap pictures, Booker talked about America as a country with a vision and an insurmountable desire to improve.

“It is never an issue of ‘can we’,” Booker said. “It’s do we have the collective will.”

Flanked by a massive American flag, Booker talked of the fight to preserve Medicare and Social Security, a move toward equal pay for women and a need to improve the country’s infrastructure among some of his goals, should he make it to Washington, D.C., while criticizing the erosion of workers’ rights, voting rights and civil rights.

“We have work to do in this country,” he said. “We have to stand up in a collective chorus of conviction…and say, ‘Not on our watch.’”

Booker also drew on his experience both living in and representing Newark, touting things like reductions in crime and businesses like Panasonic and Manischewitz moving into the city as signs that turnaround is possible anywhere.

It’s that experience that helps connect him to South Jersey, which has similar issues facing its major cities, said state Senator Donald Norcross.

“Cory understand the urban centers and the issues that surround them,” Norcross said. “He’ll be taking that experience to Washington, where not everybody understands the issues the way he has lived them and been a part of them.”

And further, Norcross said Booker would bring new energy to the federal government at a time when it’s needed.

“He’ll take a fresh face down there,” Norcross said. “By any measurement, Washington is in complete chaos…hopefully he can bring some common sense back to a place that’s in dire need of it.”

That approach is something that helps the Newark mayor cross boundaries with ease, Roberts said.

“He’s energetic, he’s focused and he’s even-keeled,” Roberts said. “He brings everyone together.”


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