What makes Cory Booker run? Bain Capital controversy exposes Newark mayor's ties to big money

theGRIO REPORT - Officials in Newark, who knew Cory Booker, before he became a regular headline maker weren't surprised that the mayor had delivered another controversial statement...

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The website cites a possible reason for Booker coming to the defense of the private equity firm. “Bain Capital and venture capital were among his earliest and most generous backers.” The website continues, “In all — just in his first mayoral run (2002) — Booker’s committees received more than $565,000 from the people he was defending (on Meet the Press). At least $36,000 of that came from folks at Romney’s old firm.”

Was this siding with Bain a clever Booker tactic? Was Booker paying dues by creating a moment for the “executives in one of the biggest buyout funds to step forward,” which is what Bloomberg News suggests.

Or was it another Booker moment, patiently described to the Newark’s newspaper correspondent, Goldberg, by the chairman of the state Democratic Party, John Wisniewski who said, “he did not believe Booker was trying to undercut his own party, but the mayor failed to grasp the significance of the Bain issue.”

In further defense of Booker, Wisniewski added. “Do I think he was being disloyal? No. I think the mayor misses the point of the [Bain] ad. It’s not about whether private equity is good or bad, it’s how Mitt Romney, at Bain Capital, utilized his position at a private equity firm to choose to create wealth as opposed to jobs. And it is a real issue, when you have the Romney campaign talking about job creation.”

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