During an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Newark mayor Cory Booker assured New Jersey voters that his 2014 U.S. Senate bid is only in the “preliminary stages” and that for the time being the state’s citizens should stick by incumbent Democratic senator Frank Lautenberg.
The 88-year-old Lautenberg has yet to indicate whether or not he will run for re-election in 2014. Last week Booker’s campaign filed papers with the FEC to get the ball rolling on his candidacy.
“As you know, I made a decision not to run for governor, to focus on the end of my term. That’s really what my focus is. This is going to be my most productive year as mayor,” said Booker.
“We’ve got about a billion dollars worth of new investment coming in to Newark. We’re going to have a city balanced budget for the first time in a decade or two. We’re going to also be hiring more police officers. So, that’s my focus. I have to file that account, as you probably know, because I can’t even do research on a federal office without having a federal account. And so for the rest of it, I think a lot’s going to happen during this state election year. I’m going to let that happen. But my intention is to run for United States Senate,” he added.