TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) — The high-profile Democratic mayor of New Jersey’s largest city was the favorite to win a Senate seat Wednesday in a special election that could make him just the second African-American in the Senate.
The election also has drawn attention as a referendum on the partisan bickering that has gripped Washington, forcing a government shutdown and bringing the country to the brink of a debt default.
Public opinion polls have shown Newark Mayor Cory Booker with a double-digit advantage against his Republican rival, Steven Lonegan, in the election to fill a seat held by liberal Democrat Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died in June.
Booker, 44, who has tried to turn around the long-struggling city of Newark, has long been touted as a member of a new generation of black politicians who can win statewide elections, following in the footsteps of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Barack Obama, who left the Senate to become president.
Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina is now the only black member of the U.S. Senate.
During a compressed, two-month campaign, Booker and Lonegan highlighted their differences on the fiscal fight in Washington.
Booker circulated a petition to end the shutdown and accused Congress of failing voters by not finding a way to work together.
Lonegan supports the federal shutdown, which began on Oct. 1 when Republicans refused to pass a temporary spending measure unless the Democrats agreed to gut Obama’s signature health care program, which aims to extend coverage to the millions of Americans now uninsured. Lonegan argues the health care law should be delayed by a year and objects to the concept of government-directed health insurance.
The race also touched upon Booker’s tweets with a stripper and a Republican political strategist’s profanity-laced rant.
Lonegan, 57, the former state director of Americans for Prosperity, a group advocating limited government that was founded by the billionaire Koch brothers, ran an aggressive campaign.
He criticized Booker for the Newark’s high crime rate and unemployment. At one point in the campaign, Booker announced a new crime-fighting strategy to cope with a string of 10 homicides in 10 days.
“We want a leader, not a tweeter,” Lonegan said at one point, referring to the mayor’s prolific use of Twitter, where he has 1.4 million followers.
Booker painted Lonegan as a tea party extremist who would worsen Washington’s partisan paralysis.
“This is the only election in America right now where we will get a chance to make a statement about what is going on in Washington,” Booker said after voting in downtown Newark.
Both candidates drew on some big names for support — Oprah Winfrey helped raise funds for Booker, former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin campaigned for Lonegan.
The campaign took odd twists and turns for both candidates.
Booker was forced off-message to explain friendly correspondence with a stripper he met while filming a social media documentary. Lonegan was forced to dump a longtime strategist who gave a profanity-laced interview with a political web site in which he said Booker’s banter with the stripper “was like what a gay guy would say.”
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