Cory Booker may be “America’s favorite mayor,” but Ruby Cramer finds that “in New Jersey, his fast rise and transparent ambition has rankled many establishment Democrats, who suggest he’s putting himself above his state party.”
“The Newark Mayor’s December announcement that he’d ‘consider’ a Senate bid in 2014 — a decision that followed a long, public deliberation played out on Sunday shows and cable news — may have served to raise his national profile. But Democratic insiders complain that it upended the state’s political landscape, making Republican Governor Chris Christie, without Booker challenging him, a virtual lock to win re-election, and setting in motion an intra-party war that has the state choosing sides between Booker and the 88-year-old incumbent Senator Frank Lautenberg.”