Nick Corasaniti

The super PAC, United We Win, was filed Thursday, the same day that former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts announced he was entering the race. It takes aim at the increasingly public vexing in Democratic donor circles that the largest field of candidates in the party’s history needs yet another candidate.

The group said it planned to spend $1 million on Facebook and Instagram ads over the course of the next month. The ads will mainly target moderate Democrats across the country, though they will also feature issue-based themes, highlighting Booker’s progressive policies on issues like gun control and criminal justice reform.

Each ad will also act as a mechanism to acquire small-dollar donors, linking to a page that has a button to directly donate to Booker’s campaign. Booker is “less than 15,000” individuals away from reaching the 200,000-donor threshold for the December debate, according to campaign solicitation emails. (Booker has also not met the standard in any qualifying polls; he needs four.)

The super PAC was organized by supporters of Booker in New Jersey, including members within Gov. Philip D. Murphy’s political orbit. The senator from New Jersey has enjoyed immense support from his home state, with the entire Democratic congressional delegation and Murphy offering their endorsement en masse earlier this year.

“Our organization is supported by individuals who know Cory and have seen the transformative impact that has been made by his leadership and dedication to doing what’s right, from Newark to Washington,” said Philip Swibinski, a spokesman for United We Win.

But the super PAC also poses a challenge for Booker, who could use the additional resources but has also denounced super PACs. In February, after another super PAC, called Dream United, formed to support his nascent candidacy, his campaign told HuffPost that “Cory opposes super PACs aiming to support his or anyone’s candidacy for president.”

With the primary calendar having reached a new, more dire phase, however, other presidential candidates are turning to super PACs — risking liberal backlash — in efforts to prop up their candidacies. Recently, allies of former Vice President Joe Biden set up a super PAC to augment his surprisingly cash-strapped campaign.

On Thursday, Booker’s campaign reiterated his opposition to all super PACs, including ones supporting his candidacy.

“Nothing has changed from what we said from the outset of this campaign,” said Sabrina Singh, a spokeswoman for the Booker campaign.

This article originally appeared in

New Booker 'Super PAC' Airs a Message: We Don't Need More Candidates. We Have Cory.

With Sen. Cory Booker’s campaign still struggling to break through in fundraising and at risk of being excluded from the Democrats’ December debate, a new super PAC has emerged from the swamps of New Jersey to support Booker. Its message: We don’t need more candidates; we’ve got Cory.

“A Democratic victory flows through cities like this,” Booker said afterward, noting that if voter turnout in Milwaukee, a heavily Democratic city where 40% of residents are black, had been as high in 2016 as it was for former President Barack Obama’s two elections, Wisconsin would have remained blue.

Seeking fresh energy for a presidential campaign that has lagged in the polls despite well-received performances in the debates, Booker was the latest candidate to detour from the conventional quartet of early-voting states to hold rallies in Detroit, Philadelphia and now Milwaukee, three cities where outsize turnout will be key to Democrats winning back Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin next November.

Booker’s plea to voters here was both personal and immediate, a primary pitch that he is the best candidate to re-energize the fractured Obama coalition and restore the black vote in key states Hillary Clinton lost by focusing on big cities that saw a drop in turnout. He argues that the path to defeating President Donald Trump must involve black voters in these cities, and that Democrats cannot simply focus on disaffected white voters elsewhere.

“I’m the only candidate in this race who lives in a low-income, black and brown community,” Booker told the crowd here, a response he regularly gives when asked what sets him apart in the vast field of two dozen candidates.

“I see our country right now with so many places like Newark, like Milwaukee, like Chicago, like Baltimore,” he said. “There is something going on in our country right now where we are failing to have the necessary courageous empathy, where we see each other.”

The repeated and direct attention to swing-state cities at this early stage in the primary reflects a growing urgency to address the failures of the 2016 Democratic campaign, as well as the belief that Trump could win again if the party focuses on appealing to white, blue-collar swing voters in the Rust Belt, and makes less frequent overtures to core constituencies like people of color and young people.

“Three years ago, we didn’t show up to vote,” said Mandela Barnes, the lieutenant governor of Wisconsin and a Milwaukee native, as he introduced Booker on Sunday. “And it’s not that Donald Trump was some super-popular candidate. He got 6,000 fewer votes than Mitt Romney. We just have to show up.”

A national effort already underway

Evidence of the growing and focused effort on increasing turnout in cities like Milwaukee is abundant.

Priorities USA, a major Democratic super PAC, has launched an aggressive digital ad campaign in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida, attacking the economic policies of the Trump administration. The group plans to spend $250,000 to $400,000 per week by late August.

The group is also spending $4 million to mobilize voters for the 2019 off-year elections. Though the group hasn’t detailed how that money will be distributed, many cities, including Philadelphia, are holding mayoral elections this year.

And for the past eight weeks, the Democratic National Committee has been training a group of college juniors, mostly from communities of color, to eventually work on the 2020 campaign, workshopping best practices for door-knocking, phone-banking and recruiting.

In Michigan, the program, known as Organizing Corps 2020, had 45 organizers on the ground in the Detroit area this summer. They focused on proactive outreach, informing residents of recent changes to voting procedures, like the start of same-day voter registration and expanded access to absentee voting.

Here in Wisconsin, Jadah Cunningham, a rising senior at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, was one of 30 Organizing Corps members who canvassed every ward in Milwaukee, knocking on more than 20,000 doors, with a mandate to “bridge-build” while learning the ropes of the grunt work of field organizing.

“I think that that’s part of why Organizing Corps in Milwaukee exists in the first place,” Cunningham said. “The margins that we can win or lose by in 2020 are field margins, or margins that we, the 30 of us this summer, could potentially make up.”

Though the 2020 election may still feel far off, the goal of the Organizing Corps is to build an early bench of young people of color who are prepared to work in their own communities as organizers and field staff.

Central to the training effort this summer was combating voter suppression in cities. In his stump speech, Booker frequently references the 2018 governor’s race in Georgia, where Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee, was narrowly defeated amid accusations of voter suppression, particularly in black communities.

Though Booker boasted during the July debate that he was the only candidate talking about the suppression of black voters, the broader Democratic coalition is currently fighting to expand the electorate on both legal and organizing grounds.

The Priorities USA Foundation, a nonprofit group that is separate from the super PAC, is currently involved in voting rights litigation in Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire and Florida.

The DNC has already created a voter suppression hotline and an online resource guide, and the Organizing Corps has been reaching out in communities that were inundated with misinformation during the last presidential campaign.

Here in Milwaukee, that means focusing heavily on areas like the 53206 ZIP code, in which 95% of residents are black and the majority of men have been incarcerated.

“In the rest of the country, there’s a Democratic primary going on,” said Ben Wikler, the chairman of the state Democratic Party. “In Wisconsin, we’re already starting the general election.”

The state party in Michigan has created a dedicated, full-time position of voting rights director whose sole job will be taking a proactive approach to protecting voting rights in the state, such as tracking any purges of voter rolls.

Ask any expert whether Democrats can rely solely on these cities, however, and the answer is often a resounding “no.”

Priorities USA gamed out two general-election scenarios last month. In one, if the overall turnout from people of color drops two percentage points from current national poll numbers, the Democratic nominee will most likely lose the election. In the other, if support for the Democrat among white working-class voters drops one percentage point below current polling averages, the Democrat will also probably lose.

“It really is trying to find the sweet spot,” said Patrick Murray, the director of polling at Monmouth University. “The debate so far has been really focused on winning back that white, blue-collar, working-class vote. But it’s right to get your urban vote excited about you as well.”

An increasingly common campaign swing

Many of the Democratic candidates are making similar deviations from the state fairs, county dinners and fish fries of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — the four states that are first to vote.

Sen. Bernie Sanders dipped into a coffee shop meet-and-greet in Milwaukee, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren campaigned there after unveiling her immigration platform. Sen. Kamala Harris has made multiple trips to Detroit. Former Vice President Joe Biden anchored his campaign in Philadelphia.

And national Democrats continue to telegraph the importance of these cities with major events: The July debates were held in Detroit; next summer’s convention will be in Milwaukee.

At the Booker rally, voters were relieved to see the growing attention paid to these cities amid a primary in which the four early-voting states always carry outsize import.

In Milwaukee, “it’s the same problem with what’s going on in the USA right now,” said Steve Morehead, 42, a lifelong resident. He said he believed cities like his hometown were being left behind.

Booker was the first candidate Morehead had seen in person this cycle, but he said he hadn’t yet decided whom to support.

Set against the national debate over gun control following the mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio; and El Paso, Texas, Booker spoke at length about the scourge of gun violence and its outsize impact on places like Milwaukee, drawing on similar themes as he did in a speech last week in Charleston, South Carolina.

“We pledge to be a nation of liberty and justice for all, but where is the justice when children are being killed every single day in our nation by gun violence?” he said.

He held his event in Sherman Park, the northern Milwaukee neighborhood where three years ago, a police officer shot and killed Sylville Smith, a young black man. The killing set off three days of unrest, with multiple arrests and injuries.

As he closed, Booker returned to his lofty and familiar themes of unity. The political and racial divisions stoked by the Trump administration, and often by the president himself, have left the country in need of more than just new leadership, Booker said. It needs to heal.

“I’m with you on beating him,” Booker told the crowd here. “But dear God, can’t we have bigger ambitions than that?”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/us/politics/cory-booker-2020-democrats.html" id="95787221-0a5d-39e4-a8cd-da316e355d40">The New York Times</a>.

These 3 Cities Are Destinations for Democrats. They're Not in Iowa.

MILWAUKEE — An energized crowd of 500 packed into a mixed-use space here on a summer Sunday afternoon to hear a rousing stump speech from Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who was making the final stop in a 12-day campaign blitz in a state that won’t hold its primary until April.

Though sea gulls are as core to the Jersey Shore as a stereo blasting “Born to Run,” the birds that have been hunting the food stalls lining the boardwalk in Ocean City possess an extra level of voracious hunger, a fever pitch of aggression that stands out even in a state where pugnacity is considered a plus.

Their behavior has turned this popular oceanfront destination into a Hitchcockian dystopia of divebombing birds.

“I’ve seen them take on an entire pizza,” said Tom Baglini, 71, who lives in Ocean City with his wife, JoAnn. “I saw the guy and he had the box, and he took one slice out, and the bird came down, hit the slice, then hit the box, and the pie hit the ground, and then, like hundreds of birds just swarmed.”

Ocean City had had enough. It turned to an army of winged bouncers.

The city unleashed a posse of raptors — four hawks, two falcons and an owl — to take on the unruly sea gulls.

“It’s reached a point where you can’t eat on the boardwalk or beach without birds flying at your hands and face. It truly has become a safety hazard,” said Ocean City’s mayor, Jay A. Gillian. “I remain committed to doing whatever it takes to make sure the boardwalk and beach experience in Ocean City is safe, family friendly and enjoyable.”

One of the few towns along the Jersey Shore where alcohol is not sold, Ocean City attracts roughly 150,000 visitors every summer to a beach idyll: a wide boardwalk filled with ice cream and pizza stands, fudge shops and salt water taffy stores, where the chatter of conversation is occasionally drowned out by the squeals from nearby amusement rides.

The squeals of sea gulls circling potential meals is a less welcome part of the background noise. But these days, the gulls must also keep an eye out for the sharp-clawed raptors roaming the skies.

Using birds of prey to control avian populations is a common tactic — deployed not just at beaches, but at airports, among other places. It is praised by environmental groups as a humane way of taming out-of-control behavior.

“The best way to put nature back into balance is to bring back predators,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club. “Whether it’s hawks or falcons in urban areas to reduce pigeon populations, or sea gulls along the coast, it makes a lot more sense.”

Ocean City is paying $2,100 a day through Labor Day for the use of the trained raptors, which are provided by East Coast Falcons. Though the raptors are certainly capable of killing sea gulls, these have been trained just to frighten the gulls away. The program, which started in early August, has been effective enough that the hours the raptors are on duty each day has been extended.

Erik Swanson, the owner of East Coast Falcons, has been training birds of prey for nearly 30 years. His animals have helped to clear out geese and other birds from flight paths near Kennedy International Airport, reduced a starling population that was threatening a blueberry farm, and scattered pigeons and other birds away from landfills.

But the belligerence of the sea gulls in Ocean City surprised even this veteran bird expert.

“If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I don't know if I would have even believed it,” Swanson said. “We were sitting there talking with the town manager and this girl walked out with a bucket of chicken or something, and she literally had more than 20 birds just start mobbing her.”

Fueled by the constant availability of food, the sea gulls had developed advanced tactics, Swanson said.

Some of the sea gulls have learned to attack people, who drop their food once bitten.

“And then when the one does that, you have about 40 of them that all run in and try to eat the food,” Swanson said.

Just about every regular visitor to Ocean City seems to have a sea gull story.

Darcy Krause, who lives in Philadelphia and has been visiting Ocean City for about 10 years, said a sea gull swooped down between her hand and her face and snatched a Wheat Thin cracker from her fingers without leaving a mark.

Ellen Ilconich, who lives in Marleton, New Jersey, had a sea gull hover over her sandwich and pluck out the deli meat inside.

The Baglinis watched the other day as a few gulls huddled under a beach umbrella, dug into an open beach bag while the owners were away, pulled out a bag of chips and enjoyed a feast on the sand. Two weeks earlier, a sea gull clutching an entire hero sandwich landed near their lawn.

Sue Lyons-Joell, who has been coming to Ocean City for more than 30 years, has developed a sea gull-proof system when she orders anything at the boardwalk: Cover the food, stay close to the stalls and never eat anything out in the open.

“A couple of years ago it got so bad we had to put a sign up at the register basically warning customers of the sea gulls stealing their food,” said Randy Levchuk, an owner of Jilly’s, a family-run business in Ocean City that manages a popular French fry stand, as well as several T-shirt shops.

His T-shirt business has also been affected by the sea gull invasion.

“People are coming because they got pooped on by one of the birds, and they have to buy a new shirt now,’’ Levchuk said. “It’s not a good experience for the person in Ocean City with how bad it’s gotten.”

The summer crowds will be gone after Labor Day, but the sea gulls are not just seasonal visitors.

Eric Stiles, president and chief executive of New Jersey Audubon, said focusing on the summertime is a short-term “winnable solution.”

“But it’s not a perennial solution,” he said. “It’s not something you do for 30 days and the problem is solved forever.”

Still, so far, the introduction of the raptors seems to have improved the conduct of the sea gulls.

Families were enjoying soft-serve cones near a Kohr Bros Frozen Custard shop on a recent day, and the few gulls perched on the edge of the store roof were leaving them alone — for now.

Nearby, P.J. Simonis, a falconer who is part of Swanson’s team, was carrying a 17-week-old Harris hawk on his arm. The bird had just finished eating food left inside a cage, which was placed in clear view of the sea gulls.

“Just this bird feeding on the boardwalk,’’ he said, “has freaked them out.’’

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/nyregion/ocean-city-nj-seagulls.html" id="78e3038b-a9e2-348d-a085-a2e85a6bc762">The New York Times</a>.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. — They are deft predators of the French fried potato, able to pluck a fresh wedge in the milliseconds it takes a single fry to travel from its container to a human mouth.

Marauding Sea Gulls Have Met Their Match

Those eight words would thrust her from a fairly anonymous member of Christie’s inner circle into the middle of a national scandal that would become known as Bridgegate, a saga that ultimately grounded the soaring ambitions of Christie, a Republican governor many thought could be president.

Christie was never charged in the bizarre scheme to close down access lanes to the George Washington Bridge — the world’s busiest crossing — as political payback against a local mayor. And he has managed to remain a sought-after political talking head on major television networks and a close friend of President Donald Trump.

But for Kelly, the scandal unraveled a life shaped in the trenches of New Jersey politics, and Wednesday she was sentenced to 13 months in prison.

Just before the judge, Susan D. Wigenton, rendered her decision, Kelly spoke through tears as she sought leniency and asked for home confinement.

“Today marks another sad day for my children in a nightmare that has robbed our family of so much,” she said, adding that she apologized to the people of Fort Lee. A sentence of home confinement, she said, “would give us an opportunity to rebuild what we have lost.”

But Wigenton sentenced Kelly to prison, saying, “The facts haven’t changed. The evidence hasn’t changed.”

The date for Kelly to report to prison has not be set.

Outside the courthouse, her face still red with emotion, Kelly struck a more defiant tone, lashing out at Christie.

“Just because someone has the title of governor doesn’t give them the right to mislead others. It’s dishonorable, and it only shows that person for the coward that they are,” she said.

“Mr. Christie,” she added, “you are a bully and the days of you calling me a liar and destroying my life are over.”

Christie on Wednesday revisited the argument he has made about his role in the scandal.

“As I have said before, I had no knowledge of this scheme prior to or during these lane realignments, and had no role in authorizing them,” he said in a statement. “No credible evidence was ever presented to contradict that fact. Anything said to the contrary is simply untrue.”

In an interview before her sentencing, Kelly said the last time she spoke to Christie was in early January 2014, the evening before her infamous email was revealed. The governor sat in her office for an hour and a half, talking about nothing in particular, before she had to leave to pick up her children.

She said that she still felt betrayed by the governor.

“I don’t understand why he laid this on me,” she said. “I just, I don’t understand it. I was a loyal soldier in the sense that I got to work every day, commuted farther than anyone in that office. I don’t know. I’m so, I’m hurt, I’m angry and I’m just, I’m still just so curious as to why.”

Kelly spent nearly 20 years working for an assemblyman before joining Christie’s 2009 campaign in a field office in Bergen County and working the phone banks, often with her four children in tow.

After Christie’s victory, Kelly quickly ascended the ranks of his administration to deputy chief of staff.

“This wasn’t some part-time job that I got because I was a campaign worker,” she said. “I worked in state government for almost 20 years. So those 20 years were basically taken from me by the governor. Relationships I built over the course of time, who my children grew to know, because this is what I did for a living, all those disappeared.”

She was viewed as a dedicated political soldier, but never a rule-breaker, and her involvement in the Bridgegate scandal shocked many in Trenton. For months, even as Christie portrayed her as a rogue operative, calling her stupid and a liar, Kelly remained loyal to the governor.

But after she was indicted, her message shifted in court, as her lawyers portrayed her as the scapegoat — a “human piñata” — for the Christie administration. She said that the lane closings were pitched to her as a policy matter, and that she spoke directly with Christie about it. Her testimony portrayed Christie as temperamental, once throwing a water bottle at her in anger.

While Christie may not have known what his associates were planning, Kelly said he clearly knew there was something going on.

“Let’s be clear,” Kelly said. “He was a micromanager. If I suggested mac and cheese, he wanted the buffalo mac and cheese. Details were important to him.

“He knew what was going on,” Kelly added. “And any claim that he didn’t is absurd.”

Though Christie was never called to testify, his presence loomed over Kelly’s trial as witnesses laid bare the governor’s bellicose political style and his frequent desire to settle scores.

The decision to block three lanes for five days in September 2013 set off colossal traffic jams that trapped commuters, emergency vehicles and school buses and was meant, according to federal prosecutors, to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for declining to endorse Christie for re-election.

A federal investigation targeted several top associates of Christie, who insisted repeatedly that he knew nothing about the plot until months after it ended, even though testimony at Kelly’s trial revealed that he was told about the lane closings as they were happening and was involved in trying to cover up the scheme.

Besides Kelly, Bill Baroni, who was a top official at the Port Authority, had also been found guilty of civil rights violations, conspiracy and wire fraud. The two had been sentenced to prison in 2017, but won a partial appeal in 2018 when a federal court of appeals tossed the civil rights convictions.

Baroni, who was initially sentenced to two years in prison for his role in the scandal, saw his term reduced to 18 months. Kelly had originally been sentenced to 18 months in prison, but appealed that term, leading to Wednesday’s hearing.

David Wildstein, who was installed as the governor’s enforcer to be a top executive at the Port Authority, pleaded guilty to orchestrating the scheme and became the prosecution’s chief witness.

The investigation also ensnared David Samson, a former New Jersey attorney general whom Christie appointed as chairman of the authority, who pleaded guilty in a separate case to using his influence to get United Airlines to establish a new flight to an airport near a home he had in South Carolina.

Kelly is also appealing her conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court has offered no indication whether it will hear the case.

As he sought to make a case for leniency for Kelly, Michael Critchley, her lawyer, described “the boys of Bridgegate — Samson, Wildstein, Bill Stepien, a former top aide to Christie, and Christie himself — and noted that they were all faring better than Kelly.

“She is living day to day on gift cards,” Critchley said. “People are donating her food. And my friends, the Boys of Bridgegate, they’re doing fairly well for themselves.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/nyregion/bridget-anne-kelly-gwb-chris-christie.html" id="3a168e03-5c6a-3ecb-a56a-154c10b5705a">The New York Times</a>.

She Was Loyal to Chris Christie. Now She Will Go to Prison for Bridgegate.

On Aug. 13, 2013, Bridget Anne Kelly, a top aide to former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, fired off an email to a colleague at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

But for Kelly, the scandal unraveled a life shaped in the trenches of New Jersey politics, and Wednesday she faced a sentencing hearing before a federal judge in Newark.

But Wigenton sentenced Kelly to 13 months in prison, saying “the facts haven’t changed, the evidence hasn’t changed.”

Kelly spent nearly 20 years working for an assemblyman before joining Christie’s 2009 campaign in a field office in Bergen County — working the phone banks, often with her four children in tow.

When Christie drew nearly even with New Jersey’s Democratic governor, Jon S. Corzine, in heavily Democratic Bergen County, Kelly was seen as a key reason. After Christie’s victory, Kelly quickly ascended through the ranks of his administration to deputy chief of staff.

But after she was indicted, her message shifted in court, as her lawyers portrayed her as the scapegoat — a “human piñata” — for the Christie administration. She said the lane closings were pitched to her as a policy matter, and that she spoke directly with Christie about it. Her testimony portrayed Christie as temperamental, once throwing a water bottle at her in anger.

While Christie was never called to testify, his presence loomed over Kelly’s trial as witnesses laid bare the governor’s bellicose political style and his frequent desire to settle scores.

A federal investigation into the lane closings ensnared several top associates of Christie, who insisted repeatedly that he knew nothing about the plot until months after it ended, even though testimony at Kelly’s trial revealed that he was told about the lane closings as they were happening and was involved in trying to cover up the scheme.

Besides Kelly, Bill Baroni, who was a top official at the Port Authority, had also been found guilty of civil rights violations, conspiracy and wire fraud. The two had been sentenced to prison in 2017, but partially won an appeal in 2018 when appellate judges on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed the civil rights convictions.

Baroni, who was initially sentenced to two years in prison for his role in the scandal, saw his term reduced to 18 months in February following the appeal. Kelly had originally been sentenced to 18 months in prison, but appealed that term, leading to Wednesday’s new sentencing hearing.

David Wildstein, who was installed as the governor’s enforcer to be a top executive at the Port Authority, pleaded guilty to orchestrating the scheme and became the prosecution’s chief witness. The investigation also ensnared David Samson, a former New Jersey attorney general whom Christie appointed as chairman of the authority, who pleaded guilty in a separate case to using his influence to get United Airlines to establish a new flight to an airport near a home he had in South Carolina.

But for Kelly, the scandal unraveled a life shaped in the trenches of New Jersey politics, and Wednesday she faces a sentencing hearing before a federal judge in Newark.

Besides Kelly, Bill Baroni, who was a top official at the Port Authority, had also been found guilty of civil rights violations, conspiracy and wire fraud. The two had been sentenced to prison in 2017, but partially won an appeal in 2018 when appellate judges on the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals tossed the civil rights convictions.

At her first sentencing in 2017, Kelly pleaded with the court.

“The last 3 1/2 years have been devastating emotionally, financially and mentally,” she said in a Newark courtroom in 2017.

“The damage my children have suffered has been irreparable, and the time that we have lost as a family due to the extreme stress is gone forever.”

She was Loyal to Chris Christie, But Now She Faces Jail Time for Bridgegate

In what was billed as the major hometown rally kicking off his campaign, Booker, D-N.J., spoke to a late-arriving but enthusiastic crowd at Military Park, a revitalized green oasis in a city that was once a symbol of urban despair but has credible claims of an economic and cultural resurgence. Booker combined his familiar themes of unity with specific policies to close the racial wealth gap, repair what he considers a broken criminal justice system and set the country on a path to be a leader in climate change.

“We can’t wait when powerful forces are turning their prejudice into policy and rolling back the rights that generations of Americans fought for and heroes died for,” Booker said. “We can’t wait when this administration is throwing children fleeing violence into cages, banning Muslims from entering the nation founded on religious liberty and preventing brave transgender Americans from serving the country they love.”

The event also marked a kind of apex of Booker’s focus on Newark, a city he mentions more often on the campaign trail than his own name, hoping that the city’s rocky yet resilient rise can help propel him to the top of a crowded Democratic field for the 2020 election.

In a race that features six senators, Booker has often sought to shift the focus from his time in Washington to his tenure in what is known as the Brick City, when he was a young, upstart mayor who quickly achieved celebrity status for his well-documented and social-media-fueled efforts to turn around Newark.

“There is nobody in this race who has been a chief executive officer of their state’s largest city managing through a recession,” Booker told crowds in New Hampshire last weekend.

But it is a pitch that is not without risk.

While Newark, which has a population of 285,000, is clearly in the midst of a revival, it still struggles with crime and poverty. The median household income is roughly $20,000 less than the national average, and more than 28% of the city’s residents live below the poverty line, according to the U.S. census.

And Booker’s tenure in Newark was not without blemishes. The Newark Police Department, plagued by decades of mismanagement and corruption, was investigated by the Department of Justice and placed under a consent decree. The results were mixed for a highly touted $100 million investment in Newark schools by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook. And though homicides reached historic lows early in Booker’s first term, crime began to tick back up just as he was elected to the Senate in 2013, eliciting criticism that he had stopped focusing on the city with his sights set on Washington.

Ras Baraka, current mayor of Newark, was one of those critics. But he has since reconciled with Booker, and the two have united around a message of progress sparked by Booker and brought across the finish line by Baraka (his re-election slogan last year was “Touchdown!”).

“If you make your bones here, there is no place out there that can stop you in this country,” Baraka said, referencing Newark. “I usually tell people he got us on the field, and we took the ball and got us in the end zone. But if you can’t get in the game, you don’t get to win the championship. Sen. Booker got us in the game.”

Amid the crowd on a surprisingly hot April afternoon, Booker basked in the city’s renewal, as evidenced by the street vendors lining the park and the long shadows cast by skyscrapers, both venerable ones and new glass towers bearing the logos of Fortune 500 companies.

“When this city took a chance on me as their mayor, the chief executive of this city, I didn’t wait to bring people together,” Booker said. He continued, “We got people to invest here. We opened new businesses, created thousands of new jobs and after 60 years of decline, Newark is growing again.”

Booker began his campaign for president with a video from the streets of the city he still calls home, and his campaign swings feature the near ubiquitous campaign line of “I got my degree at Stanford but my Ph.D. on the streets of Newark.” But he ratcheted up his focus on Newark in the weeks before the rally.

In a recent campaign swing through New Hampshire, Booker recalled his much-publicized battle with Conan O’Brien, who as host of “The Tonight Show” in 2009 joked that a better health care plan for citizens of Newark “would consist of a bus ticket out of Newark.” Booker responded by recording a video “banning” O’Brien from the city’s international airport. The tiff played out for weeks on social media and late-night shows, before Hillary Clinton stepped in to broker a peace deal.

Booker, who critics sometimes charge chased fame more than his mayoral duties, paints the whole affair as a clever bit of earned publicity for his struggling city.

“That video went viral,” Booker told a crowd at a house party in Bedford, New Hampshire, last week. “Every show I was going on — I went on Jay Leno — every chance I had I talked about the opportunities in Newark. I bragged about my city with more American eyes watching than ever before.”

Leading up to Booker’s address was a cattle call of influential New Jersey Democrats, including Gov. Phil Murphy, Sen. Bob Menendez, Baraka and Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo.

But as much as his home state and city were represented at the rally — even the marching band from his launch video took the stage to warm up the crowd before Baraka spoke — Booker continued to focus on a sense of critical national urgency.

In choosing to have his kickoff rally on April 13, Booker pointed to the same day in 1969, when King first woke up in a jail in Birmingham and began writing what would become the “The Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

“Generations of Americans have shown us what was possible when they refused to wait,” Booker said. “Now it’s our turn. And we have work to do.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/us/politics/cory-booker-newark.html" id="e3c2c647-bfe7-3ee2-a8b5-133ff4e2aece">The New York Times</a>.

On Home Turf, Booker Says, 'We Can't Wait'

NEWARK, N.J. — Drawing on themes from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” Sen. Cory Booker pitched his campaign for president in newly urgent terms Saturday, declaring, “We are here today to say we can’t wait” as he laid out his vision for addressing the economic and social ills of the country.

In what was billed as the major hometown rally kicking off his campaign, Booker, D-N.J., spoke to a late-arriving crowd of more than 1,000 at Military Park, a revitalized green oasis in a city that was once a symbol of urban despair but has credible claims of an economic and cultural resurgence. Booker combined his familiar themes of unity with specific policies to close the racial wealth gap, repair what he considers a broken criminal justice system and set the country on a path to be a leader in climate change.

Cory Booker, Citing a Rising Newark, Pitches a Campaign of 'Justice'

“If you make your bones here, there is no place out there that can stop you in this country,” Baraka said, referencing Newark. “I usually tell people he got us on the field, and we took the ball and got us on the end zone. But if you can’t get in the game, you don’t get to win the championship. Sen. Booker got us in the game.”

In a recent campaign swing through New Hampshire, Booker recalled his much-publicized battle with Conan O’Brien, who as host of “The Tonight Show” in 2009 joked that a better health care plan for citizens of Newark “would consist of a bus ticket out of Newark.” Booker responded by recording a video “banning” O’Brien from the city’s international airport. The tiff played out for weeks on social media and late-night shows, before Hillary Clinton stepped into broker a peace deal.

New Jersey is one of the first big states to adopt a surcharge on short-term rentals — a so-called Airbnb tax. It kicked in Oct. 1 and is causing vacationers to rethink their summer travels and stirring anxiety among the homeowners who rely on them.

The fallout over the 11.6 percent tax has inserted New Jersey into a broader debate as states and communities grapple with the explosive growth of the online home-sharing economy. A patchwork framework of local ordinances has failed to keep pace with the rapid rise of Airbnb, the largest home-sharing site.

Massachusetts also recently passed a statewide tax on short-term rentals aimed at Airbnb and other home-sharing sites. A proposal to increase the sales tax on similar rentals has been introduced in Colorado.

In New York City, Airbnb and local officials have been at war over efforts to crack down on the industry. A federal judge blocked a law in January that would have required Airbnb to provide detailed information about listings and hosts, and the city recently filed a lawsuit against a group of real estate brokers, accusing them of using Airbnb to illegally rent out dozens of apartments.

State and local governments that have moved to rein in Airbnb and other home-sharing sites have set off alarm bells among those whose economic survival is tied to the short-term rental market and who are angry that they are being ensnared by new taxes and regulations.

Vacationers are abandoning long-held traditions and heading elsewhere. Homeowners complain they are having a hard time filling properties when they should be well on their way to being fully booked for summer. And businesses that rely on free-spending summer visitors fear that the rental tax threatens their most important time of year.

“People are actually canceling and forgoing deposits to get away from the taxes,” said George Triebenbacher, who rents out seven properties on Long Beach Island in New Jersey.

The 11.6 percent tax applies to all rentals fewer than 90 days, including those made on home-sharing sites or directly between a renter and an owner. The only exceptions are rentals arranged through a Realtor, which are not subject to the tax.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/nyregion/airbnb-jersey-shore.html" id="b795179a-67e9-31ce-ab3a-91215f58f01f">The New York Times</a>.

The Jersey Shore, a storied summer vacation spot, has become the newest battleground over regulating and taxing the internet economy.

'Airbnb Tax' in New Jersey Opens New Front in Battle Over Internet Economy

The fallout over the 11.6 percent tax has inserted New Jersey into a broader debate as states and communities grapple with the explosive growth of the online home-sharing economy. A patchwork framework of local ordinances has failed to keep pace with the rapid rise of Airbnb, the largest home-sharing site, which was valued at $31 billion two years ago and has upended the rental market around the world.

Much like Uber’s dominance has caused a regulatory challenge for cities and Amazon’s ascent has prompted states to adopt internet sales taxes, the popularity of Airbnb has begun to push lawmakers to impose new rules even as they find ways to tap the enormous revenue it generates.

In Massachusetts, critics warn that the new tax will wreak havoc on the state’s vital summer tourism season in places like Cape Cod. The same arguments are being put forth in New Jersey.

Susan Hiller said she was heartbroken to be heading to Palm Beach, Florida, with her four daughters and extended family for their annual summer vacation.

While the groomed white sand and glassy teal waters of the exclusive locale are a siren song for vacationers, beckoning even President Donald Trump, Hiller said it is just not the same as the Jersey Shore.

“I’ve been going to Ocean City since I was 5 years old and I’m 51,” said Hiller, who lives outside Philadelphia. “It is truly my most favorite place on earth.”

George Triebenbacher, 56, grew up on Long Beach Island in New Jersey and now owns seven properties there that he has been renting out since 2010. His weekly rates vary — three homes rent for $1,650, three go for $5,500 and a larger home fetches $10,000.

In past years, by this point in March, all his homes had typically been reserved for the summer. But this year, about one-fourth of his rental weeks are still available, he said, and some people who had initially reserved are backing out.

“People are actually canceling and forgoing deposits to get away from the taxes,” he said. “There’s no question that there’s all kind of upheaval being created by this tax.'’

Debbie Mozer, 60, who owns a souvenir shop in Beach Haven, New Jersey, said summertime sales are crucial to her bottom line.

“Everything depends on our sales for the summer,” Mozer said. “This is how we make our living.”

The 130-mile long New Jersey coastline is one of the state’s most prized resources. The four Jersey Shore counties accounted for more than $20 billion of the $43 billion spent in New Jersey on tourism in 2017, the most recently available data, according to state officials. When the Trump administration unveiled a plan to drill for oil off the New Jersey coast, opposition to the proposal unified politicians of all stripes, from the progressive Democratic governor, Philip Murphy, to a conservative Republican representative, Chris Smith.

Passage of the short-term rental tax flew largely under the radar last summer, overshadowed by the battle between Murphy and Democratic legislative leaders over a different tax — on the wealthy — that nearly shut down the state’s government.

But now many along the shore say the rental tax places one of the state’s main summer economic engines in its crosshairs. The 11.6 percent tax applies to all rentals fewer than 14 days, including those made on home-sharing sites or directly between a renter and an owner. The only exceptions are rentals arranged through a Realtor, which are not subject to the tax.

John Brennan owns a home on Long Beach Island that he is listing on Airbnb for $2,200 a week. By late winter he said he typically has 70 percent of the season booked. But so far, nothing has been rented.

“They can’t just keep taxing us,” he said.

Though it has frustrated renters and homeowners, Airbnb frames the tax as official recognition of its legitimacy, putting the company on equal footing with the hotel industry.

“Home sharing is bringing economic opportunity to families and businesses in every corner of the Garden State,” Josh Meltzer, who oversees public policy for Airbnb in the Northeast, said in a statement. “We are excited to be able to support core state and local services from Jersey City to the Jersey Shore.'’

The controversy over the tax underscores how New Jersey and other states are struggling to ensure that newer e-commerce companies abide by the same rules that apply to more established businesses, said Kim Rueben, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research group based in Washington.

“As person-to-person rental has become a larger part of economy, states and localities are trying to figure out, ‘How do you go about collecting the taxes that are equivalent to what hotels collect?'” Rueben said. “This is probably something that people were always supposed to pay and they just weren’t collected.”

Some homeowners and others on the Jersey Shore are fighting back, forming a group, the NJ Shore Rentals Coalition, to lobby lawmakers and Murphy to exclude shore rentals from the tax. A bill that would do that has been unveiled in Trenton, though it is unclear if it has enough support to pass.

“The vast majority of the Jersey Shore are homes that were rented out long before the sharing culture that’s developed with Airbnb,” said Duane Watlington, vice president of the coalition. “We believe that if the unintended tax is not corrected, there will be less money spent on vacations, further exasperating the need for tax revenues.”

Nick Corasaniti

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