Here is what they said:
If we are to believe the pundits and pollsters, New Jersey might just as well skip the special U.S. Senate election and start polishing up the late Frank Lautenberg’s old seat for Newark Mayor Cory Booker.
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| Congressman Frank Pallone |
Booker is indeed the heavy favorite. But he’s not the best choice, not in the Democratic primary on Aug. 13. Our endorsement goes to Rep. Frank Pallone, who has earned the nod with a long and distinguished legislative career that has yielded many benefits for New Jersey, and especially his 6th Congressional District, which stretches from Jersey Shore towns all the way up to Middlesex County.
Voters can’t go wrong, no matter which way they lean in this primary. The other challengers — Rep. Rush Holt and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver — can offer to New Jerseyans their own admirable records of achievement and service.
But Pallone has done the most in Washington, playing leading roles in environmental causes favorable to New Jersey as well as a variety of health care reforms. Pallone has a long history on Capitol Hill — first elected to Congress in 1988 — and knows where to go and who to see to get things done, an important advantage for a new senator.
Booker has an anointed-one vibe at the moment, a fast-rising star whom his supporters see as a future president. He is a dynamic speaker with a youthful vitality that leads to bold — some say spotlight-grabbing — moves to carry his message.
He ran into a burning building to save a neighbor. He shoveled snow for residents on Christmas. He went on a 10-day hunger strike in the Newark projects to draw attention — and more police presence — to one of the most drug-infested areas of the city.
Booker also claims to have spearheaded a broad recovery for his city symbolized in part by rare Newark sights — new hotels, a new supermarket, and vast urban farming.
But Booker’s image still outshines his accomplishments. Dig a little behind some of the claims of Newark’s renaissance and you’ll find a different picture, at least in some eyes. Crime and unemployment numbers are open to interpretation, not all of it good. The origins of many of the economic development advances date back before Booker’s regime. Booker’s critics say the mayor is far more concerned about burnishing his national image than doing the dirty work of running a major, troubled city.
In short, the substance behind Booker’s style is hard to identify, and often doesn’t hold up well to closer scrutiny.
Pallone, 61, can point to the many tangible benefits of his willingness to work the system and find solutions. He is particularly proud of his success in banning ocean dumping off New Jersey’s shores, a key pledge during his winning campaign for Congress in 1988 for the first of his 13 terms. He has continued to protect the shoreline in many ways, including persistent opposition to offshore drilling.
On health care, he is one of the principal architects of the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — which itself says a lot about his expertise, regardless of anyone’s opinion of the law.
Most of all, though, Pallone is a grinder who knows the players and can work the Washington backrooms and corridors in making deals. He is campaigning on that image, contrasting it to Booker’s showmanship and speechifying that, to Pallone’s way of thinking, will accomplish little.
Holt and Oliver deserve some attention as well. Holt has been playing off his “nerd” image in Web ads that note his defeat of a computer in “Jeopardy” while calling for a “speculation tax” that would rein in Wall Street excesses. That’s classic Holt – thoughtful, intelligent policy-making that goes off the beaten path, and doesn’t necessarily press the buttons of the electorate, even if it should. Holt, more than most Washington politicians, is always worth a listen, regardless of the topic.
Oliver champions herself as a pragmatist, pointing to, among other things, her support of pension and benefits reforms that didn’t win her many friends among fellow Democrats. While her power as speaker has occasionally veered into obstructionism, it has also served as a bulwark against some of the extremes of Gov. Chris Christie’s reign.
One school of thought has long been that Pallone was a kind of heir apparent to Lautenberg’s seat, and he has the support of the Lautenberg family. That, however, was before Booker’s comet started shooting skyward. But we urge voters not to be blinded by Booker’s celebrity. Choose the candidate who can do the job best. That’s Pallone.
1 comment:
Booker talks the talk, while Pallone walks the walk. Pallone is the most qualified but it's hard to compete with the Oprah and Zuckerberg PR machines.
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