Booker, rival throw jabs to open Senate race in NJ

NEWARK — Though New Jersey voters have consistently rejected Republicans ? even moderate ones ? running for U.S. Senate over the past 40 years, the newly nominated GOP candidate kicked off the state?s general special election Wednesday by trying to sell them on his conservative ideology with a clear anti-government message.

Republican Steve Lonegan resoundingly beat his only challenger in Tuesday?s Republican primary. He?ll face Cory Booker, Newark?s mayor and already a popular figure in the national Democratic Party, who easily won his nomination as well, for the seat vacated by Sen. Frank Lautenberg?s death in June.

A dogged campaigner, Lonegan used his first news conference of the general election to attack Booker?s mayoral record, saying Booker would leave the state?s largest city with higher crime and unemployment rates than when first elected. It was the opening jab from a conservative Booker identified as ?a flame thrower? in his own victory speech Tuesday.

Lonegan said his advocacy of limited government, fewer taxes and more personal liberties will resonate with voters. But in a state that has more registered Democrats than Republicans, and more unaffiliated voters than those who declare a party, even more moderate Republicans failed to win Senate races. Lonegan would be the first Republican to win in 41 years.

The special election for the remaining 15 months of Lautenberg?s term will be held Oct. 16, with unprecedented Wednesday voting ordered by Gov. Chris Christie in part to avoid Booker topping the ticket over the governor?s own re-election race three weeks later.

Booker, 44, who won the Democratic nomination over three experienced opponents, including two longtime U.S. representatives, began the day greeting rail commuters in Hoboken after a few hours of sleep. He said the race offers voters a clear choice because his rival is at ?the far margin of the Republican Party.?

In an interview Wednesday, Lonegan rejected the notion that he?s in the GOP?s far-right wing.

?If Cory Booker says I?m far right and we?re 180 degrees opposite on every issue, then he must be far left,? said Lonegan, 57, who was state director of the anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity before resigning to run for Senate. Running against a political neophyte, got about 80 percent of the primary vote.

Though Booker has a close working relationship with Christie, the popular Republican governor said he was likely to endorse the winner of his party?s primary. Lonegan said Christie left him a voice message Tuesday night. On Wednesday, Lonegan reported that both Christie and Sen. Jeff Chiesa, the Republican caretaker Christie appointed to the seat, offered to help the campaign.

Booker, the rare New Jersey politician who was well known statewide before seeking statewide office, received about 60 percent of the primary vote. Entertainers Oprah Winfrey and Eva Longoria made campaign appearances for him.

A prolific social media user, Booker has become known through his story: He grew up in a well-off northern New Jersey suburb as the son of IBM executives, played football at Stanford, was a Rhodes Scholar and went to law school at Yale before moving into one of the toughest Newark neighborhoods and launching a career in public service.

Booker is trying to make history as the state?s first black senator. The state?s other senator, Robert Menendez, is Hispanic.

As mayor of a city known for crime, corruption and poverty, he?s courted hundreds of millions from philanthropists, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Lonegan, 57, who also grew up in suburban Bergen County and played college football, and served three terms as mayor of the small community of Bogota.

Lonegan opposes gay marriage, abortion rights and President Barack Obama?s health insurance overhaul, and generally wants to scale back the role of government. Booker supports the President?s health care overhaul, and says he would work to legalize gay marriage, increase the minimum wage and improve the lives of women.

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Newark Mayor Cory Booker not visiting Iowa

DES MOINES, IOWA — Newark Mayor Cory Booker will not be making an appearance in Iowa next month.

The University of Iowa?s website says that the Democratic candidate for Senate from New Jersey will be giving a lecture on the Iowa City campus on Aug. 29. But Booker campaign spokesman Kevin Griffis says Monday that Booker will not give the speech.

Griffis says the speech was scheduled before the special Senate election was called in New Jersey. He says they had since cancelled the event, but there had been some kind of miscommunication.

The potential of a Booker visit to Iowa drew attention because of the state?s presidential caucuses, which prompt speculation about politicians who schedule events in Iowa.

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Oprah to hold NJ fundraiser for Booker

NEWARK — Oprah Winfrey is holding a fundraiser for Newark Mayor Cory Booker?s bid for U.S. Senate.

Tickets for Thursday?s event in Jersey City range from $1,000 to $2,600. Booker?s campaign says about 200 people are expected to attend.

Winfrey dubbed Booker a ?rock star mayor? on her show, and the two are friends.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced his $100 million gift to the Newark schools when he and Booker appeared on Winfrey?s show in September 2010.

Polls show Booker is the front-runner in the Senate race. The primary election is scheduled for Aug. 13.

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Booker absence at Senate debate draws attention

TRENTON — Cory Booker made news by not being at Saturday?s first debate in New Jersey?s U.S. Senate race.

While his opponents discussed jobs, gun control and other issues, they spent time pointing out that Newark?s mayor had skipped the debate.

Rep. Rush Holt said voters didn?t get the chance to hear where Booker stands on the issues.

Rep. Frank Pallone said Booker showed in comments made during the last presidential election that he?s ?very much with Wall Street.?

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports State Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver said Booker?s absence is ?beginning to perturb us.?

Booker?s campaign released a statement saying he agreed to two debates, the same number as in the last Democratic Senate primary in 2008.

The candidates are vying to fill late Sen. Frank Lautenberg?s Senate seat.

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'Diverse' Booker longlist unveiled

23 July 2013 Last updated at 14:18 GMT By Tim Masters Entertainment and arts correspondent, BBC News Jim Crace (left) and Colm Toibin (right) are both previously shortlisted Previous nominees Jim Crace and Colm Toibin have made the 13-strong long list for this year's Man Booker prize.

Robert Macfarlane, chair of the judges, described it as "surely the most diverse long list in Man Booker history".

The list includes authors from Britain, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Ireland.

The shortlist of six will be unveiled on 10 September, and the £50,000 prize winner on 15 October.

The long list of authors and titles is as follows:

Tash Aw (Five Star Billionaire)NoViolet Bulawayo (We Need New Names)Eleanor Catton (The Luminaries)Jim Crace (Harvest)Eve Harris (The Marrying of Chain Kaufman)Richard House (The Kills)Jhumpa Lahiri (The Lowland)Alison MacLeod (Unexploded)Colum McCann (Transatlantic)Charlotte Mendelson (Almost English)Ruth Ozeki (A Tale for the Time Being)Donal Ryan (The Spinning Heart)Colm Toibin (The Testament of Mary)

Crace was previously shortlisted in 1997 for Quarantine, while Toibin has appeared twice before - for The Blackwater Lightship in 1999 and in 2004 with The Master.

At 67, Crace is the oldest author on the longlist, and 27-year-old Catton the youngest. Her book The Luminaries, out in September, is one of the longest on the list with 832 pages.

Bookmaker William Hill has made New Zealand-based Catton 6/1 favourite to win the prize, followed by Crace and Toibin at 7/1.

Richard House's The Kills has the longest odds, having been made the 20/1 outsider.

Crace's inclusion follows his announcement in February that Harvest was likely to be his last novel.

"Retiring from writing is not to retire from life," he told The Independent: "[It is] to avoid the inevitable bitterness which a writing career is bound to deliver as its end product, in almost every case."

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These 13 outstanding novels range from the traditional to the experimental”

End Quote Robert Macfarlane Chair of Man Booker judges Toibin's The Testament of Mary presents the mother of Jesus grieving angrily years on from her son's crucifixion.

Seven of the 13 longlisted authors are women; and three - Bulawayo, Harris and Ryan - are debut novelists.

In 2012 and 2011 four debut novelists featured on the longlists. The last first-time writer to scoop the top prize was Aravind Adiga in 2008 with The White Tiger.

"This is surely the most diverse longlist in Man Booker history: wonderfully various in terms of geography, form, length and subject," said judges' chairman Macfarlane.

"These 13 outstanding novels range from the traditional to the experimental, from the first century AD to the present day, from 100 pages to 1,000 and from Shanghai to Hendon."

The book that runs to almost 1,000 pages is Richard House's political thriller The Kills, described as "four interconnected books that are set across the globe, from Iraq to Naples and Reims to New York".

As well as the traditional hardcover format, there is also a multimedia ebook with videos and audio content.

Debut novelists (l-r) Eve Harris, NoViolet Bulawayo and Donal Ryan

Macfarlane told the BBC the judging process had been "peaceable but rigorous".

The longlist selection meeting on Monday lasted nearly six hours. "That speaks not of dissent but care taken," he said.

"It's a very contemporary list," Macfarlane added. "Where there are historical novels they tend to bear pretty hard on the present - we have rising Asia, we have falling Ireland, we have fiscal crashes, we have tsunamis, we have Orthodox communities in contemporary London. The novel really squares up to the present."

Macfarlane is joined on the 2013 judging panel by broadcaster Martha Kearney; biographer and critic Robert Douglas-Fairhurst; author, broadcaster and classicist Natalie Haynes, and writer and critic Stuart Kelly.

The longlist of 13 was selected from 151 titles and includes books from three independent publishers: Canongate, Granta and Sandstone Press.

"This is a longlist which showcases the craft of writing, from Donal Ryan's overlapping voices to the quirky perspective of Charlotte Mendelson's teenage narrator, Colm Toibin's guileful remodelling of a familiar story to Jhumpa Lahiri's vibrant cultural frontiers." said Jonathan Ruppin, web editor of Foyles bookshops.

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Each of the titles will also leave readers in a profoundly different place from where they started”

End Quote Jonathan Ruppin Web editor of Foyles "Each of the titles will also leave readers in a profoundly different place from where they started: this is fiction that questions why we live our lives the way we do and what it means to be a human being, whether in Zimbabwe today or the goldfields of New Zealand a century and a half ago.

"There are many writers here whose sales have previously not matched their talents, so readers have a wonderful opportunity to discover new favourites, authors they'll be reading for years to come."

Ruppin tipped Crace's Harvest to win, describing it as "the crowning achievement of a brilliant career".

But he added that Catton's The Luminaries was "a work of exquisite detail and extraordinary scope whose claims are impossible to overlook".

This year marks the 45th year of the £50,000 book prize, launched in 1969.

The winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize for Fiction will be announced on 15 October at an awards ceremony at London's Guildhall.

Hilary Mantel won the 2012 Booker Prize for Bring Up the Bodies, making her the first woman and first British author to win the prize twice.

She has since gone on to become the first Man Booker author to enter the official UK top 50 number one spot with the mass-market edition of Bring Up the Bodies.

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