Newark Mayor Cory Booker needed to do some damage control yesterday after taking heat for his endorsement of Richard Codey (D-Roseland) in the race for Senate President. Booker, at the urging of two lawyers who advise him, Elnardo Webster and Paul Fader, backed Codey after Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford) had already announced he had a majority of the Democratic Senate Caucus on his side. That caused some Democrats close to Sweeney - especially George Norcross - to offer Booker a bit of friendly guidance. (It's fair to assume that the advice included strategic assumptions for the 2013 Democratic gubernatorial primary.) Booker, realizing Webster and Fader might have screwed up a bit, put out a statement late in the day acknowledging Sweeney's victory over Codey, and endorsing Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) for Speaker. That probably made Norcross happy, but it won't be any consolation to Codey, who thought announcing a Booker endorsement a few hours earlier might be his salvation.
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Codey's time was 2005
Hindsight is 20/20, but I bet Codey is thinking he should have run for governor in 2005 -- even against Corzine's millions -- when he was sitting at 60%+ approval ratings.
Timing is everything.
For what it's worth, Booker will survive the Codey endorsement.