Booker Lonegan side by side.JPG
Cory Booker, right, outraised Republican Steve Lonegan with the help of Oprah Winfrey, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and billionaire Ron Burkle, who each hosted a fundraiser for the Newark mayor this year.
(Star-Ledger file photos)
TRENTON — Newark Mayor Cory Booker has outraised Republican Steve Lonegan 8-to-1 in the fundraising battle for the U.S. Senate, collecting $11.2 million in his first run for federal office to Lonegan's $1.35 million as of Oct. 4, records show.
The last financial disclosures before Wednesday’s special election showed Booker is raising campaign cash in the same league as Gov. Chris Christie and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez – despite a shorter-than-usual race that began in June after Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s death.
The records, obtained by The Star-Ledger, show Booker began to spend millions in the summer for a daily word with viewers in the New York and Philadelphia television markets. Lonegan, a razor-tongued conservative, has bought a few TV ads and has instead tried to make a splash at debates, rallies and interviews on conservative radio.
Newark’s Democratic mayor has been in the national spotlight for years, but the $11.2 million haul is a new coup, observers and insiders said. At least $6.2 million was raised out of state, according to an analysis by the nonprofit campaign finance watchdog MapLight.
"He’s managed to raise enormous amounts of money and he can spend all of next year fundraising," said Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University. Booker has nearly $3 million that he hasn’t spent, the records show, and Harrison noted that should he win on Wednesday, this would provide a firewall that could "scare off viable competition" next year, when the Senate seat is up for a full six-year term.
Booker’s biggest events were hosted by Oprah Winfrey, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and billionaire Ron Burkle. He also got checks from the chief executives of some of New Jersey’s biggest companies, celebrities such as Ben Affleck and Steven Spielberg, public-worker unions and pharmaceutical companies, New York real estate billionaires and hedge fund managers.
Lonegan, the former state director of the anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity, pulled in donations from Tea Party activists and donors in more than 35 states, according to his most recent federal filing. His fundraising picked up considerably, drawing $1 million in the last month after polls began to show he was narrowing Booker’s lead, but has so far still ended up far behind the Democrat.
"It’s not over," said Lonegan spokesman Will Gattenby. "The fact that Mayor Booker has raised eight times the amount of money that Mayor Lonegan has raised — especially from celebrities, Silicon Valley moguls and well-connected special interest groups — just goes to show what kind of senator he would be."
He added: "Yes, we’re at a fundraising disadvantage, but the momentum is stronger than Mayor Booker’s going into Election Day."
Top donors to Lonegan’s campaign include Virginia James, a Lambertville investor and one of the major funders behind the conservative Club for Growth, one of the most influential and deep-pocketed outside groups in Washington. Her $1.2 million in donations to the club has provided crucial backing to Republican hard-liners such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and others who support the current shutdown of the federal government. The Club for Growth helped bankroll 13 conservative House members to victory, and helped unseat two incumbent GOP senators in primaries since 2010 by backing more conservative candidates. She could not be reached for comment.
Lonegan has also gotten checks from Christie and his family, and establishment Republicans across New Jersey such as U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen and GOP fundraiser Candace Straight. Doctors, gun-rights activists and Tea Party supporters across the country have also chipped in, as have political-action committees affiliated with U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, and U.S. Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.).
Still, a top campaign aide last week blasted the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the main fundraising arm of the Republican Party in U.S. Senate races, for leaving Lonegan to fend for himself against Booker. Harrison and others say such groups are stockpiling their resources for next year, when there are 33 U.S. Senate seats up for election.
For Booker, the $11.2 million fundraising haul – which could grow even higher in the waning days of the campaign – puts him on the same fundraising level as the highest-profile New Jersey politicians.
Menendez raised $16 million for his re-election campaign last year but had much more time to run up the score. Christie, another Jersey pol with a national donor base, has collected north of $12.4 million for his re-election bid this year, but $8.2 million of that has come from public matching funds.
"Nationally, the Democratic Party encouraged him to run for the United States Senate, as opposed to governor, because they saw him as a valuable asset not only from a policy making perspective … but also, his superstar status is very attractive for fundraising as well," said state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), a veteran fundraiser.
A knack for fundraising can go a long way in Washington, Lesniak said. Menendez, a senator since 2006, was given the reins of the powerful Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the 2010 cycle and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this year, he noted.
"He established himself as a superstar nationally through his persona, his perseverance and his hard work, and that’s what it takes," Lesniak said of Booker.
But raising big money has its own cost: Booker logged thousands of miles this year to fill his war chest – which some pollsters say hurt his image among Jersey voters and gave Lonegan an opening to tighten the race in the final weeks.
"Cory Booker’s personal ratings have dropped significantly in the last month," said Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray. "Certainly, when he goes to the West Coast and holds high-dollar fundraisers to fund his next three campaigns, and Lonegan goes on the radio to tell voters about all of this, it has an effect."
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