Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who backs abortion, announced his candidacy for the open New Jersey Senate seat over the weekend — putting one of the state’s ardent abortion advocates in the battle to replace pro-abortion Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died last week.
From Politico:
“I’m here today because I know who we are, and what we are capable of,” Booker said in a Newark press conference broadcast live online that was heavy on themes of bipartisanship, finding common ground and fixing a divided Washington.
Booker is the heavy favorite to win the blue-state seat currently held by interim appointee Jeff Chiesa, New Jersey’s attorney general and a Christie ally who is not expected to run in October.
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) is also expected to announce his candidacy. Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) is also likely to run, according to multiple sources. The primary election is Aug. 13.
Republican Steve Lonegan, Christie’s gubernatorial primary opponent in 2009, is the first declared GOP candidate. He is the former mayor of the Bergen County community of Bogota.
Lonegan is pro-life but would be expected to have an uphill battle to win the Senate seat in left-leaning New Jersey.
Booker spoke at a pro-abortion rally for Planned Parenthood during the 2012 presidential election.
Booker decided to rag on those silly pro-lifers who actually dare to claim that they “love women.” Apparently, pro-lifers cannot be true women, nor can they truly love women. National Review related Booker’s outlandish commentary:
‘Then I heard something that is one of the reflections, an echo of some of the most insulting things we’ve been hearing for a long time,’ Booker said, referring to watching the convention. ‘I heard people stand up and say, “I love women.” I heard people stand up: “I’ve got a sister. I’ve got a mother.”‘
‘That’s like saying you’re not a bigot ’cause you have a black friend,’ Booker retorted, drawing cheers and applause from the crowd. ‘That’s like saying I love Latinos, I go to Taco Bell every week. That is like saying that you are a person that is just and right because you know what, you like Jewish people.’
‘But I’ll tell you what you say, you say it with your words,’ he continued. ‘You say it with your lips. You preach it from on high. But when it comes to your actions, when it comes to your deeds, it comes to what you do every day, you are denigrating those very people you claim to love. And so I don’t understand how somebody can say they love women when they are denying women access to health care, when they are denying women strategies to protect their life, when they are implementing policies that undermine all the ground that we have gained,’ he concluded, saying he was speaking not only about women’s progress, but also about the country’s progress.
In 2011, Lautenberg came under fire from pro-life advocates for comments he made at a recent rally Planned Parenthood staged to save taxpayer funding for its abortion business.
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Lautenberg, who had a strong pro-abortion record, appeared with about 100 supporters who wore pink shirts and stood in front of a pink-colored bus Planned Parenthood has been driving around the country in order to build up support for receiving tens of millions in taxpayer dollars to support what is the biggest abortion business in the country.
“Planned Parenthood is under attack by Tea Party Republicans who have put their extremist ideology above women’s health,” Lautenberg said while pro-life advocates who counterprotested shouted, “Shame on you, Lautenberg.”
The pro-abortion New Jersey senator fired back: “These people (referring to the pro-life advocates) don’t deserve the freedoms in the Constitution.”
Then, as an afterthought, he said, “but we’ll give it to them anyway.”
