The American Principles Fund, a Republican outside group tied to the daughter of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Sarah, is going up with a major ad buy on Thursday against Cory Booker in New Jersey. The spot makes a bold claim: That Booker’s actions while he served as mayor of Newark, N.J., should, more or less, land him behind bars.


The ad’s script is as follows:

Want to get rich quick? And never leave home? Well now you can in one easy step, like Cory Booker. Booker used his used his government offices to enrich himself, making millions on sweetheart deals, all while failing to pay his personal property taxes and not showing up to do his job. If Cory Booker can make millions not working or paying taxes, why can’t you? Warning: Doing what Cory Booker did may result in jail time.



Booker, once a golden boy of the Democratic party, has not often been hit like this. The ad refers to a New York Times report about the decision of several Silicon Valley moguls to pour millions of dollars into an ill-defined technology company that Booker founded while serving as mayor of Newark. The Times article made clear the company’s value derived mostly from Booker’s political prominence and that inside it, nepotism ran amok. CNN president Jeff Zucker’s then 15-year-old son Andrew sat on the board; the teen got stock options, too.

In the wake of the Times report, Booker announced he was giving up his stake in the company, which has since been sold to the video start-up Magnify.


The New Jersey Senate race, where the Republican challenger Jeff Bell trails by 13 points but where Booker has consistently polled under 50 percent, is one of the sleepers of this year’s midterm election. It remains to be seen whether this sort of outside spending can convince New Jersey voters that Booker is not just inoffensive, but corrupt.