TRENTON — When Jeffrey Bell first ran for U.S. Senate in 1978, IBM had not yet introduced the personal computer.

Now Bell wants to run against the Twitter senator.

Bell, a 70-year-old conservative policy wonk who has lived in northern Virginia for the last 31 years, rented a home in Leonia today and said he plans to seek the state’s Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) in November.

Bell called Booker, who won a special election in October to replace the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a "nice, intelligent fellow."

"But he really represents the worst of Washington and the worst of Wall Street," Bell said. "He isn’t thinking about people who have a job but their wages cannot keep up with the constantly rising prices."

In 1978, Bell won an upset in the GOP primary, toppling the last Republican New Jersey voters elected to the U.S. Senate: Clifford Case. Bell then lost the general election to Rhodes scholar and basketball star Bill Bradley.

Bell unsuccessfully sought the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in 1982, losing the nomination to U.S. Rep. Millicent Fenwick. Bell moved to Virginia the next year.

Booker spokesman Kevin Griffis responded with a slap at Bell's residency.

"Evidently, The Star-Ledger doesn't deliver in Virginia," Griffis said."If Mr. Bell had been keeping up with local news, he would know that Senator Booker ushered in the greatest period of economic growth in Newark since the 1960s, that he dramatically increased the production of affordable housing and that he's helping to lead the charge in the Senate to extend unemployment insurance for more than 100,000 New Jerseyans, so that they have the support they need to find work."

Bell said he decided to run because one by one, top tier potential Republican candidates declined.

"I saw the thing going begging and I just said ‘What the heck? I’m only 70 years old. Why not take a shot?"

Bell talked to Bill Palatucci, a close adviser to Gov. Chris Christie, and Atlantic County GOP Chairman Keith Davis, who leads the organization of Republican county chairs. He said Palatucci told him he "didn’t know any candidate running and I should get in sooner than later." And Bell described his conversation with Davis as "cordial."

Two other potential candidates have put their names forward recently: Susanne LaFrankie, a former Philadelphia television news reporter, and Murray Sabrin, a finance professor at Ramapo College.

Bell acknowledged that running against Booker, a fundraising power house, would be a challenge.

"It’s obviously a tough race. He’s going to have more money than me," Bell said. "But I don’t think he has any answers to the economic stagnation that we’ve been having."

Bell knows he’ll face criticism as a "carpet bagger."

"Voters are going to have to weigh that. I’ve been out of the state for years," he said. "Fortunately, I think voters in New Jersey, because they tend to be from all over, they’re more tolerant of people who might not have a wall-to-wall New Jersey background."

He said his campaign will focus on cutting the power of the Federal Reserve and putting the United States back on the gold standard.

"I think that after over 40 years, it’s time to get back to a gold-backed dollar," he said.

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