Joseph Rakowski, who was Jersey City’s acting mayor for four months in 1992, today endorsed Republican Steve Lonegan’s bid for the U.S. Senate, saying Lonegan opponent Newark Mayor Cory Booker has been a “failure.”

Rakowski, 65, said Booker’s tenure as mayor of Newark has led to “unemployment, taxes, the crime.”

“To me, you don’t reward somebody for incompetency,” he said.

Booker campaign spokesman Kevin Griffis, asked to respond, said crime is down and real-estate development is up in Newark. Griffis noted the Star-Ledger's endorsement of Booker in the Senate race.

"It's telling how the two candidates for Senator are spending Election Eve," Griffis added. "Cory Booker is criss-crossing New Jersey talking to voters about what he wants to do for them. Steve Lonegan is holding an attack press conference with someone who was an acting mayor ... for four months ... in 1992."

Lonegan and Booker, a Democrat, are battling to finish the term of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Polls open in the special election tomorrow at 6 a.m.

Standing in the shadow of City Hall on Grove Street, Lonegan said he chose Jersey City to receive Rakowski’s endorsement because his grandparents arrived on Ellis Island from Italy in the early 20th Century and “started their lives” here.

“Jersey City holds a special place in my heart,” said Lonegan.

Formerly the Bogota mayor, Lonegan praised Rakowski today as someone “who knows what it means to govern a city,” and he criticized Booker for “prancing around Hollywood” seeking campaign cash.

Lonegan, a conservative firebrand, didn’t tone down his rhetoric today just because he was in the overwhelmingly Democratic Jersey City. He slammed the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) as an example of “big, fat, bloated government” and dismissed efforts in Congress to revamp the nation’s immigration laws.

“We should secure our borders,” he said. “This is a real security issue.”

While noting that Mayor Steve Fulop has endorsed Booker, Lonegan thanked Fulop for allowing him to hold today's press conference outside City Hall "without being attacked by thugs and hoodlums."

Last month, Lonegan held a press conference in Newark that was disrupted by pro-Booker protestors.

Rakowski, who now lives in Waretown in Ocean County, said a Lonegan victory would add “another voice” to the U.S. Senate, currently controlled by Democrats.

“We have to do something,” Rakowski said. “We have to change something in this country.”

Asked to elaborate, he said, “Freedoms, liberty.”

Rakowski represented Ward C on the City Council for one term when he was tapped on July 1, 1992 to become council president (and acting mayor) after former Mayor Gerry McCann was removed from office.

Rakowski serviced as acting mayor for four months until Bret Schundler was elected mayor that November. Today, he said he considers himself a Democrat, though he voted for Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain, both Republicans, in the last two presidential elections.

Lonegan also picked up an endorsement from Ward C City Councilman Rich Boggiano. Boggiano, who didn’t appear at today’s event, told The Jersey Journal that he’s “tired of what represents us in New Jersey.”

Boggiano, a registered Democrat, said today he has no qualms about endorsing a conservative Republican.

“I don’t know that he’s that conservative,” he said. "I don't know that much about him."