Booker had a prime speaking slot and spoke to numerous state delegation breakfasts. N.J. delegates: Booker eying gov run

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Cory Booker has been working his way back into the good graces of national Democrats after earlier this year criticizing the Obama campaign for attacking Mitt Romney’s private-equity background.

Now, according to delegates who attended the Democratic convention here, the Newark mayor , long considered a rising star in his party , is positioning himself to run against New Jersey’s popular Gov. Chris Christie in 2013. They say he’s in good shape to do so.


( PHOTOS: Cory Booker's career)

As the co-chairman of the platform committee in Charlotte, Booker seemed to be everywhere. NBC called him “the man you can’t miss in Charlotte” and the “most ubiquitous and energetic politician” at the convention.

“He’s warmly received and I think he is a bright star in the Democratic Party,” Obama confidant and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin told POLITICO. “Everyone has a stumble and he’s recovered well.”

The Newark mayor had a prime speaking slot on Tuesday night, and also spoke to numerous state delegation breakfasts, telling the early-state voters from Iowa that his grandmother was born in Des Moines.

“If I ever get introduced again to a great body of people like Iowa, I want to be introduced as a son of New Jersey but [also] a grandson of Iowa,” Booker said. “Because my grandma, back in 1918, was born in Des Moines, Iowa. I’ve been to family reunions there, my grandmother grew up there, my grandmother’s siblings went to college there — and more than this, though, my family’s still spread out all over Iowa.”

It wasn’t all smooth sailing in Charlotte for the high-profile New Jersey politico. Booker, as co-chair of the platform committee, was directly connected to the convention’s worst moment : a controversy that ensued over how the Democratic document omitted the word God, and also failed to call Jerusalem the capital of Israel. The initial language, which sparked an uproar, was soon changed at the direct behest of President Barack Obama. Booker, speaking on CNN’s “Starting Point” last week, called the Jerusalem language specifically an “unfortunate omission” and said he took responsibility for the flap given his role as “part of the larger platform.”

But to New Jersey delegates, the biggest takeaway from Booker’s high-profile role at the convention was that it suggested an increasing interest in tackling Christie in 2013. Christie was the GOP convention keynote speaker in Tampa the week previously, though many judged his speech as below par.

“Every day we got a different flier about [Booker] and his progress in Newark,” said a member of the New Jersey delegation deeply familiar with Garden State politics. “He met with most elected officials one-on-one [in addition to county and special interest delegates]. This includes most of the congressional delegation. Most people think he’s running.”

Delegates said literature that highlighted Booker and his accomplishments in Newark kept cropping up under the doors of their hotel rooms, adding that they received welcome bags that contained goods, like bread and coffee, produced in Booker’s city —an effort, they believed, designed to underscore Newark’s progress.

“There’s huge buzz this week around the New Jersey hotel about Mayor Booker,” said Bob Zuckerman, a delegate from Jersey City who is the executive director of a non-profit organization , in an interview last week. “The buzz is that he’s seriously considering challenging Christie. From my perspective, I couldn’t be happier. He’s by far our best chance to unseat the governor.”

For his part, Booker downplays chatter about his future — at least to reporters.

“I don’t think I’m a central spotlight, I think I’m a utility player,” he told POLITICO. “I’m doing what the Democratic Party asked me to do. I’m very happy to play a small role in a big convention with big ideas and an amazing president we’re going to reelect.”

Booker brought a whooping audience to its feet when he delivered the platform speech Tuesday night, and earned standing ovations everywhere from a breakfast with Florida delegates to a meeting with the LGBT caucus.

“The nation is seeing what many in New Jersey know already,” said Cid Wilson, a delegate from Bergen County who has known Booker since at least 2003 — though the two think they played high school football against each other as well. “He’s a very passionate leader, somebody that cares about community, the city of Newark, the state of New Jersey…I wish the nation could see more of him.”

Booker is recovering from a falling out with Obama forces after he slammed as “nauseating” attacks on Romney’s Bain Capital record earlier this year.

But well-connected New Jersey delegates said they hadn’t heard much about the platform incident, and seem to have forgiven Booker for the Bain brouhaha. Their assessment: Booker is back.

“He’s certainly making a statewide presence,” said Barbra “Babs” Casbar Siperstein, a member of the DNC’s executive committee and its first transgender delegate. “I would say he’s testing the waters. He’s meeting with various county people, ostensibly as the co-chair of the platform committee, but also, next year is 2013.”

If Booker wants higher office, there are two likely routes: a challenge to Christie, or a run for the Senate — especially if current New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, 88, doesn’t seek reelection in 2014, though he is currently expected to do so. The vast majority of chatter surrounding Booker concerns a potential run against Christie.

When pressed on what he tells the delegates who want him to run, Booker responded to POLITICO, “I say to my delegates, let’s get the president elected and talk about the future then.”

But that’s not exactly his message in front of certain crowds.

“I hope this doesn’t get me in trouble back home,” he said Thursday in an address to the LGBT caucus meeting at the Charlotte Convention Center. “But I’m telling you right now, it’s not a matter of if we’re gonna win marriage equality in New Jersey. It’s a matter of when we’re going to win, and…I will be there on the day that bill is signed. I might even have a very good seat when it gets done.”

The member of the New Jersey delegation who spoke on condition of anonymity said that in the meeting he attended with Booker, the mayor said he would “announce his decision [about whether to run for governor] after the [2012] election so as to quickly unite the party behind one candidate.”

“There’s no question,” delegate Wilson said, “that he has a lot of options available.”