No one could have predicted:
A ThinkProgress examination of New Jersey campaign finance records for Booker’s first run for Mayor — back in 2002 — suggests a possible reason for his unease with attacks on Bain Capital and venture capital. They were among his earliest and most generous backers.
Contributions to his 2002 campaign from venture capitalists, investors, and big Wall Street bankers brought him more than $115,000 for his 2002 campaign. Among those contributing to his campaign were John Connaughton ($2,000), Steve Pagliuca ($2,200), Jonathan Lavine ($1,000) — all of Bain Capital. While the forms are not totally clear, it appears the campaign raised less than $800,000 total, making this a significant percentage.
He and his slate also jointly raised funds for the “Booker Team for Newark” joint committee. They received more than $450,000 for the 2002 campaign from the sector — including a pair of $15,400 contributions from Bain Capital Managing Directors Joshua Bekenstein and Mark Nunnelly. It appears that for the initial campaign and runoff, the slate raised less than $4 million — again making this a sizable chunk.
Money well spent by Bain, it seems.
Jewish Steel
Oops.
How the hell could he have thought that little detail would escape notice? Somebody’s instincts aren’t very good.
James E Powell
So Cory Booker is, in truth, a Bain campaign surrogate. Will this alter the trajectory of the story? Doubt it.
If I were the Obama campaign, I would hammer the message of Obama’s remarks today: a president doesn’t make money for a handful of shareholders, he is the chief executive of the United States of America who takes an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Jamey
No. Fucking. Way.
Follow the money.
Hill Dweller
I thought the Newark mayor was going to cry on Maddow’s show. He was damn near pleading.
fuckwit
Corruption, pure and simple.
Villago Delenda Est
I’m shocked, shocked.
Raven
@Hill Dweller: His momma’s gonna whip his ass.
MikeJ
Over half a million bucks in a mayoral race from one donor. Wow.
Who the fuck dumps half a million on the Newark mayoral race?
The Dangerman
@Hill Dweller:
Watching one’s political future spiraling into the ground will do that to a person. What was he thinking?
geg6
I can’t tell you how disappointed in Booker I am. I thought he was one of the good guys.
Well, this whole episode shows why Obama got elected president even though Booker was on the radar first. Obama is a much better politician.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Hill Dweller: and Rachel would’ve held him, rocked him and sang All The Pretty Horses, then taken him down to the kitchen to make him cinnamon toast and strawberry milk. I love her, but she let their friendship take the lead in that interview.
Stuck in the Funhouse
Corey B-ker is hardly the only dem/lib pol in that part of the country, squishy on taking stands against the dominant finance and banking idustry in the region.
But most of them, at least have the seasoning to not screw the pouch by running his mouth on MTP. In contrary posturing with Barack Obama, of his own party, in the midst of a pivotal election not long off.
It is just a news cycle glitch, I suspect, because Romney over the years, has flaunted his Wall Street vulturesque corporate raiding, and love of money, so much, that wingers using MR. B-ker will actually seem like trying to steer an approaching tornado with fly swat. Wrong election for that shit. He did get Harold Ford back the news, doing his DLC schtick. FW that is worth.
Mino
@efgoldman: Well, the southern part of the state could apply for Superfund Status. Restoring as much as possible of the environment would probably employ more than coal does at this point.
geg6
And FYWP. In moderation for stupidly using the mayor of Newark’s last name. Fuck
dr. bloor
Eh, so he primaries Christie instead of running as a Democrat. I doubt he cares much one way or the other.
Corner Stone
Damn. Almost 200 comments in three consecutive threads trashing The B00kman?
FSM help him round these parts.
Mr Stagger Lee
I hope his ass gets mic-checked when he comes to Seattle for the state Democratic convention. Put a fork Mr Booker you are done!
Silver
I think I see Romney’s VP candidate. Game changer, amirite?
If you’re a Democrat and you’re and you’re worried about the feelings of a bunch of PE assholes, you’re doing it wrong.
Odie Hugh Manatee
C’mon now, Book-er was only trying to provide a return on their investment.
He truly understands how the markets work.
@Hill Dweller:
It shows you that Obama knows how to make lemonade out of lemons.
Book-er is gettin’ squeezed.
Steve in DC
It won’t hurt him. Socially liberal goes hand in hand with fiscal conservatism for high level democrats and even republican donors now a day. It’s a splash in the pan. Him and Cuomo will be the hot item in 2016 for that exact reason.
Mino
@James E Powell: That was an awesome summation of the crux of the two campaigns.
RalfW
FYWP Something in this crap-ass tweet is a nono word
Or maybe Cory doens’t really stand with his man??
Mino
@Steve in DC: Shoot me now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Steve in DC: I agree in general, but I think 2016 is HRC’s for the taking. If she doesn’t want it, all bets are off, but Boo-ker doesn’t have, at least to me, Obama’s easy charisma, and Cuomo wouldn’t pick his running mate from next door
JPL
If you are not watching the President speech for the Joplin High Graduates, you are really missing out.
Bo..oker is yesterday’s news.
Stuck in the Funhouse
I will say, Mr. B-ker leads an exciting life, becoming a hero for dragging folks out of burning buildings, to being his pol part’s leading doucheabag, in what seems like record time.
EvolutionaryDesign
Fuck Corey B00ker. With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Robert
You know ol’ Booker can ahhh….evolve on this issue as well. Money is money…..it can be life giving or cruel, helpful or disgraceful, it depends on the character of the person/persons wielding the power. There seems to be a stench of dispair when it comes to talking about Bain and Romney in their unflagging chase of bigger and better profits. Does the bully story have anything to do with Mitts time with Bain? YES it does. I think we have five or so months to hear more about the Adventures of Mitt the Merciless Conquers Another Company.
Mark S.
@MikeJ:
Beats the shit out of me. And why the fuck does Bain give a shit who the mayor of Newark is?
Spaghetti Lee
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
She’d be 69 years old by election day. Not that we haven’t had candidates that old before, but would she really be willing to go through all that crap a second time, re-fighting all those stupid 2008 battles?
Even if Cory was to replace Lautenberg in 2014 (something someone suggested on this very site, I believe, before he became the traitor of the week), I don’t think he’d be seasoned enough to run by 2016. I’m personally a big fan of Schweitzer from Montana or O’Malley from Maryland. I think they’re both good soldiers and much better on the populist front than Cuomo.
EDIT: At risk of starting a flame war, my dreamboat candidate for ’16 is Feingold. Of course, even if someone could drag his ass back into the public arena quick enough, I’m not sure he’d make a great general election candidate.
JPL
Several folks were crying during the President’s socialistic speech in Joplin. It was quite moving and if you can watch it later online.
Hill Dweller
@Mark S.:
They probably view the mayor who shall not be named as a long term investment. Get in early as a supporter, and if he continues to rise to higher office, ask him to repay the favor.
Robert
You know ol’ Booker can ahhh….evolve on this issue as well. Money is money…..it can be life giving or cruel, helpful or disgraceful, it depends on the character of the person/persons wielding the power. There seems to be a stench of dispair when it comes to talking about Bain and Romney in their unflagging chase of bigger and better profits. Does the bully story have anything to do with Mitts time with Bain? YES it does. I think we have five or so months to hear more about the “Adventures of Mitt the Merciless… Conquerer of Another Company”.
Steve in DC
@Spaghetti Lee
OMalley and Schwietzer can’t fucking win in a primary, they aren’t the DLC’s ideal of socially liberal with fiscal conservatism. Until we make the mark of a Democrat fiscal issues only, we are doomed. Right now it’s social issues. And we’ve sold our fiscal issues off the cliff to win at social issues. We can’t win on fiscal issues till we sell our social issues off the cliff.
I know it’s crazy, but politicians cant’ chew gum and walk at the same time. It’s always about one thing and everything else gets fucked over in the process. Democrats have yet to realize this. So pick it, economic or social issues, you can’t have both.
Ron
Holy shit, a politician took money from a private equity firm, stop the presses. I’m so glad Obama is pristine and never took money from Wall St.
Baud
So apparently today is Wednesday, November 7, 2012, given all the people talking about the 2016 elections.
[Shakes fist vigorously]
hester
@EvolutionaryDesign:
Too funny for words! I suggest you read Greenwald’s column today for a healthy dose of reality.
“But the Democratic Party has been nothing close to a force standing in opposition to any of that. They’ve been, and continue to be, enthusiastically along for the ride. Despite the industry’s petulant anger, Wall Street has thrived under the Obama administration, and even in those areas where the White House had full authority and the ability to help ordinary Americans — such as the HAMP fund to aid defaulting homeowners — they displayed overwhelming indifference. Not only did President Obama propose large cuts to Social Security and Medicare, he has been assuring Washington insiders such as GOP Sen. Tom Coburn that he intends even larger ones if re-elected:”
http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/
Spaghetti Lee
@Steve in DC:
That’s why I said I’M a big fan of them. The DLC can go piss up a rope.
Cacti
@Spaghetti Lee:
My darkhorse Dem candidate for 2016 is Jay Nixon, governor of Missouri.
rikyrah
Martin Bashir tonight:
of course Willard’s time at Bain, and private equity are fair game, because these jokers are the bottom of the reason why the world was brought to the edge of financial collapse just 3 years ago.
BOOM!
Corey, how come Bashir understands this and your ass doesn’t?
rikyrah
yeah baby!!!
expose that mofo.
expose him.
Baud
@hester: Well if GG says it, it must be true.
cmorenc
Right now, Anderson Cooper is citing Booker against the Obama Administration’s spokesman on the show debating about why Bain Capital is a legitimate target for attack in the campaign. Thanks Booker for creating a GOP talking point for Anderson Cooper to eagerly pick up as a cudgel.
Gin & Tonic
Newark mayor for pres in 2016? Assuming Obama gets reelected? Nah ganna happen. This country won’t elect two black presidents in a row. I’ll bet my house and my 401(k).
Steve in DC
It’s going to be Cuomo, no questions asked. He’s the perfect paragon of the new progressives, fuck the poor and the workers, socially liberal. It’s no joke that Goldman Sachs is both the most progressive on gay rights place to work, the corporate face of the HRC, protected by gay advocacy groups, and the leader in fucking the working.
This is what the Democrats are. Socially liberal, fuck the poor. And we all let it happen. Because we’d rather elect a Wall Street lover who will crush anybody but the 1% than dare elect a socially conservative populist in the FDR style.
Make no mistake, 2016 will see the governor of NY stand up with the backing of Goldman Sachs and the HRC, and come out with a centrist “let’s let the gays marry and get rid of social security platform” and progressives will rush to fall over for him because of social issues.
Suffern ACE
@rikyrah: well that’s not exactly true. Ok maybe a little. Although I need a little research to back me up on this and they had some help, but GM and Chrysler and more than a few of the mortgage brokers (definitely Ally/GMAC mortgage, who wrote a ton of delinquent mortgages) were helped along by PE funding.
EvolutionaryDesign
@hester: LOL! Then we should totally slit our wrists then. Hooray!
Spaghetti Lee
@Steve in DC:
I swear, is there any other political party pessimistic enough to consider an election bought and sold 4 and a half years before it even happens? Pour yourself a drink and come back later.
EvolutionaryDesign
@Steve in DC: I would vote for a socially conservative economic populist. Now who is carrying that torch? Buddy Roemer, I guess?
hester
@Baud:
Well then, Baud, I eagerly await your arguments and evidence that Greenwald is wrong.
Omnes Omnibus
@hester: Time will tell, won’t it?
Suffern ACE
@Spaghetti Lee: Nope. Although in the next election, I will be backing dem who never went to an ivy league university. Because 30 years of that has gotten us nowhere.
Steve in DC
@EvolutionaryDesign
I’m hoping against hope for a Web Shceitzer ticket.
Don’t get me wrong I like Roemer, he’s the type of person we should want in a Democratic leader. Shame he’s a Republican, but since he hasn’t mastered the entire “gay marriage and austerity for all, fuck social security” mantra he won’t make it in the Democratic leadership.
I think Web and Schewietzer would be great. It would also be hilarious to wathc the right wing freak out. It’s hard to paint gun totting, hard drinking, crazy assholes as limp wristed liberals. Web isn’t just the type you “want to have a beer with” he’s the type to force you into shots and wake up half drunk the next day.
beltane
@EvolutionaryDesign: This is not a breed which has been seen in this country for many, many years. The Beltway media would collectively sh*t their pants if an American version of Marine Le Pen ever came along. They are quite happy to support fascists but only if it is to the exclusive benefit of the 1%ers.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suffern ACE: FDR went to Harvard and Columbia Law (took and passed the bar before graduating which, like an tying an onion on your belt, was the style at the time). I know it was more than 30 years ago, but…
Corner Stone
@Steve in DC: Idiot. Please put real money on this. I’ll take all of your action.
Steve in DC
@beltane
Jim fucking Web. And they did freak the fuck out over him. Especially after his physical altrication with president Bush, the gun in the capitol building fiasco, the gun on the plane fiasco, and him going off on meet the press and calling the press corps (esentially) full of shit and liars.
Oh, and the running around taking shots with people and getting piss drunk at veterans bars.
His huge rant on white poverty and abuse of poor people in the military and their treatment also went over poorly.
Hence why he’s leaving politics.
Corner Stone
@Steve in DC:
James Webb? Fuck.
EvolutionaryDesign
I should probably add that the only reason I would vote for a socially conservative econ populist is because I would hope that the economic policy would take the driver’s seat. I believe we are (and have been) slowly winning the social nonsense. Evolution and all that.
EvolutionaryDesign
@Omnes Omnibus: Give me five bees for a quarter they’d say!
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Omnes Omnibus:
Jeebus Christ, will it ever end. We got wingnuts on the right claiming Obama is teh Marxist stooge, and wingnuts of the left, that he his the biggest capitalist pig to ever walk the earth.
And both sides try to make their points via who donates campaign dollars to whom. Not what they actually do in the acts of governing. Everyone contributes to everyone else, and these rich financial types, throw money around in all directions, to cover all bets.
You won’t hear Romney, or any other wingnut saying this though
But as we know, Obama has the power just to pass his own reforms from the bully pulpit, but keeps blaming it on congress.
dedc79
Cut the guy a break. have any of you been to newark? It’s a city hanging by a thread and booker is a local politician who has to cater to the people who are willing to put money into the city. He is not a national politician. Expecting him to turn on the finance industry is like expecting the mayor of detroit to turn on the auto industry.
clayton
@hester: Ahh, yes. Democratice party is so bad, Glenn will have to join the Libertarians and vote for Ron Paul. Just so no nuns get raped.
Got it.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@hester:
GG should write under the pen name Tad Disingenuous.
Ron
@Steve in DC: You’re a fucking idiot. social issues AND financial issues are important.
Clime Acts
@hester:
OMG. You CANNOT say true things such as this here!
Elie
@Steve in DC:
Disagree respectfully..
This is core to his black constituency and will not be forgotten or forgiven. I won’t say his political career is over, but he did himself some real serious damage. You do not do that to the top of your party in this situation — EVAH. On Sunday am tv with the old folks watching? Couldnt come up with a slicker way of putting it? Me thinks he is not all that bright or impulsive in a wrong sense..
What a stupid shit… glad we found out now.
Elie
@dedc79:
Yeah. Makes perfect sense if all he Evah wants to be is mayor of Newark. I am totally fine with that, frankly.
lacp
@dedc79: It isn’t just the finance industry. Dude has been in bed with right-wing foundations for his entire fucking career.
Suffern ACE
@Elie: Yep. Maybe he didn’t know what they were going to discuss. But come on. He could punch liberal bloggers. Or maybe talk about how silly it is to go on and on about a dog on a car. We’re used to being punched.
Elie
@Stuck in the Funhouse:
Yeah… it was impulsive (in a good way), to run into a burning building to save someone. Maybe the wiring for that behavior got shorted out and he thought that running into burning buildings is a good thing, hence this fiasco? Sorry.. this was dumb. Impulsive. Maybe he thought it would appear “high minded”? Instead, he just looks like a moron who runs into burning buildings to rescue people one day, then just runs back in the next day — cause, you know, that is what he does.
Something is wrong with this guy to make this sort of error at this point in his career making a for shure not friend of a sitting President of his own party? We won’t go into the whole race identification thing which to me is HUGE and another head scratcher. Does he think he will be made an honorary Mormon convert?… I don’t know him at all, but this is just wacky shit…
clayton
@Clime Acts: Fanboi confirms that it’s a zero sum game.
But really it’s not.
The prophet Nostradumbass
I don’t think there have been enough posts about Mayor B. here today. Perhaps you all could squeeze in four or five more before the evening is over.
Lojasmo
I learned about this on sunday from a tweet by mc’cain.
Fuck you, @corybooker.