This Inspiring Story Brought to You by Grape-Nuts

Booker: 'Leading Newark Is the Greatest Challenge of My Life'

Cory Booker says community collaboration is the secret to Newark's progress, in this series sponsored by Grape-Nuts.

About this sponsorship: In honor of the 60th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary’s historic ascent of Mount Everest, Patch and Grape-Nuts are teaming up to highlight those who inspire people around them to climb their own mountains. As the mayor of Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, Cory Booker says he understands the importance of leadership. But he especially acknowledges the importance of inspiring and engaging local leaders to assist in achieving community goals. Q. PATCH: What is the biggest challenge you’ve taken on?   A. BOOKER: Leading Newark is the greatest challenge of my life, but it’s not a policy challenge.  I’m proud we’ve notched victories — fought to improve education, create jobs and cut crime. But the challenge has been the…

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FDU Poll Shows Booker with Commanding Lead in Senate Race

Newark mayor trounces Fox News personality and possible Republican challenger Geraldo Rivera, a Fairleigh Dickinson poll finds

Prospective U.S. Senate candidate Cory Booker got only a slight bump following incumbent Frank Lautenberg’s announcement last month that he would not seek re-election in 2014, but the mayor of Newark still leads the field of Senate hopefuls by a wide margin, according to a poll released Wednesday. Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind poll shows Booker with about 50 percent support in matchups against fellow Democrats Frank Pallone and Rush Holt, who are both members of Congress. Pallone and Holt polled just 4 and 7 percent respectively. Nearly a third of respondents, 32 percent, remained undecided in an election that’s still a year and a half away.  “Senator Lautenberg’s formal announcement that he won’t seek reelection in 2014 has …

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Booker Talks Governor Run, Food Stamp Challenge [Video]

Booker to HuffPo Live: "When I go out and campaign next year for myself as a gubernatorial candidate or for another gubernatorial candidate should I decide not to run..."

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Cory Booker Hints at Chris Christie Challenge, Senate Run

Booker said at a Democratic County Committee event in Fair Lawn Wednesday that although he's focused on running Newark for now, he's strongly considering seeking higher office in the future.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is having the time of his life leading his city's urban revitalization, but it hasn't kept him from strongly considering a run at higher office when his term expires in 2014. That's what the rising Democratic star told a partisan audience of about 200 on Wednesday night at a Fair Lawn Democratic County Committee event at the Fair Lawn Community Center. "I came [to Newark] and said I was going to do a mission," said Booker, responding to an audience question about his future political aspirations. "But I'll tell you this, I'm strongly considering the options at the end of my term." Booker said he has his eyes set on either the governor's seat or the U.S. Senate seat currently held by 88-year-old Frank Lautenberg. If…

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9:35 am on Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Are you saying we should elect a fireman?   more ›

Newark Mayor Cory Booker Tells FDU Graduates to Inspire Others [VIDEO]

About 2,600 graduated at FDU’s 69th commencement held Tuesday at the IZOD Center.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker delivered a rousing speech at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s 69th Commencement Tuesday, telling the more than 2,000 graduates to use their success to inspire others. "When you have reached the pinnacle of success as you defined it, when the world sees you for who you are, don't just stand there and have everybody look at you in awe,” Booker told the crowd at the IZOD Center. “Stand there so that you inspire others to join you as well." The mayor received an honorary doctorate along with New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson and Minnesota Vikings owner and FDU alum Zygmunt “Zygi” Wilf.  Student Pinnacle Awards were presented to Morrine Omolo from the Metropolitancampus in Teaneck, Jessica Dingman from the …

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Booker, Christie Ham It Up In Viral Video

Mayor and governor have fun with their images

Just because they're the state's two most prominent politicians doesn't mean they don't have a sense of humor.  The office of Gov. Chris Christie yesterday released a lighthearted video co-starring Mayor Cory Booker as a peripatetic go-to guy, riffing off his now national-scale image as a man of action following his rescue of a neighbor from a burning building several weeks ago. As the Democratic mayor of the state's largest city is depicted doing everything from coming up with a spare guitar for Bruce Springsteen to catching a falling baby, a faux-frustrated Christie hisses "Booker!" The video was produced for the New Jersey Press Association's Legislative Correspondent's Club show. Click on the video above to see the Cory and Chris show.

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Booker's Fire Rescue, Plea for Killer's Identity, Meadowlands Fire Top NJ News

A weekly look at news in New Jersey

Saying repeatedly that he is "not a hero," Newark Mayor Cory Booker met with reporters Friday morning to talk about his rescue of a woman trapped by fire in a building adjacent to Booker's home Thursday night. Booker was returning to his home from an interview around 9:30 p.m. when he and members of his police security detail saw flames coming out of the second-floor windows of a two-story apartment building next to Booker's residence. With her voice quavering, Michelle Hughes pleaded for anyone who may know the identity of her husband's killer to step forward. Hughes' husband Donald, a pastor at Bethlehem Judah Christian Fellowship in Elizabeth who has been leading a congregation in South Brunswick that was prepared to move to New …

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Whitney Houston Celebrated in Rousing Funeral Service

Jennifer Hudson, Roberta Flack, Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Oprah Winfrey, Kevin Costner, Gov. Christie, Mayor Booker all in attendance.

Newark's own, singer Whitney Houston, was welcomed home to the church where she began her singing career Saturday, in a rousing gospel-flavored funeral service before an audience of family, friends and celebrities. "Whitney, today is your day," the Rev. Joe A. Carter, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church, said in beginning the service. A powerful choir of more than 100 singers, backed by a band that included drums and bass and horns, provided an emotional backdrop to a procession of singers, most of them from the world of gospel music. Actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry spoke of what he termed the grace that carried Houston through her life. "There was a grace that carried her down through Miss Cissy Houston, a grace that brought her up through …

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