Cory Booker tends to his hometown base, with question of 2020 presidential run still open

In his first campaign for Newark mayor nearly two decades ago, upstart Cory Booker was derided as an over-credentialed outsider who was using the broken city as a steppingstone to higher office. Yet that is far from the reception Booker received Wednesday at a lengthy and self-congratulatory swearing-in ceremony for Essex County officeholders, including Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr., the longtime county executive whose political reach extends far beyond the Democratic stronghold. “And this young man here, there is no question, no question: He’s going to be the next president of the United States of America,” DiVincenzo said at the Donald M. Payne, Sr. School of Technology in Newark. ”Listen to me. I know politics. I know Cory Booker. I know when he gets on the debate stage, I know what he’s going to do.” As Booker descended from the school stage and into a sea of selfies, he deflected questions about his looming presidential bid. “Right now, my focus is getting back to D.C. today,” he said when pressed by a television reporter about his 2020 plans. Right now, a government shutdown was soaking up his energy and attention, and giving him a ready excuse to avoid talking about his own plans. Booker spent the… Read full this story

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