Ironically, Booker also apparently had no problem leveraging city resources for his political campaigns after he had decried the practice in James’s campaign. During his 2010 reelection bid, Booker used city money to have banners placed on public buildings, which proclaimed, “Cory Booker, Newark: building a stronger, safer, prouder City.” Clearly, these were political campaign materials, but the city of Newark had paid for them. Even worse, the city’s youth basketball league and other recreational sports teams received T-shirts to wear paid for by the city that read “Mayor Cory A. Booker—here to win in 2010.” Again, it was a clear campaign slogan—on banners produced using taxpayer dollars. Eventually the city halted production because of the outcry from recreation department employees.66
Booker also apparently used city human resources as “some city employees alleged that they were pressured to sell fundraising tickets for Booker campaign events.”67
The Booker administration set up family counseling services around the city and called them Family Success Centers. Jointly run by the city and his nonprofit Newark Now, the centers offered poor residents advice about personal health and other matters, but the centers were not simply altruistic. “Mayor Booker also intended the centers to have a political role, in terms of helping him reach out to the communities and win electoral support,” according to Professor Curvin. Indeed, he says, “Center staff attempted to mobilize residents to support administration political battles.”68
In short, Booker erected a political machine in Newark, which was fueled by the flow of taxpayer money to friends and contributors. Then he also directly used taxpayer dollars to bolster his own campaign for reelection.
* * *
While mayor, Booker often advertised his acts of heroism and empathy to develop his media brand and deflect attention from the deeper issues of corruption miring his tenure. While some of these acts appear to be genuine, upon closer examination many of the stories resemble stunts or attempts to cover up larger political failures.
Booker would often regale out-of-town audiences with tales of his dangerous work as mayor. During a speech in suburban Summit, New Jersey, for example, he explained to the audience how he was “dodging bullets in Newark,” comparing himself to the character in the movie The Matrix, all the while twisting his body and reenacting the maneuvers of Keanu Reeves.69
In December 2010, after a major snowstorm hit Newark, Mayor Booker got a call on his cell phone reporting the fact that there were no snowplows on the street. “We are going to get the plows there,” he told the caller. “Give us an hour or so.” The snowplows did not show up. When the caller turned on the local news that evening, he heard “a report that the mayor of Newark was out shoveling driveways for elderly people.” Curvin later wrote, “The management of the cleanup effort was a near disaster. However, on the airwaves and in the newspapers, Booker was being praised as a leader who knew how to handle a snowstorm.”70
During the same snowstorm, a Newark resident went on Twitter and reported that his sister’s family was trapped in their house and were running out of diapers. Booker tweeted, “I’m on it.” Booker showed up at the Byers house with Pampers and the media. Again, Booker received a lot of praise for his personal heroism. Tellingly, Barbara Byers later noted, “The only reason he brought me Pampers was that it had been three days and our street hadn’t been plowed. . . . All we wanted was for him to plow our streets. It’s about knowing how to manage a city.”71
As a progressive with an elite background, Booker was eager to demonstrate his connection and empathy with poor residents in Newark. At one point, he challenged himself to live on $33 worth of food a week, based on the amount of money that an individual would receive under the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Never mind that SNAP was a “supplemental” program, not designed to provide all of one’s nutritional needs. Booker was trying to make the valid point of how difficult it would be to live in poverty, but his execution of the experiment left people perplexed. The menu of items he chose to buy (which he announced to the world via Twitter) included organic olive oil and an expensive bag of mixed greens, among other items; not exactly tight-budget dining. Critics noted that while the stunt got media attention, Booker never really did anything to attempt to improve the program. “Booker has the annoying habit of transforming others’ personal distress into fuel for his personal marketing machine,” wrote one author.72
When Booker spoke to audiences around the country or met with reporters, he would often speak about his encounters with a Newark drug dealer named “T-Bone,” who he said was a neighbor. Booker claimed that they had long conversations about the struggles of life on the streets. At one point Booker claimed T-Bone threatened to “bust a cap [bullet] in” his ass. Booker used this story for years until he announced for the U.S. Senate and reporters began swarming the mean streets of Newark in search of T-Bone. Journalists even talked to undercover narcotics cops, but no one could find T-Bone. Later it became clear that T-Bone was not really a person—even though Booker had for a long time insisted that he was. Booker would later admit, “although T-Bone’s corporeal being is ‘1,000 percent real,’ he’s an ‘archetype’ of an aspect of Newark’s woe whose actual nom de crack may not actually be T-Bone.”73
One of Booker’s most famous moments as mayor occurred when he ran into a burning building and rescued a woman from the blaze. The genuinely heroic act received enormous national attention and even garnered an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’s television show, where the host presented him with a Superman costume. Critics noted, however, that Booker had shut down three of Newark’s fire companies, so when it came time to rescue the woman, “perhaps no one else was around to do it.”74
It is one thing to lay down one’s own life or interests to act heroically; it is completely another thing to self-promote. In 2008, Esquire magazine ran a profile of Booker after reporter Scott Raab spent several months following him around the city. Raab likened Booker to Will Smith’s character in the newly released movie I Am Legend. In the film, Will Smith is combating zombies who are trying to annihilate the world. Where did he get the idea to compare Booker to Will Smith fighting Zombies? According to Raab, he got the idea after Booker took him to see the movie the first night that he began following him. Raab admitted that Booker intentionally framed himself as the savior of the city, and candidly called him a “bullshit artist.”75
Other favorable press continued. In 2011, Time selected Booker as one of their 100 World’s Most Influential People, a remarkable selection for the mayor of Newark. Oprah Winfrey penned a tribute titled “Saving Newark with a Smile,” where she described how Booker “defines [the term] servant leader.” In Men’s Health, Booker wrote a “Celebrity Fitness” column, where he described his fitness routines and advised, “don’t run from hard; run toward it” and “be the change you want to see in the world.” Around the same time, Vogue magazine christened him an “urban superhero.”76
* * *
In September 2010, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was on national television sitting next to Cory Booker and New Jersey governor Chris Christie. On a chair nearby sat Oprah Winfrey. As the nation watched Oprah’s show, Zuckerberg calmly announced that he was making a $100 million commitment to Newark to help improve the city’s schools. Newark residents learned about the bold gesture the same way everyone else did—by watching Oprah.77
Zuckerberg had no direct ties to Newark—other than his relationship with Cory Booker. Critics noted that the Facebook founder made his commitment to Newark shortly after the release of the movie The Social Network, which portrayed him as an obnoxious and insecure techie who craved social acceptance.78 Regardless of the motive, $100 million could dramatically help just about any school system, if used appropriately.
Unfortunately, examining Booker’s use of those funds raises serious questions. Instead of being used to upgrade the schools of Newark for the benefit of children, much of the money, as we will see, wa
s diverted to other interests.
Booker’s machine was already leveraging donors to give to his nonprofits, which would steer funds to friends and allies. Organizations such as Newark Now served that purpose well. Now Booker created new nonprofits to dispense the money coming from Zuckerberg.
One of those nonprofits was PENewark. The other was Foundation for Newark’s Future (FNF). To run FNF, he hired Greg Taylor, an executive with the Kellogg Foundation. Taylor did not live in Newark, but was paid $382,000 a year for three or four days of work per week. Booker then started hiring consultants to conduct surveys and organize coffee klatches to find out what people wanted out of Newark schools. Many of the consultants hired had ties to Booker. One that came on board was Bradley Tusk, of Tusk Strategies. Tusk was New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s reelection campaign manager, and Bloomberg was a major Booker financial supporter. A Booker aide would later admit that Tusk’s work was “a boondoggle.” An FNF board member observed, “It wasn’t real community engagement. It was public relations.”79
Booker also hired SKDKnickerbocker, a national public affairs firm whose Washington, D.C., office is headed by Anita Dunn, formerly a White House communications director for Obama, along with several other connected consulting firms.80 Over the next couple of months, they would burn through $2 million on consultants who conducted the survey. Critics called the project “wasteful and a boondoggle for Booker’s friends.”81
Newark’s public schools were in terrible shape. The funds were supposed to go to improving and revamping them. The state of New Jersey had taken over control of the schools before Booker became mayor because of mismanagement.82 New Jersey governor Chris Christie had agreed to turn over some control of the schools to Booker as part of the Zuckerberg gift.83
A good deal of the money ended up in the pocket of consultants.84 The biggest chunk of the gift—$33 million—did not go to the schools but instead to provide back pay to teachers.85
As mayor, Booker’s sprawling network of activities included speaking fees (for as high as $30,000 a pop), nonprofits, the Zuckerberg gift, and a commercial venture called Waywire.86 In June 2012, Booker launched the new video-sharing social media company that he promised would give “marginalized voices,” including “high school kids,” a hearing. Booker put a public service gloss over the venture: “What was exciting to me was that it was expanding entrepreneurial, economic, and educational opportunities for so many.” Booker got the project easily funded by tapping his wealthy friends Oprah Winfrey, Google’s then–executive chairman Eric Schmidt, and Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn, among others to invest. Waywire amassed an advisory board that included CNN president Jeff Zucker’s then-fourteen-year-old son.87
The Waywire deal was highly unusual and controversial for several reasons. Booker was still mayor of a major American city, and yet he was launching a business with people who in numerous cases had been campaign donors. The terms of the deal were also unusual. Booker received the largest ownership stake in the company, even though he had likely invested comparatively little capital, and was not working on the project full-time. Booker used Waywire as a place to provide jobs for some friends and associates. The son of a top supporter and his social media consultant were put on the payroll.88
The mystery of the arrangement with Waywire deepened, as he was late to disclose on both state and federal financial disclosure forms that he was involved with the company. It would soon become such an issue in his budding Senate campaign that he was, reluctantly, forced to step away.89
Booker was by now a national figure, not only in the media, but also within the Democratic Party. In 2012, he served as the co-chairman of the Democratic Party platform committee at the national convention.90 Months later, he made his national ambitions clear when he announced his bid for the U.S. Senate, filing papers to run for the Senate in January 2013.91
At the time, the aged Senator Frank Lautenberg occupied the seat. A month after the mayor announced his bid, Lautenberg declared that he would not seek reelection.92 Booker hit the campaign trail, but he also hit the lecture circuit, pulling in close to half a million dollars in speaking fees across the country between January and September of 2013.
By June, Lautenberg was dead of viral pneumonia.93 Initial polls had Booker in the lead by as much as 25 percent, but the race narrowed.94 Booker was suddenly in a tighter race for the seat, barely leading a no-name Republican in the polls.95 It was an unusually tight race by New Jersey standards, where the Democratic Party had long been dominating U.S. Senate races.96 With controversy swirling about Waywire, he resigned from the board and donated his shares in the company to charity.97 A portion of them ended up in a troubled charity run by his brother.98 Booker won by the lowest margin that any of the polls had indicated: 10 percent.99
What Booker counted on to carry him to victory was a corrupt political machine. For his Senate run, “Booker sought and received the backing of political bosses like George Norcross in South Jersey and Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo.”100 In return, Booker was prepared to support these and others, even though they were mired in corruption.101
In May 2013, there were contentious elections in Hackensack, New Jersey. Fed up with local corruption, a coalition of residents launched a ticket against the political establishment. Booker recorded a robocall for the political establishment urging people to vote for them. His support failed to get the desired result; the reformers defeated them.102 Likewise, in Jersey City, Booker backed the reelection of Mayor Jerramiah Healy. According to the Star-Ledger, Healy’s “administration has been proved to be thoroughly corrupt. Healy is one of the few survivors in his inner circle who was not convicted in the famous 2009 FBI bust known as ‘Operation Bid Rig.’ ”103 Booker also backed Passaic mayor Alex Blanco, who later pleaded guilty to taking bribes. He was sentenced to twenty-seven months in jail.104 Booker built his Senate campaign on favors and ties to corrupt political establishments rather than reformers.
Booker, the newly minted senator from New Jersey, had changed his zip code, but not his relationships and manner of operation, which remained largely the same as in New Jersey. Special favors for friends and allies; the flow of money to friends and allies.
Facebook executives had been some of his largest donors during the Senate campaign. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, gave the maximum combined contribution of $20,800. Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, general counsel Colin Stretch, former chief privacy officer Chris Kelly, and VP of advertising Andrew Bosworth were also large donors.105 That flow of money would continue—more than $44,000 into his campaign coffers from Facebook between 2014 and 2018.106 Of course, the depth of those ties extended back to the Zuckerberg gift to Newark schools, which ended in failure.107
One of Booker’s hires was for the critical position of his chief of staff. For that position, he slotted in Louisa Terrell, who had been the director of public policy at Facebook.108 This would lead to a consistent pattern of Booker proposing legislation that would benefit both Facebook and Zuckerberg’s other investments. Booker’s committee assignments included a slot on the subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet.109 Booker has supported a whole host of proposals that would benefit big tech, including net neutrality, also favored by Facebook.110
While in the U.S. Senate, Booker’s political machine has continued to run smoothly as his top aides slid from their campaign duties for him, to his Senate staff and to lobbying firms. Booker appointed his old political hand, Mo Butler, to the all-important position of New Jersey state director of his Senate office, which put the dealmaker at ground zero for doling out favors and money to allies in the Garden State.111 The Newark Charter School Fund, a nonprofit Booker helped to launch and fund, sent $87,000 to a lobbying firm called Mercury Public Affairs in 2016.112 That same year, Mo Butler joined the Mercury Public Affairs lobbying team. Butler became a partner at Mercury and then the city of Newark used taxpayer dollars to hire Mercury for a $225,000 contract to
help the city with “messaging.”113
The machine that Booker ran in Newark was now established in the nation’s capital. With Cory Booker as the state’s most visible public figure, close aides and donors benefited from his newfound powers as a United States senator—including Mercury, the controversial lobbying firm that was at the center of the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian influence in the United States.114 As a highly lucrative and successful lobbying operation, Mercury, because of its ties to powerful officials, enjoys access to the highest levels in Washington.
No current politician in America has deeper ties to Mercury than Cory Booker. Two of the lobbying firm’s partners are Booker confidants. Michael Soliman was a campaign strategist to the Booker senate campaign. He joined Mercury shortly before Booker was elected, serving as managing director beginning in 2013. By 2016 he was a partner at the firm.115 Mo Butler, Booker’s longtime consigliere, joined Mercury in February 2016 and became a partner in 2018.116 It is hard to find someone closer to Cory Booker than Mo Butler.
Booker has emphasized how important Mo Butler is to him. As he told one reporter, “I get so much attention and very few people know who Mo is, but the reality is I wouldn’t be doing the things I’m doing if it wasn’t for Mo Butler.” He likened his confidant to a boxing champion. “When the time comes to punch someone in the nose when it’s necessary, even though he looks like a lightweight, he’s Muhammad Ali.” In short, “Mo’s the man,” he said.117
Mercury prospered with the addition of the two Booker advisors. According to Open Secrets, the firm’s billing for lobbying activity jumped 35 percent the year after Mo Butler was hired.118
Mercury, and specifically Soliman and Butler, have lined up clients that correspond to Cory Booker’s Senate committee assignments, and likewise, Booker has introduced legislation that would benefit Mercury clients. New client Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey paid Mercury $160,000 in 2018 for work on various unspecified health care issues. Booker was also active on health care, cosponsoring S.974, “Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples Act.” This bill also went through his committee.119
Profiles in Corruption Page 11