Bloomberg Boasts Bipartisan Brawn with Booker Backing

Mayor Bloomberg picked up a big endorsement from across the aisle yesterday from Democratic rising star, Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Booker said, "Mayor Bloomberg is simply the model in America...A lot of us younger, next-generation, thirty-something forty-something mayors have been relying on him for a long time as giving us examples and instruction in how to dramatic change in our cities.” Booker became more visible throughout the 2008 presidential campaign as a fervent supporter of President Obama. Bloomberg rival Bill Thompson tried to take the sting out of an endorsement from such a prominent black politician saying, "I respect Mayor Booker, but hard-working people who actually live in New York know that we need change." State Senator Bill Perkins went further, calling it, "Just racial...that (Bloomberg) would go outside of the city to get some support." Neither Bloomberg nor Mayor Booker mentioned any potential rift between the two due to the Garden State's role in the Maple Syrup Phenomenon.