Charles Barron (Photo: Getty)

Outspoken Councilman Charles Barron is backing John Liu in the New York City mayoral election this year and he's also getting involved in races out of state. On Tuesday, Mr. Barron served on the host committee of a Soho fundraiser for Chokwe Lumumba, who is running for mayor in Jackson Mississippi. Mr. Lumumba is an attorney and City Council member whom Mr. Barron said he has known for years through their work in activist circles.

"Chokwe Lumumba is a long-time friend and freedom fighter," Mr. Barron told Politicker at a forum on stop-and-frisk last night in Brooklyn. "He got elected to the City Council in Jackson, Mississippi, which is, you know, a majority-black population town. There's seven Council Members. So it's good to see black, strong, conscious people getting involved in the electoral arena. And [when] he becomes mayor of Jackson Mississippi--that's going to be a historic moment."

Mr. Lumumba was a key member of the Republic of New Afrika movement, a group that began in the late 1960's and was dedicated to pushing for slavery reparations and the establishment of a sovereign, African-American nation located in the southeastern United States. Now, Mr. Lumumba is among a crowded field of candidates who are vying to replace incumbent Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr., who's running for a second term. Mr. Lumumba has described his platform as being based on the idea "that Love plus the Power of the people equals progress."

"It's going to be great for all people to see a new kind of leadership that's a lover of human rights, effective in dealing with an objective--a locked-out, a most oppressed people in the country. He has a history of going all over the country doing that," said Mr. Barron of Mr. Lumumba.

Newark Councilman Ras Baraka was also on the host committee of Mr. Lumumba's Manhattan fundraiser and his father, the controversial poet, playwright and activist Amiri Baraka, performed at the event. The younger Mr. Baraka has declared his intention to run for mayor in Newark and Mr. Barron said he would be backing him as well as Mr. Lumumba.

"So to support Chokwe Lumumba for mayor, and looking at Ras Baraka, Amiri Baraka's son--I'm supporting him for mayor of Newark," said Mr. Barron. "Get rid of the Cory Bookers, the sell-outs, those who are afraid to speak truth to power. It's going to be beautiful day."

Cory Booker with his holy books at his side. (Photo: YouTube)

When he announced his plans to "explore" a Senate campaign earlier today Newark Mayor Cory Booker had a stack of holy books at his side. Mr. Booker's reading list included five books from four different religions.

An advisor to Mr. Booker provided Politicker with the list of titles Mr. Booker had next to him in the video of his announcement. The stack consisted of the King James Life in the Spirit Study Bible, The Qu'ran, The Tanach, which is the Hebrew Bible, Chumash, a printed version of the Torah and Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, an interpretation of the Hindu holy book by the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Mr. Booker has long had an interest in exploring religion and spirituality. Though he was raised Baptist, while he was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University Mr. Booker was president of L’Chaim House, the campus Jewish organization headed by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

Cory Booker (Photo: Getty)

Earlier this month, Newark Mayor Cory Booker said he would decide whether to run for governor of New Jersey or the Senate seat currently occupied by 88-year-old Democrat Frank Lautenberg by this weekend. Initial speculation had Mr. Booker set to challenge incumbent Republican Governor Chris Christie, however in the past week, there were mounting rumors Mr. Booker would instead run for Senate including one from our sister site PolitickerNJ that directly proceeded the mayor's announcement. Mr. Booker finally made it official with a statement and video released to his approximately 1.3 million Twitter followers this morning in which he revealed he will finish out his second term in Newark rather than getting involved in the governor's race and will "explore" running for Mr. Lautenberg's seat in 2014.

"Let there be no doubt, I will complete my full second term as mayor," said Mr. Booker in his statement. "As for my political future, I will explore the possibility of running for The United States Senate in 2014."

Mr. Booker also promised to include Mr. Lautenberg in his deliberations about the Senate campaign.

"As I explore a run for the United States Senate, I look forward to consulting with Senator Lautenberg," Mr. Booker said. "During my lifetime, he has been one of New Jersey’s most important leaders. It would be a privilege to continue his great legacy of service."

Mr. Booker characterized his decision as coming from a desire to continue working on revitalizing Newark's economy. Though his team had made preparations for either a Senate or gubernatorial campaign, in recent weeks Mr. Christie's poll numbers soared as he drew praise for his handling of Hurricane Sandy and subsequent bipartisan embrace of President Obama.

Cory Booker (Photo: YouTube)

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Newark Mayor Cory Booker is now considering a 2014 run for the Senate seat currently occupied by 88-year-old Frank Lautenberg after mounting speculation he would challenge incumbent New Jersey Governor Chris Christie next year. On the internet, a close advisor to Mr. Booker has prepped for both a gubernatorial campaign and Senate bid. Records show Mr. Booker's fundraising advisor and former City Hall staffer Bari Mattes has purchased the web domains for both "BookerForSenate" and BookerForGovernor.

Update (3:48 p.m.): Ms. Mattes has also registered "CoryBookerForPresident.com."

Ms. Mattes registered BookerForSenate.com, BookerForSenate.net and BookerForGovernor.net on May 15, 2010. She registered BookerForGovernor.com on May 24, 2010. All of the domains expire in May 2014. In March of this year, she registered CoryBookerForPresident.com. The presidential site expires in 2013.

Mr. Booker is thought to be one of Democrats' best chances to unseat Mr. Christie. However, Mr. Christie's handling of Hurricane Sandy and his subsequent embrace of President Barack Obama was a public relations coup for the governor. A Quinnipiac poll of New Jersey voters released last month showed, though Mr. Booker has the strongest chances of any Democrat against Mr. Christie, the incumbent would handily defeat him in a potential matchup 53 percent to 35 percent. In October, a Quinnipiac poll found a hypothetical race between Mr. Booker and Mr. Christie would be much tighter with the governor holding a slim 46 percent to 42 percent lead.

In a December 9 interview on CBS' Face The Nation Mr. Booker said he would make a decision about whether to run for governor within two weeks. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Booker is still mulling the choice.

Politicker reached out to both Mr. Booker and Ms. Mattes for this story. As of this writing, we have yet to receive a response.

(Photo: Getty)

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, known for single-handedly protecting constituents from burning flames, blizzard obstructions and crime, is currently attempting to live on a limited budget to better understand how food stamp recipients live their day-to-day lives. It may be the so-called "super mayor's" most difficult feat yet. Why? "Caffeine withdrawal."

"You make tough choices," Mr. Booker explained after his first day under the self-imposed budgetary restrictions. "The tough choice I have to live with this week is that I used my money to buy a lot of different things, but not caffeine. So I'm going to go this week without coffee, without Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, which is going to be the first week of my life I can ever actually remember doing that."

Mr. Booker actually made a prior attempt to go a few days without diet cola last year.

“Yes, but doesn’t ‘coke zero’ rhyme with ‘my hero’?” he tweeted at one point, for example.

This time, his caffeine-free diet began to affect him on day two.

"And today it hit me – the first stages of caffeine withdrawal," Mr.  Booker wrote on LinkedIn today. "Not being able to stop and drop a few dollars for a Venti coffee or Diet Mountain Dew is really raising my consciousness about the food choices I often take for granted."

In an interview about the experience Mr. Booker cradled his limited Mountain Dew supply and described his fear of suffering withdrawal.

"I may have to be hospitalized with caffeine withdrawal. I can look at buying coffee and making coffee at home, but I just don't know how much it costs," he said. He then cradled a bottle of Mountain Dew. "I was told to hide this because I shouldn't be endorsing products but I mean, these are my friends."

Watch Mr. Booker discuss his caffeine craving below:

Cory Booker hanging out with his hurricane houseguests. (Photo: Alice Bell/Twitter)

Newark Mayor Cory Booker opened his home yesterday to over a dozen of his neighbors who were left without power by Hurricane Sandy. Alice Bell, who took refuge after the storm at the mayor's house, talked to Politicker this morning and described the slumber party-like scene inside Mr. Booker's home and what it meant to the people who stayed there.

"It meant--I can't even explain," she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "I mean, we were--I'm still overwhelmed that he would reach out to us like that, you know, that we meant that much that he actually invited the whole block."

Ms. Bell said some residents of the neighborhood, Upper Clinton Hill, are without power, heat and water while others, like Mr. Booker, who live on different parts of the power grid are not. She has spoken to the utility company and they said they expect services to be restored tomorrow.

"His house is directly in back of mine," Ms. Bell explained. "That street, Hawthorne Avenue, that whole street has lights. We don't."

Because of the situation, Mr. Booker invited residents of one of the affected blocks, Homestead Park, into his home. He reached out to them on Twitter.

"His house is like three stories, so he opened up the whole floor to us," Ms. Bell said. "We had a kitchen, bathroom. We had the whole first floor."

Ms. Bell and others also went around the neighborhood making sure people knew they were welcome at the mayor's home.

"I went around knocking doors and said the mayor offered ... Everybody, they were shocked, like, 'Really, he said I could come?' So, we felt kind of special."

Because of the mayor's invite, Ms. Bell said people have been coming in and out of his house "constantly."

"I haven't been over there this morning, but yesterday, it was a steady flow of people there in and out, people just stopping by to charge phones and, you know, get something to eat, warm up a little bit," said Ms. Bell. "They've been back and forth constantly."

Mr. Booker has also stopped by to bring supplies.

"He brought us DVDs, he's bringing in food ... he came by brought us popcorn and then brought us trick-or-treat candy. He's been back and forth checking on us and calling ... You know, 'There's beds, get in the beds, bring your covers.' Everybody wanted to camp out that's what we were doing and, you know, we slept over last night," Ms. Bell said.

Along with popcorn, the menu at Mr. Booker's house consisted of chicken, fish, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, corn bread and candied yams from King's Family Restaurant. According to Ms. Bell, "we ate good." The DVD selection focused on movies for the mayor's younger house guests.

"There were kids, so everything was age appropriate. We watched Spiderman, we watched Kung Fu Panda, Happy Feet," Ms. Bell said. "And he brought--the kids had Play-Doh, and coloring books and stuff--supplies. We kept each other entertained, trying to keep each other's spirits up."

Though Ms. Bell said Mr. Booker allowed his guests to sleep at his house, she's not sure the mayor got any rest himself.

"He's still out running about, doing his thing, picking up prescriptions for medication for people, delivering Pampers, and he's in and out constantly," she said. "He came in for maybe--I don't know if he slept or not. He was in and out."

We reached out to Mr. Booker to ask why he decided to open his home and if he managed to get any rest. As of this writing, we haven't received a response.

For her part, Ms. Bell said she wasn't surprised by the mayor's generosity. Since being elected in 2006, Mr. Booker has earned a reputation as a "supermayor" for taking to Twitter to personally help Newark residents with their problems and an incident last April where he rushed into a burning building to save a woman from a fire.

"I'm not too surprised, you know, he's--I wouldn't expect anything less from him,  you know, that's just him," Ms. Bell said. "I wasn't surprised. The same way when people ask me about how surprised I was that he ran into the building behind that lady. I wasn't surprised."

Ms. Bell left Mr. Booker's house this morning to check on her pets, but she said she and others plan on returning again today.

"In fact, I'm getting ready to go back over there to take a shower right now," said Ms. Bell.

Cory Booker (Photo: YouTube)

Newark Mayor Cory Booker has earned the nickname "supermayor" for rushing into a burning building to save a woman from a fire last April and regularly using Twitter to personally solve the problems of his constituents. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Booker is living up to this reputation by allowing at least one person affected from the storm to take refuge in his home and enjoy his power outlets and "working DVD player."

This morning, a Twitter user with the handle @my_serenelove who identifies herself as a "Newark native" on the site sent a message to Mayor Booker complaining about her situation in the aftermath of the storm.

"I live around the corner from u on homestead. Why don't we have our power back. Half of my block does," she wrote.

Mayor Booker replied by inviting her over to his house to use the electricity, "relax" and watch DVD's.

"There is someone at my house now (Eric). I've got space u can relax in, charge devices & even a working DVD player. Come by," he wrote.

A few hours later, @my_serenelove tweeted that she was "at @CoryBooker house. Charging everything up."

"Thx," she added.

Update (2:44 p.m.): Apparently, @my_serenelove isn't the only Sandy refugee crashing at Mayor Booker's house. He later tweeted that he was "having lunch delivered for the 12 or so of you hanging at my place."

Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg will consider letting people who are still without power in Lower Manhattan come crash at his Upper East Side townhouse.

As of this writing, neither Mayor Booker or @my_serenelove has responded to a request for comment on this story.

Cory Booker at an Obama rally. (Photo: Getty)

"It looks like the Obama Campaign has to bring Mayor Booker back from the 'dead' to raise money after a terrible month where the President's fundraising lagged and he declared to millions of unemployed Americans that 'the private sector is doing fine,'" RNC Regional Press Secretary Ted Kwong told The Politicker.

Last month, in an appearance on Meet The Press, Mr. Booker said he found the Obama campaign's attacks on Mr. Romney's career with Bain Capital "nauseating." His comments led to a report in the New York Post, which cited unnamed sources saying Mr. Booker was "dead to" the White House and the Obama campaign. Yesterday, Mr. Booker told us the fundraiser and his other activities on behalf of the campaign prove the Post report was inaccurate.

“I’m giving speeches around the country for the party, I’m co-chair for the DNC Platform committee, I’m fund-raising for the campaign, hosting Thursday’s event and more,” Mr. Booker wrote. “Draw your own conclusions.”

After the Bain brouhaha, both the RNC and the Romney campaign attempted to capitalize on the impression Mr. Booker had split with the president. Mr. Booker subsequently said he was "very upset" he was being "used by the GOP."

Cory Booker (Photo: YouTube)

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is co-hosting a fundraiser for President Barack Obama at The Plaza Hotel tomorrow and he hopes it will lay to rest once and for all any impression he somehow defected from the president's re-election effort after his comments he was "nauseated" by the Obama campaign's attacks on Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital. The Politicker reached out to Mr. Booker to ask whether he believed the fundraiser would put to rest persistent chatter in the New York Post and elsewhere that the Bain brouhaha signified a break between him and President Obama. His response was emphatic.

"Since when do you all at NY Observer give so much credence to the Post on chatter? I'm giving speeches around the country for the party, I'm co-chair for the DNC Platform committee, I'm fund-raising for the campaign, hosting Thursday's event and more," Mr. Booker wrote. "Draw your own conclusions."

Last Friday, the New York Post published a report citing unnamed sources claiming Mr. Booker was "dead to" the White House and the Obama campaign following the controversy over his comments on Bain last month. Republicans and the Romney campaign have also repeatedly tried to capitalize on Mr. Booker's comments about Bain.

Almost immediately after the remarks were made, the Romney campaign released a video citing Mr. Booker's comments as evidence the president's "key supporters" had "enough of President Obama's attacks on free enterprise." The Romney campaign also sent emails highlighting Mr. Booker's remarks and other comments by former Democratic Congressmen Harold Ford Jr. and Artur Davis as "Dem Defections" and the Republican National Committee attempted to raise money off the flap. In an appearance on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show the day after his comments on the Bain attacks, Mr. Booker said he was outraged by the Republicans' attempts to score political points off of his remarks.

“As far as where my heart is right now I am very upset that I am being used by the GOP this way,” Mr. Booker said.

Cory Booker (Photo: YouTube)

The communications director for Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Anne Torres, will officially resign her post today.

Earlier this morning, our colleagues at PolitickerNJ reported the resignation is due to weeks of tumultuous relations with the media following a gaffe made on Meet the Press where Mr. Booker said he found attacks made on both sides of the partisan aisle "nauseating."

As Mr. Booker, a surrogate for President Barack Obama's reelection campaign, specifically referenced Mr. Obama's criticism of Bain Capital and Mitt Romney's record there, his comment ended up stepping on the Mr. Obama's toes. Mr. Booker attempted to undo the damage through appearances in recorded videos and television interviews, but that was apparently not enough.

Republicans, meanwhile, have not been forgiving of Mr. Booker's walk back of that "nauseating" statement and have been trumpeting Mr. Booker's remarks -- along with similar statements made by other Democrats -- as Mr. Obama has aggressively focuses his campaign's messaging on Bain Capital.