Booker's Support of Bloomberg Pay$ Off

Newark's Democratic Mayor Cory A. Booker crossed party lines to support Mayor Michael Bloomberg's re-election bid this year -- and apparently the move was lucrative.

In May, Bloomberg’s longtime accountant contributed $26,000 — the maximum allowable — to Booker’s re-election committee, according to campaign finance records, The New York Times reported today.

The contribution is only the second one that Bloomberg's accountant, Martin Geller, has made to anyone in New Jersey politics, the Times said.  The other contribution was much smaller -- $2,000 -- and given to Assembly Republicans in Trenton in 2005 while Bloomberg was still registered as a Republican.

Booker has been stumping with Mayor Mike for the past few months -- including a tour of African-American churches in Queens on Sunday where he introduced the billionaire as "my big-brother mayor."

The Times asked about whether there was a quid pro quo, Howard Wolfson, the Bloomberg campaign’s chief media strategist, said this:

“As Mayor Booker made clear this past Sunday, he and Mayor Bloomberg formed a friendship three years ago when he was first elected to office, and have worked together on a number of issues since, including gun violence and education reform."

The revelation of the contribution has ruffled the feathers of Bill Thompson's campaign.  The African-American, Democratic mayoral candidate's spokeswoman, Anne Fenton, decried the move as more evidence Bloomberg is trying to buy a third term in office.

"Today’s revelation that Mike Bloomberg has paid for the endorsement of Newark Mayor Cory Booker is scandalous. It proves Bloomberg is willing to do anything to win this election and calls into question many of the supporters who have stood beside him," she said.

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