Geraldo Rivera rules out Senate bid in New Jersey special election

{mosads}”Because of his sacrifice, the good guys ultimately win,” Rivera said.

Rivera also cites less literary reasons for opting against a run, saying conversations with friends and colleagues, as well as “frantically testing everything from my ideological viability to prospective budgets,” led him to decide against mounting a campaign.

He said his family “argued strenuously against a campaign odyssey that would exhaust our finances and expose us to the ravages of unlimited Super PAC money and tabloid scrutiny.”

“Ultimately, I concluded that whatever else it is, New Jersey politics is not a fantasy novel,” he wrote. “For one thing, the energetic and engaging Mayor Booker is not the Dark Lord. And while I may be willing to die for the right cause, I’m not willing to bankrupt myself in a vain quest that is more Don Quixote than Lord of the Rings.”

Rivera first hinted at the run during a broadcast of his radio show in January.

“I am and have been in touch with some people in the Republican Party in New Jersey. I am truly contemplating running for Senate against Frank Lautenberg or Cory Booker in New Jersey,” he said at the time.

But a Monmouth University poll released two weeks later showed that only a quarter of Garden State residents said they would be very or somewhat likely to vote for the radio host. Two-thirds of respondents said they would not cast a ballot for Rivera.