Palin endorses New Jersey GOP Senate candidate

{mosads}”On October 16, New Jersey has the choice of two mayors to send to the U.S. Senate. Only one of these mayor’s has embraced and governed by the values of New Jersey’s state motto — ‘Liberty and Prosperity,’ ” she said in a statement.
 
“During one mayor’s tenure his town’s unemployment nearly doubled, taxes skyrocketed, and violent crime increased; but in fairness, Newark Mayor Cory Booker may not have noticed these facts between his constant tweeting and trips to Hollywood,” she added.

Palin joins Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) as a national conservative figure throwing her weight behind the candidate. Her endorsement comes as two consecutive independent polls released over the last week and a half show the race to be closer than initially believed.

Lonegan’s own internal polling shows the race to be in single-digits, though it’s likely not that close.

The Republican appears to be surging due to the compounded impact of multiple weeks of negative press for Booker, including questions about a composite character he often uses in campaign speeches that may not be real, and the leak of flirtatious messages he exchanged with a stripper.

Still, New Jersey is a deep-blue state and the fundamentals of the race favor Booker. He raised nearly three times as much as Lonegan in the pre-general period, and has substantially more cash in the bank to get his message out in the final weeks — and has been doing so, launching his first negative ad slamming Lonegan as too extreme for New Jersey earlier this week.