Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s formal announcement Friday that he won’t run for another term at age 90 heads off what was looking like a very bitter primary fight with Cory Booker, who has already announced he is exploring a run. But just because Lautenberg’s out of the way, doesn’t mean Booker’s path to the Senate is assured.Booker starts off as a clear frontrunner in the polls. A survey from Monmouth University this week put him at 40 percent to Lautenberg’s 25 percent, with no one else cracking double digits. But he’s also the only major candidate to (more or less) declare their candidacy so far. New Jersey is a deep blue state and has an equally deep bench of Democratic politicians, many of whom have been waiting years for a rare open Senate seat to finally pop up.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=91982