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Conservative group targets Cory Booker’s Senate campaign

Posted at 8:00 AM, Jul 24, 2013
and last updated 2013-07-23 20:49:55-04

(CNN) — As Newark mayor Cory Booker’s star rises on the national scene, conservatives are hoping to disrupt the Democrat’s campaign for U.S. Senate.

Newly-created Super PAC American Commitment Action Fund posted an online ad Tuesday going after Booker as an absentee-mayor, using his own words and that of fellow Newark politicians to try and paint the portrait of an ineffectual and divisive leader.

“The charade is over,” the video concludes after a litany of Newark residents question Booker’s tactics and frequent appearances on national media. The intended message is clear: Cory Booker is all show and no action. The message is gleaned from at least one Newark politician himself looking at a mayoral run.

Booker is the frontrunner in the special election race to fill out the rest of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s term. With 1.4 million Twitter followers in a city of less than 300,000, the charismatic mayor has shot to national attention through social media and connections across the country.

The attack ad’s website initially spelled Booker’s first name with an ‘e,’ a mistake his campaign was quick to pounce on in their response. “It’s hardly surprising that a group that couldn’t even spell the mayor’s first name right would get his record wrong too and disparage the work of thousands of Newarkers who have come together to turn around their city,” the Booker campaign said in a statement.

“The one thing the ad proves is that extremist, right-wing groups are scared of having Cory Booker in the Senate.”

American Commitment Action Fund has committed $100,000 to defeating Booker’s Senate run. According to a spokesman, it has not yet been decided how much will be spent on the first ad although more ads are likely on the way.

The Booker project is American Commitment Action Fund’s first. According to the statement, it was chosen because “this is the biggest race in the country right now, with a general slated two weeks after open enrollment in the news health care exchanges starts,” the statement said.

“Cory Booker has a liberal record of failure and division that the voters of New Jersey need to know about,” it said.

According to its website, the Super PAC is “committed to defeating big government liberals and electing free-market conservatives in races for federal office.”