POTUS Candidate Cory Booker: Newark NJ Water Scandal Catching Up To ‘Spartacus’
Just about every one of the 2020 Democratic candidates has made the environment, including climate change, carbon emissions, air pollution, and other “existential threats,” one of the central themes of their campaigns.
For example, U.S. Senator Cory “Spartacus” Booker, D-New Jersey, at times appears ready to pop the eyeballs out of his own head when he talks about the dangers Americans face if the Democrats are not allowed to control the economy, the sources of energy, the Internet, and other areas of Americans’ lives never before turned over to politicians.
Prior to Booker becoming New Jersey’s senator, he managed to be run for, and win, Newark’s mayor. As usual, he promised minorities in that already dingy city a better economy, more well-paying jobs, a marked decrease in violent crime especially homicides, and a total rejuvenation of that crumbling city where armed street gangs rule the night and police officers are held in contempt even by the politicians.
When Spartacus was the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, he knew he had better get out of town before he was discovered to be at the center of a water scandal that still may make a comeback by a clever opponent to tear away at his smarmy facade. Cory Booker was elected mayor of a rotting infrastructure and even more rotting society and when he left, he and his administration practically raped the taxpayers and then blamed whites for the poverty and suffering of Newark life.
As a presidential candidate, Cory Booker has twisted and turned environmental protections as being part of his social justice platform. During his time as a United States senator, he situated himself as a warrior for safe water for residents of decaying cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Newark
Unfortunately, the man who called himself “Spartacus” left behind a growing water quality crisis gripping Newark, New Jersey. In fact, how did he envision getting off the hook during a national election? While it may not hurt a politician’s chances of winning elected office during a local election, attention and scrutiny of Booker’s own record when he was that city’s mayor — at a time when the water system was marred by scandal — might harm Booker’s grandiose ambitions to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“The levels of lead in Newark, New Jersey’s drinking water are some of the highest recently recorded by a large water system in the United States. And we know the cause: City and state officials are violating the Safe Drinking Water Act in several ways, such as failing to treat its water to prevent lead from flaking off from pipes into residents’ drinking water and neglecting to notify people about the elevated levels and the health risks,” according to officials at the NRDC (Natural Resource Defense Council).
“The two crises may be separated by time, but as images spread of Newark officials handing out bottled water to residents grappling with dangerous water pollution, ongoing water problems could prove increasingly uncomfortable for his 2020 presidential campaign,” said the NRDC.
“Booker has no credibility, especially on water,” Brendan O’Flaherty, an economics professor at Columbia University who put together a 2011 report on the commission, told the Washington Times. “He did not leave a legacy of a well-functioning water treatment plant and engineering corps. He left a mess,” O’Flaherty said.
“This is something that he will have to answer for,” said Krista Jenkins, a professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University. “As with anyone who is a chief executive of a large city, everything that happened under his or her watch is going to become fodder for any of his or her rivals.”
