Cory Booker, the Newark mayor and candidate for a U.S. Senate seat from New Jersey, is getting significant financial assistance from New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who is spending $1 million on the campaign.
The mayor is expected to endorse Booker publicly and, under his political action committee, Bloomberg is expected to spend the $1 million on television ads for the campaign.
The ads are designed to portray the Newark mayor as someone who has “put progress ahead of partisanship.”
Booker is widely favored to win the senate seat in the October 16 special election to succeed Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat who died last year. The state has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972. Booker faces Republican candidate Steve Lonegan, a conservative candidate who is supported by the Tea Party.
Bloomberg has spent lavishly in the last year on the campaigns of various candidates and initiatives aimed at curbing access to guns. He will use his Independence USA political action committee to pay for the ads in the Booker campaign.
Earlier this year, the New York City mayor contributed through his political action committee to the campaign of Robin Kelly, who ran for a congressional seat in Illinois to succeed Jesse Jackson Jr.
In that special election, Bloomberg’s political action committee paid for ads that touted her position on gun control and criticized two of her opponents on the issue.
Booker is widely expected to win that special election in the heavily Democratic state. However, the polls have shown some narrowing of the race in recent weeks.

BET National News - Keep up to date with breaking news stories from around the nation, including headlines from the hip hop and entertainment world. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. 

(Photo: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic/Getty Images)