New Jersey's Senate candidates define their stands

As his party lurches toward November's midterm elections at risk of losing control of the Senate, U.S. Sen. Cory A. Booker said a Democratic majority is needed to tackle big problems such as immigration and corporate tax policy.

"This is why I think it's so important the Democrats hold the Senate: The House is controlled by Republicans, and Republicans are heavily influenced, if not controlled, by the tea party," Booker said in an interview Tuesday with the Inquirer Editorial Board.

"Trust me. You don't think [Republican House Speaker John] Boehner believes in immigration reform?" Booker said. But the primary defeat in June of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) to a more conservative candidate means "you have a lot of folks afraid to move on commonsense legislation."

Republicans need to win six seats to take control of the Senate. New Jersey's race, in which Booker is seeking a full six-year term against GOP nominee Jeff Bell, is not expected to tilt the balance.

Booker, 45, leads Bell, 70, by an average of 12 points in the polls, according to data compiled by Real Clear Politics. Booker had $3.5 million in cash as of June 30, while Bell had none, according to their most recent filings with the Federal Election Commission.

Bell, a former campaign aide to President Ronald Reagan and the New Jersey GOP nominee for Senate in 1978, is running on an issue that was largely unfamiliar to half of the likely New Jersey voters surveyed in a recent Monmouth University poll: returning U.S. currency to the gold standard. President Richard M. Nixon severed the last U.S. tie to the gold standard in 1971.

While such a drastic change in monetary policy may be too complex for some voters to grasp, Bell says his pitch is simple: "I have a specific idea of how to fix the economy. Sen. Booker does not."

Bell says Republicans have done a poor job of articulating an alternative to President Obama's economic policies and he felt compelled to present one.

So, after living in Virginia for 30 years and working at a Washington public-policy organization, he moved to Leonia, Bergen County, this year to run for the Senate.

"The wheels have fallen off the paper money system," Bell said in an interview Wednesday with the Editorial Board. He said wage stagnation was connected to the Federal Reserve's low interest-rate policy.

"If your money is backed by something of independent value, your money will be worth the same thing a year from now, two years from now, five years from now, even 100 years from now," he said.

Booker on Tuesday said Bell was a "visitor to New Jersey" and described Bell's economic idea as a "discredited, defective, defunct theory" that would hurt the middle class.

Booker, a former mayor of Newark, won a special election last year to complete the term of the late Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg.

He said his accomplishments included securing mortgage assistance for Cumberland County residents who were not eligible for Sandy aid and extending a program for traumatic brain injury to help veterans.

Booker said he is pushing bigger issues, too, such as simplifying the application process for college students seeking financial aid and introducing a bill with Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) that seeks to help juveniles and adults expunge or seal nonviolent crimes. He also supports raising the federal minimum wage.

He wants to overhaul the corporate tax structure; the top rate of 35 percent has hurt U.S. competitiveness, Booker said.

Booker described mass incarceration and the "war on drugs" as modern-day Jim Crow, "destroying Philadelphia, destroying Camden, destroying Newark, destroying Paterson and Passaic."

On foreign policy, Booker said Obama should turn to Congress to seek authorization of military force against the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

He would not say how he would vote on such a measure but added that he would want the authorization to be "time-specific" and "limited."

"What level, in terms of expense and level of engagement, is America bearing in this fight?" he asked.

Booker and Bell each said the United States should not consider attacking the Assad regime in Syria.

Bell said Congress needed to pass a formal declaration of war and develop a clear strategy for destruction of the Islamic State.

The U.S., Bell said, "shouldn't intervene without a strategic objective."

Booker said the federal response to the infection of people in the U.S. with Ebola had been inadequate. One Liberian national died from Ebola in Texas, and two health-care workers were infected as a result.

"I'm not confident yet that every New Jersey hospital is ready should someone show up, and I'm pushing really hard to be satisfied by that," Booker said.

But, he continued, "If we have a case at Newark Airport, am I confident that person could be brought to a hospital and get the resources they need? Yes.

Bell said Republican Gov. Christie would campaign with him Monday in Morristown. A debate is scheduled for next Friday in Trenton. The election is Nov. 4.