Cory Booker’s Lightweight Legislative Record A Big 2020 Impediment

Earlier this week, Senator Booker engaged in a hallmark of early presidential aspirants, the non-denial denial of presidential ambitions. Speaking on David Axelrod’s “Axe Files” podcast, he “carefully” contested that he’s definitely going to run for president in 2020:

“New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker seems to tread carefully around speculation of a potential 2020 White House bid. ‘I don’t know what the future’s going to bring,’ Booker told David Axelrod on ‘The Axe Files,’ a podcast from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN. ‘I’m not making predictions, but I want to unleash the fullness of who I am right now, and I want to call out injustice where I see it.”

Booker’s “modesty” has him more focused on “unleashing the fullness of who I am right now,” whatever that means. While Booker’s presidential dreams are well-known, he probably should be more focused on actually doing the job he was elected to. Clearly, if Booker had hopes of running on a legislative record, any thoughts of a 2020 bid would be instantly forgotten.

Since Booker has been a United States Senator, he’s managed a lot of Senatorial selfies, but not a whole lot of legislating. In total, Booker has seen just two of his sponsored bills become law, with one of those two being a Post Office renaming. With a legislative record that scant of significant achievements, no one’s going to confuse Booker with LBJ.

In fact, given his mediocre record on issues like crime in his previous job as Newark’s mayor, Booker’s best hopes for 2020 lie with Democratic voters being once again enamored with a Senator with no legislative record.