Is the Senate Any Place For a Star?

It’s a Cakewalk that raises a question. Newark Mayor Cory Booker easily won the Aug. 13 Democratic primary for New Jersey’s vacant Senate seat. But why does a rising star with a huge social-media following, a deep fundraising network and a gift for retail politics want to be a U.S. Senator?

The Senate is a tough place for impatient people. It was a great, if brief, résumé builder for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama–not to mention two of the latest Republican presidential hopefuls, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. But to do anything important there, you have to accrue seniority over decades. Just ask John Kerry: it took him 24 years to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. There’s a reason it’s called the world’s greatest deliberative body.

If Booker prevails against a weak GOP field in an Oct. 16 special election, his prize will be a backbench seat and the expectation that he dim his wattage, at least for the short term.

Booker’s energy and hands-on style are better suited to running a city or to visiting Iowa, New Hampshire and the other stomping grounds of a presidential candidate–something the ambitious politician may aspire to be someday. So why detour through the famously cloistered Senate? Because Governor Chris Christie, the only other New Jersey politician as popular as Booker, is blocking the more traditional path to the White House.

A Senate run may not have been Booker’s first choice, but it’s safer than taking on Christie and more promising than sticking around stubbornly depressed Newark–a sitting mayor has never been elected President.

“When he inevitably runs for President, Booker will claim executive experience from Newark and national expertise via the Senate,” says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “Somehow, I doubt Booker plans a terribly long Senate stay before his next move.”