TLS Interview with U S Senator and Candidate Cory Booker

stand by america we are on the line with senator cory booker you may have noticed that there's a marathon going on today thousands of runners going across the verrazano bridge lots of runners from new jersey there are only two runners in another race that a lot of people are much more concerned about the u.s senatorial race right here in the state of new jersey senator booker thanks for taking time from your very busy schedule to join us today how are you with you today thanks sir having me well the lakewood scoop is proud to uh present uh local issues that have global impact which this certainly does a very important race you were in lakewood last night senator what was that trip about and uh what did you see and what do you think people uh you know i was driving all over the state and i saw that i was coming close to lakewood as i was driving home at the end of a long day and just a lot of good friends at lakewood and i knew that i could go there and meet some people shake some hands and have some great pizza and ice cream before i uh went back uh whole did you enjoy the pizza and ice cream i presume you did i i i definitely didn't enjoy the people even more you know lakewood is such a great community i think i've seen it straight when it's been tested uh when we had a terrible tragedy of a young man dying in israel to see the family and the community rally around the family was incredible i've seen strength frankly just from uh what they what the community does for uh children with learning disabilities and different styles of learning uh and obviously it's one of the greatest uh theological uh uh uh strength it's one of the greatest torah schools and and uh educators in the country uh and so in so many ways it's just an impressive town and i love the people and look forward to many late night pizza runs as well as other reasons to come visit you know i think that's reciprocal one of the people that uh the senator met last night was a fellow by the name of w honig who runs something called the pronunciation network and he just started this orthodox chamber of commerce which uh the senators seem to express in next western do you feel senator given the the context of the economy and that issue of the economy has really taken uh front and center to other issues like ebola and even things that are going on in the other parts of the world with isis which are certainly major major issues which the senator does have a very profound opinion on but it seems that the economy seems to be taking a a front center front center stage i'd like to ask you based on some of the things that you've seen in terms of the growth of a community like a community like lakewood where according to one report it's uh one of the fastest growing youth-oriented populations that are going to be looking for employment and you yourself have said that you would like to see local initiatives through various groups to um to take the initiative to increase business in the state and uh the workforce and to develop the workforce for the for the boosting media of the economy well what's your feeling about having something like a an orthodox jewish chamber of commerce and being able to build those bridges that are so much needed to uh to foist to voice to uh to foster a much better economy especially doing business with the orthodox community which you've seen last night and as i said last night it's a great great idea i've seen that when people pull together um affinity groups or uh religious groups or ethnic groups around the idea that we're gonna grow business it doesn't just help that particular ethnic group it actually helps to grow our overall economy and make it more robust and what i learned even my days as mayor of newark you want to build your economy from the grassroots up and so i know a lot about business creation when i was a mayor of the city of newark i took over during a recession business population leaving the state but when i left last year before i became united states senator newark was only three percent of the state's population but one-third of all the development in our state would go on in newark first new office towers restaurants coming in first new hotels a lot of vibrancy and a lot of that had to do with bringing people together around common interests with strategies that could really create a better climate for business growth and so as a senator now i'm really focused on those kind of local initiatives that can help create that it's why i've held six business forums throughout the state uh brought in people to talk about access to capital one of the biggest obstacles often to starting or expanding in business and even pushing frankly or targeted tax breaks for small businesses so that they can grow and hire you know that's interesting i'm just going to keep you for a few more minutes i know you're very busy but you know they were talking about in congress raising the the limit raising the debt ceiling raising the debt ceiling in order to um to help the economy which some people say is kind of like raising the uh the limits on uh on blood alcohol levels in order to stop drunk driving i mean it doesn't really provide a very viable solution so how how would you see these local initiatives like this really aiding and abetting let's say specifically sounds like your car is passing let's say specifically let's say in the orthodox community where it wants to reach out to other ethnic communities that they should say anybody who's doing business with the orthodox community that you know that they're initiatives that are being taken to be done do you do do you think that there's a a really strong base within a community like lakewood to be able to reach out to help other people throughout the state through these type of initiatives absolutely i absolutely do look at what we have in lakewood population lots of youth and energy i just believe that that can become one of the anchors for economic growth and development in our state especially that community continues to grow and the problem we have a lot of issues in america one is will be spending too much money as a government and you can't cut your way out of the problem alone uh i learned this nobody cut government more than we did in the state when i was there we cut our workforce 25 but you got to do cutting on one side but you also got to do economic growth focus on a prosperity economy and if you can get gdp growth up in our state a lot of these other issues that we're struggling with become a lot easier to deal with and i believe in playing to your strengths when it comes to businesses when i again i look at different strategies like what's our economic base in new jersey and you know from fort to agriculture but a lot of our communities like lakewood which is distinct in so many ways to provide a jumping off point for extraordinary success and i feel very blessed i've met with a lot of business leaders uh in lakewood and had some really substantive conversation about things that we could be doing to grow our economy and i'm really looking forward uh to partnering god willing ms roth hashem i should be the next senator again i'm really looking forward to working with folks in lakewood focusing on that strategy of economic growth job creation i i see you've taken on the sephardic pronunciation to ezra the shem so that means you're where did you pick up the shrock as it were senator it's uh it's really very very fast and pick up a lot of uh a lot of a lot of hebrew as a result of that uh i i just uh i've had my life really enriched by uh studying uh studying the torah and it's one of the greatest uh documents in humanity in my opinion uh the foundation really of spiritual life uh for more than just the jewish me and so i will continue my my study and hopefully years to come and if god willed it uh you know i will uh i will it will continue to enrich my life it sounds a lot more like the the essence of um of the man cory booker than it does even of a politician and certainly a lot more than even coming from the profounder edition of a uh of a rhodes scholar speaking of rhodes scholar it sounds like you're on the road right now so we don't we don't want to keep you but you have said senator that it's good that we do have differences and we're willing to stand up for those things that we believe in it helps us to grow into better people when you're elected senator i don't think there's any doubt that i mean even though last year was um a a race which really was kind of hands down we knew you were going to win you took over for senator lautenberg this is really a lot more of a challenge once you're a senator and we really think that you've galvanized i think not only the jewish community but many of the other communities throughout the state of new jersey what is it that you feel that is perhaps most misunderstood or would you would like people to know particularly within the jewish community because that's what we're talking to here but i know it extends beyond that that is not known and that should be known about cory booker than men well i don't think a lot of my friends in the jewish community know that that sort of score of my life is a spiritual perspective and a lot of the reason why i enjoy studying judaism so much is because there are a lot of very strong jewish ideals uh that i think are the bedrock of humanity you know this idea that when abraham uh entered the covenant and circumcised himself many people think that right after that he received the blessing but actually and we're going to get to the torah portion very soon abraham the last thing he did before he received the blessing uh from the angels was to see strangers in the distance and the taurus and he gets up while he's still in pain from circumcising himself and runs to greet those strangers and and that's the goodness the kindness that the the foundation of what humanity has to be about and so this jewish ideal is this human uh grace of human value the goodness and kindness to strangers to people who indeed aren't different than you and you know judaism doesn't seek to convert it's really saying that hey we need to create a pluralistic society in which we all can manifest peace and to go along to heal the world and that's why one of my favorite songs during the high holidays has a line that says my house be a house of prayer for many nations so look at this jewish ideal this idea that we can bring people around a common table because fight our differences and manifest righteousness justice goodness kindness uh that really excites me and and that's a lot of what motivates my life trying to bring people together it's why i'm not going down to washington to be new jersey's democratic senator i'm going down to washington to be new jersey senator and work with people on both sides of the aisle uh so that we can stop this gridlock we have so much more in common uh than we have that separates us let's find that common ground and move our country forward well i think you've done a lot of that by crossing both sides of the aisle especially in your battle for school vouchers and galvanizing both parties and i think that is a uh is certainly commendable and we uh we wish you a lot of success in the upcoming election and hope hopefully you won't be a stranger and uh we know that your doors are open you're uh certainly somebody who makes yourself accessible to your constituency and we hope that with uh initiatives like the pronuncia network and the orthodox jewish chamber of commerce that that will help galvanize and and build the relationships we're talking about and hopefully that people like you and w honing and uh um all the other people in lakewood will be able to be able to say we're proud that we supported senator cory booker and that you'll be able to say i'm proud that uh i have such a wonderful consistency and friends in the jewish communities well i i you are such a kind man to say that and uh i already have that pride lakewood and i'm grateful to you for allowing me to talk a little bit this morning we'll look forward to speaking to the senator after you reclaim the title after tuesday good luck and as we say senator thank you we've been talking to senator cory booker and um the election will be tuesday as you may know this is perrisburg either the lakewood scoop front center talk all the news that's fit to hear