NJ Senate rivals remind voters: election Wednesday

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - October 14, 2013 (WPVI) -- New Jersey's Senate candidates hit the road Monday in a final push to ask for voters' support and just as importantly, to remind them that the special election is Wednesday.

Republican Steve Lonegan appeared at a Westfield train station and diner, Ocean County GOP headquarters and a handful of small businesses. He took a swing through Newark for a news conference in front of Democrat Cory Booker's house, and also planned rallies in Medford and Atlantic Highlands.

Booker was on the third day of a bus tour that was to take him to the southern half of the state, from Trenton to Atlantic City. The Newark mayor also planned to go for an after-dark jog with supporters in Willingboro.

Voting is Wednesday. The winner will take office immediately to fill the remaining 15 months of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg's term.

Both candidates have spent recent weeks characterizing the other's political positions as extreme.

Lonegan has called Booker a "Hollywood" candidate and a rubber stamp for President Barack Obama. Booker has painted Lonegan as someone who holds views that are out of touch with the values of mainstream Americans.

The battleground shifted - literally - to Booker's neighborhood Monday.

Lonegan stood outside Booker's three-story home and accused the Newark mayor of not actually living there, a claim made by some of Booker's foes over the years.

"This mayor who has used this city as a steppingstone to higher office is more focused on being in Hollywood, being in San Francisco, perhaps living in New York City, than living right here," Lonegan said.

In an interview with New York radio station WCBS, Booker called the accusation "absolutely not true" and an attempt by Lonegan to "distract people from his (Lonegan's) extreme views."

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