Cory Booker in 2014 NJ Senate debate

On Foreign Policy: Where Israel's security is at stake, so is America's

Lasting security for Israel will ultimately require peace between Israel and its neighbors. That is why we as Americans must continue to work to facilitate direct negotiations that seek a two-state solution. However, it is the right of the Israeli government to make the tough decisions that are necessary to secure its future. The Palestinian People deserve a state, [but it] must not be a vehicle for the launching of attacks against Israel. During any eventual negotiation, certain things must remain non-negotiable, namely conditions that speak to Israel's right to exist as a secure Jewish state.

On Foreign Policy: Development funds via international organizations for Africa

On Foreign Policy: Robust diplomacy and international development

On Free Trade: African trade makes stable countries & good for our security

Stronger, more stable African countries are also good for our security. Some parts of Africa, like Mali and Somalia, have had significant problems with extremist groups. Extremists have a much harder time gaining a foothold and recruiting when a countries people are making money, putting food on the table, and being supported by an effective government.

On Free Trade: China cheats via currency manipulation & IP theft

American workers can compete and win on a level playing field, which is why China's cheating--through artificially depressing its currency and other unfair trade practices--is so damaging. While currency appreciation has occurred, keeping it artificially low hurts our economic competitiveness and undermines the trust that is essential to a strong relationship. That doesn't mean we should start a trade war--that would hurt our economy just as much as it would hurt China's. Instead, our goal should be a level playing field that treats everyone fairly, and that includes cracking down on unfair practices, such as unreasonable market barriers and Intellectual Property theft, that often break China's commitments to us and the rest of the world.

On Government Reform: Founding principle: make laws open to public debate

It is a basic principle of our founding that laws be open to public debate and inspection. We must update the rules that permitted this program to exist and ensure Congress, the courts, and the people have access and oversight. We need to vigorously guard our 4th Amendment privacy protections while still protecting Americans from terrorism. There are serious questions about whether this program successfully does that, and we cannot ask these questions after the fact again.

On Government Reform: Threat to voting rights in America remains very real

On Health Care: ObamaCare is a vital step in the right direction

• Health care costs are a factor in over 60 percent of bankruptcies;
• Millions of Americans exhaust their savings every year trying to cover medical expenses;
• Many people without insurance have been unable to get treatment.

In Newark, we know that investing up front can produce great gains in the long run, and that the opposite is equally and sadly true. As Mayor I did not wait for the federal government to improve health access for Newarkers.

On Homeland Security: Maintain the strongest military force in the world

The military threats of the future look very different than the challenges we faced in the 80s, 90s, or even just a few years ago, and America's military needs to keep up. Without a major adversary like the Soviet Union, smaller nontraditional conflicts and interventions are more likely to be the rule, even as we refocus on asserting power in the Pacific. That is why military spending should be driven by a strategy to meet future threats, rather than an arbitrary number invented for political posturing or an attempt to fight the wars of past.

On Homeland Security: Irresponsible to spend on irrelevant weapon systems

On Jobs: Great Recession decreased hourly wages overall

Occupations in fields such as construction and manufacturing, with median hourly wages of $13.84 to $21.13--the middle third of the pay scale--accounted for 60 percent of job losses during the worst part of the recession. As the recovery progressed, however, those jobs didn't come back. Instead, it was lower-wage occupations--those with median hourly wages of $7.69 to $13.83--that accounted for 58 percent of all job growth.

On Jobs: Gender wage gap problematic; minority wage gap worse

Our work will not be done until we live in a nation where equal work means equal pay. And that's why, as your Senator, I will work to make the long overdue promises advanced by the 2009 enactment of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act a reality by supporting further efforts to close the income gap between men and women, including the Paycheck Fairness Act and raising the federal minimum wage.

On Technology: Protect critical infrastructure from cyberattack

We need new ways to protect the computer-connected systems that keep lights on and banks open. Years ago we decided that physical security--fences and cameras -- around sensitive sites like power plants was essential. Yet there is no requirement, or even voluntary standard, for putting virtual fences around the computers that run these facilities.

When critical infrastructure is attacked or essential data is stolen, companies need a clear way to report it to civilian authorities so that government has a picture of the threats and other companies can protect themselves from similar attacks.

On Technology: Technology empowers individuals but creates diverse threats

On War & Peace: All options on the table with Iran, including military

Iranians recently elected a new President who has taken a less confrontational tone and positioned himself as open to negotiation.

The president is right to keep all options, including military action, on the table while vigorously pursuing both international sanctions and a negotiated settlement that prevents Iran from gaining nuclear weapons. Today, sanctions have imposed real and increasing harm on Iran's economy and isolated them from the international community. Pursuing these diplomatic and economic actions must continue while there is time, because while all options should remain on the table, the cost of military action to end the Iranian nuclear program could be very high for us and our allies in the region.

On Principles & Values: First African-American senator from New Jersey

"That's kind of incredible," Booker said. "New Jersey is a special kind of place." Booker said that to New Jersey's credit, race was never an issue in his campaign.

Booker will serve out the remainder of the late Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg's term, which ends in January 2015. Booker will serve on three Senate committees: Commerce, Science and Transportation; Small Business and Entrepreneurship; and Environment and Public Works. Two of his assignments--commerce and environment--also were committee assignments for Lautenberg.

On Foreign Policy: No head in the sand; but no global police

Neither Booker nor Lonegan would qualify as a "hawk," but Booker is more receptive to the deployment of U. forces. Asked a Syria-inspired question in the first debate about "America's role in the world," Booker said the US should be willing to combat genocide, while Lonegan countered that the military's role is to "defend our borders and our trade routes."

That drew a rebuttal from Booker: "We cannot, like Mr. Lonegan suggests, just stick our heads in the sand and protect our borders. We have to be involved in the international community in a way that works with others to stop terrorism, other problems--famines to genocide--that are going on in the world," Booker said

On Homeland Security: Public oversight needed for NSA domestic spying

Booker has been less vocal on that topic, but says on his website that "we failed as a nation to thoroughly debate and create public oversight before this highly-questionable data collection began."

Lonegan opposes any United Nations treaties that would undercut U.S. sovereignty. Booker casts environmentalism in a national security context in endorsing further development of clean energy sources. He asserts that the U.S. is sending billions of dollars overseas to obtain oil, which ends up aiding terrorist groups and hostile regimes.

On Abortion: No restrictions before viability; exceptions after viability

The American Commitment Action Fund, a conservative PAC behind the BookerFAIL website, funded a new ad that claims Booker condones abortion at any stage of pregnancy and without restrictions. "He supports late-term and partial-birth abortion and opposes safety regulations," the ad states.

We checked with the Booker campaign. "We can all agree that we want to prevent unintended pregnancies, and therefore the need for abortion," a spokesman said. "Mayor Booker supports Roe v Wade, which allows women the right to choose up to the point of viability."

As for late-term and partial-birth abortions? "Cory Booker does not oppose restrictions on post-viability abortions if exceptions are made for the health and the life of the mother," the spokesman said.

On Civil Rights: MLK's dream still demands work to do, after 50 years

(VIDEO) BOOKER: The truth of the matter is that the dream still demands that the moral conscience of our country still calls us, that hope still needs heroes. We need to understand that there is still work to do.

Q: What is the legacy of the "I Have a Dream" speech? There's only one other African American US Senator; one African American Governor; one African American president. Progress, but still uneven when it comes to elected office. Is that how Dr. King saw the dream playing out 50 years later?

BOOKER: Well, I think that these positions are important. But I think the matter in what drove the march, was not simply propelling people to elected office, it was dealing with the larger issues of inequality. Not only racial inequality, but frankly the challenge we faced then in our nations till now and the dramatic differences between rich and poor and the challenges we have and had then in America and we still have now with poverty.

On Crime: Bipartisan solution to reduce recidivism

We as a people can never allow our inability to do everything, [such as] solving poverty, to undermine our determinations to do something. And so I'm a child of a generation that said, "I'm going to do something to make this world a better place."

[For example], the Manhattan Institute is a right-leaning think tank. I have lots of disagreements with their leadership, but we said that one of the biggest problems in America is mass incarceration. It's one of the most expensive governments that's gone out of control and it fails. They release those people and the majority of them come back. And we found ways to get together and do reentry programs of dramatically-reduced recidivism.

We have a politics in this country that's failing its people.

On Jobs: 1/3 of all NJ development is in Newark, where only 3% live

BOOKER: Well, politics is a zero-sum game. The spirit of Martin Luther King taught me that love multiplies and hate divides. We've got too much division going on in our politics. Where people come together, you make remarkable results. Well, Chris Christie and I disagree on most things. But if we just sat back in our relative partisan positions, we wouldn't have gotten anything together. The fact that we've come together right now has created the largest economic development period in Newark in over a generation. In fact, we are 3% of the state's population with a third of all the development in New Jersey is going on in Newark, in commercial multi-families. Our biggest boom, period, because we found ways to get together.

On Social Security: Opposes raising retirement age; expand entitlements

In response to the PCCC, Booker said that he believes that tying Social Security benefits to the Consumer Price Index or a change in the retirement age would constitute cuts to the program. Booker has found himself pressed by his opponents on the Social Security issue in recent weeks, [based on] the mayor's ties to Wall Street interests. Booker has long been a recipient of campaign contributions from those in the financial services sector.

On Government Reform: Campaign PAC money shouldn't speak louder than people