Petrelis Files

Cory Booker's Pharma Donations as Mayor of Newark?

To follow the money from drug companies to the former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, is going to take a few sets of eyeballs.

Quickly perusing a small number of Booker's many filings with the NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission, I found one contribution for $500 from an employee of a drug firm, Astrea Zeneca of Delaware, made in 2012.

Unfortunately, all commission filings from Booker are PDFs requiring downloading and contributions and expenses are listed in the same reports. There is no easy way of searching Booker's donors during his mayoral campaigns, according to a commission staffer I spoke with today.

Booker ran four times for Newark mayor, each time setting up two committees and there are at least seventy PDF filings from his campaign. That's a lot of records to comb through.

If you are or know of pharma watchdogs with the resources to research how much Booker raked in from drug companies directly and their employees, they can begin their searching here.

And if they need verbal assistance from the commission, the watchdogs should call 609-292-8700.

We must not only hold Booker to account for pharma funds received as a U. S. Senator but also during his tenure as mayor of Newark.