Booker Loses in Unscientific Straw Senate Poll

Newark Mayor Cory Booker's string of poll wins leading up to next month's special U.S. Senate primary has been broken.

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt won a highly unscientific straw poll among Democrats Wednesday in heavily Republican Sussex County.

The Star-Ledger of Newark reports Holt received 34 votes, Booker 19, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver 12 and Rep. Frank Pallone nine.

Holt may have been boosted by being there. Of the four candidates, only he and Oliver showed up for the meeting.

Polls of likely voters in the Aug. 13 primary have shown Booker with a large lead.

Sussex County has 16,000 registered Democrats out of 100,000 registered voters, giving it the lowest concentration of Democrats of any county in New Jersey.

The four candidates are running to succeed the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg in an Aug. 13 special primary. The winner will run in the special general election on Oct. 16.