No longer a political afterthought

Sen. Robert Menendez led a coterie of local politicos through the crammed Brownstone Diner, pitching Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York to elderly voters eating breakfast at the Jersey City restaurant.

“She’s a known commodity,” he said.

Less than 10 miles away, Newark Mayor Cory Booker strode along a row of dilapidated houses in Newark, stopping to chat with a young man whose two pit bulls paced behind the chain-link fence.

“Will you vote for Barack Obama on Tuesday?” Booker asked.

For the first time in more than 20 years, New Jersey is a serious battleground for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Until recently, both of the national campaigns largely ignored New Jersey, thinking Clinton would sweep the state.

Despite the 127 delegates at stake, the campaigns only had a handful of offices in the state until a few weeks ago, according to New Jersey representatives for both campaigns.

Now, in the days leading up to Super Tuesday, the race has narrowed considerably here, prompting supporters of both candidates to scramble for votes and resources.

Obama plans to appear in New Jersey today, a last-minute visit highlighting the state’s importance.

A win here by the Illinois senator -- even a strong showing -- would be a setback for the senator next door, observers said.

“New Jersey has become a sort of a bellwether: It’s perceived to be a state that Hillary Clinton should be winning by a landslide, and the fact that her lead is narrowing reflects what’s going on nationally,” said Philip Klinkner, a professor of government at Hamilton College in New York. “If he wins there, that’s a huge loss for Hillary Clinton.”

This weekend, both campaigns dispatched their top lieutenants to the northeastern front lines.

The fight for the nomination pits the political establishment against younger city leaders and grass-roots activists.

Clinton supporters include Gov. Jon Corzine and much of the state leadership as well as Menendez, a longtime political boss.

Obama backers include former Gov. Richard Codey and Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy as well as Booker, a young black leader and rising national star.

Menendez, who is of Cuban descent, has known Clinton for years, and people in the Clinton campaign have floated his name as a vice presidential candidate.

Booker was introduced to Obama by Gayle King, a friend of Oprah Winfrey’s, at a meeting at the Newark Hilton in 2005.

On Saturday, Menendez toured the state by bus while Booker pounded the pavement of Newark’s central ward.

“We’re in the foothills of transforming our nation,” said Booker, encouraging volunteers at an office in Newark. “But it’s a big hill to climb.”

Observers think Clinton, who won a majority of the Latino votes in Nevada, also has an advantage among Latino voters in New Jersey, where they constitute about 15% of the population and made up 10% of the voters in the last general election.

Patricia Campos, a hotel and service industry union organizer of Puerto Rican descent campaigning for Obama in Jersey City, agreed Clinton might have an edge in her state.

“Bill Clinton wasn’t just the first African American president,” Campos said, referring to author Toni Morrison’s characterization. He is “also very well-liked among Latinos.”

“Obama needs to start talking more to Latinos,” she said, but she added that talk of a racial divide was overstated. She said Latinos in New Jersey had supported African American candidates in the past.

When Booker ran for mayor of Newark in 2006, he won 92% of the Latino vote, according to Jermaine James, his chief of staff.

New Jersey has a large number of unaffiliated voters -- 2.8 million out of the state’s 4.8 million registered voters -- who can vote for a nominee if they declare a party affiliation Tuesday at the polls. In the last primary election, less than 450,000 people voted, according to the office of the New Jersey attorney general.

In previous years, New Jersey residents voted in June.

“Our primary is usually an afterthought; nobody votes, and nobody cares,” Healy said.

But with the contest so early this year, the state is suddenly important.

Clinton still has a narrow lead, according to most polls, but Obama has “been climbing that hill,” Healy said.

“There was a time when it was expected that she would clobber him,” said Mildred Crumb, president of Newark’s Municipal Council, who described herself as “not anti-Hillary but pro-Obama.”

But when Obama won Iowa with a majority of white votes and South Carolina with a majority of black votes, the twin victories compounded the feeling among African Americans in New Jersey that he was a viable candidate.

The race for the nomination opened historic vistas, said Crumb, 69, as she recalled a time when she was relegated to different water fountains, different bus seats.

“Maybe America can become America and fulfill its promise,” she said, quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “that people will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Tears welled up in her eyes.

“It’s just been words before.”

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louise.roug@latimes.com