Winning in the polls. Winning on social media. Winning in fundraising.
And, by all accounts, he’s even winning the battle to pick off early voters in the Aug. 13 primary.
A Star-Ledger review of mail-in ballots reveals the Newark mayor is getting a big boost some 85 miles from home in Camden County, which already has collected more mail-in ballots than the next 13 counties combined.
Camden County — home to George Norcross, arguably the state’s most powerful Democrat and the first party leader to endorse Booker — already has collected at least 4,620 mail-in ballots, mostly from Democrats, significantly outpacing the others.
And records show the county clerk’s office has had more than 12,000 requests for mail-ins as of Thursday.
Even Bergen County, a much larger area with the next highest number of mail-in ballots returned, had received only 1,118 as of Wednesday.
Party officials in Camden County acknowledged the robust mail-in effort was largely intended to bolster Booker’s candidacy.
While Camden Democrats long have valued the political potency of mail-in-ballots — the county is only one of two in the state that pays the voter’s postage — leaders say the ballots will hold even more power in this highly unusual primary in which turnout is expected to reach historic lows.