Nick Corasaniti

The super PAC, United We Win, was filed Thursday, the same day that former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts announced he was entering the race. It takes aim at the increasingly public vexing in Democratic donor circles that the largest field of candidates in the party’s history needs yet another candidate.

The group said it planned to spend $1 million on Facebook and Instagram ads over the course of the next month. The ads will mainly target moderate Democrats across the country, though they will also feature issue-based themes, highlighting Booker’s progressive policies on issues like gun control and criminal justice reform.

Each ad will also act as a mechanism to acquire small-dollar donors, linking to a page that has a button to directly donate to Booker’s campaign. Booker is “less than 15,000” individuals away from reaching the 200,000-donor threshold for the December debate, according to campaign solicitation emails. (Booker has also not met the standard in any qualifying polls; he needs four.)

The super PAC was organized by supporters of Booker in New Jersey, including members within Gov. Philip D. Murphy’s political orbit. The senator from New Jersey has enjoyed immense support from his home state, with the entire Democratic congressional delegation and Murphy offering their endorsement en masse earlier this year.

“Our organization is supported by individuals who know Cory and have seen the transformative impact that has been made by his leadership and dedication to doing what’s right, from Newark to Washington,” said Philip Swibinski, a spokesman for United We Win.

But the super PAC also poses a challenge for Booker, who could use the additional resources but has also denounced super PACs. In February, after another super PAC, called Dream United, formed to support his nascent candidacy, his campaign told HuffPost that “Cory opposes super PACs aiming to support his or anyone’s candidacy for president.”

With the primary calendar having reached a new, more dire phase, however, other presidential candidates are turning to super PACs — risking liberal backlash — in efforts to prop up their candidacies. Recently, allies of former Vice President Joe Biden set up a super PAC to augment his surprisingly cash-strapped campaign.

On Thursday, Booker’s campaign reiterated his opposition to all super PACs, including ones supporting his candidacy.

“Nothing has changed from what we said from the outset of this campaign,” said Sabrina Singh, a spokeswoman for the Booker campaign.

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New Booker 'Super PAC' Airs a Message: We Don't Need More Candidates. We Have Cory.

With Sen. Cory Booker’s campaign still struggling to break through in fundraising and at risk of being excluded from the Democrats’ December debate, a new super PAC has emerged from the swamps of New Jersey to support Booker. Its message: We don’t need more candidates; we’ve got Cory.

In Iowa, the most important state to Booker’s campaign, it’s a little different: More than 80 family members live in the Des Moines area.

“I’ve got a very intimidating front row here,” Booker said on Tuesday at a rally in West Des Moines. About a dozen cousins sat a few feet from him, clad in campaign gear. One of them, Marv Allen, rose to ask a question, though he didn’t quite hold his cousin’s feet to the fire.

As the residents of Iowa prepare for an autumnal deluge of out-of-state presidential aspirants chomping pork tenderloin sandwiches and touring farms to claim a slice of the Hawkeye spirit, the senator from New Jersey can, through his relatives, come as close as any candidate in recent memory to an enviable distinction: local.

His many Iowan relatives, who span the political spectrum but have all pledged to support him, give Booker a unique network of organizational support in the essential early state.

Early on in the primary calendar, with high expectations and a two-decade political career that observers have long viewed as destined for a run for the presidency, Booker attracted key Iowa political operatives and quickly hired 50 paid staff members in the state.

Since then, his campaign has basically flatlined, regularly polling just above the margin of error and rarely experiencing the surges of small-dollar donations that drive growth. (One exception: when Booker’s campaign said it would fold without pulling in an extra $1.7 million by the end of the last quarter. It succeeded.)

Better-funded campaigns, like those of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, have now passed his in numbers of paid staff members in Iowa. (Booker’s Iowa staff members are particularly dedicated, though; multiple organizers have gotten tattoos of the campaign slogan “We Rise,” written in Booker’s handwriting.)

So, as his candidacy hinges on a top showing in Iowa, Booker’s relatives have doubled as super supporters. They have hit phone banks and lobbied their friends for donations, shown up in great numbers at state Democratic Party events and frequented the Urbandale field office.

“We go there weekly,” said Lori Young, a cousin who works as a community organizer in the area.

“And we’ll often run into each other at events,” said another cousin, Lizz Sharpe.

“Well, Lizz is the one who is on top of everything, notifying everyone in the family anytime something is going on,” said Paula Morris, the daughter-in-law of Booker’s Aunt Alma. “She’s got the phone chain.”

For nearly a century, the Booker clan in the Des Moines area answered to Aunt Alma. She was the unquestioned matriarch, and a big supporter of Booker, hosting him and dozens of cousins during his first swing through the state as a presidential candidate.

“I still remember one of my favorite times, when my Aunt Alma came out wearing her crown at a big Black Caucus event,” Booker said in an interview. “When I stood there speaking to everybody, having my family there in the front row, it really made me feel like I was at home.”

Aunt Alma died this summer, at age 100, but Sharpe and the rest of the cousins have continued the effort.

“When we buried my Aunt Alma, and the family was all in a small black church, it’s special,” Booker said, adding that it was “spiritually uplifting” to be surrounded by so many relatives.

“I won’t deny that I have an incredible amount of committed people to caucus for me right off the bat, and their circle of friends, and they’ve been just great spokespeople for me for really my entire career,” he said.

Sharpe recalled Booker’s visit more than 20 years ago to his Aunt Shirley’s house in West Des Moines, when he first told his grandparents and Iowa cousins about his plan to run for Newark City Council.

“They were just stunned,” Sharpe said. “And I remember I ran back to the bedroom, got my purse, and I grabbed $50. And I came back and I said, ‘I want to be the first one to donate to your campaign.’ And just as soon as I said that, the grandparents and everybody just came alive. And they were like, ‘Oh yes, we’ll donate too!’”

It soon became a family-wide effort. At a family reunion in 2000, after he had been elected to the City Council, Booker had to fill in as a speaker at the church after the mayor of Des Moines canceled at the last minute. Many of his extended family members, unaware that the former football star had political chops, were converted.

“We took up a collection,” Young said with a chuckle. “I don’t know how much we collected, but we passed the bucket.”

Though they all live in the Des Moines area, the cousins make an effort to follow Booker around the state. Marva Frazier-Baggett, who lives in Des Moines, said she was known as the “traveling cousin.” She regularly Googles “where is my cousin Cory Booker” and travels to see him if she can.

In June, she attended the Iowa Democratic Party’s Hall of Fame dinner. “Kamala came up to me in Cedar Rapids, face to face, and smiled and said, ‘How are you?’” Frazier-Baggett said, referring to another candidate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California. “I said, ‘I’m Cory’s cousin!’ And then she just left.”

Booker’s relatives share his penchant for peppering inspirational sayings throughout their everyday speech. In a group interview with six of them after Booker’s rally, they seamlessly worked aphorisms like “people have the power” and “your voice is more expensive than what money can buy” into their responses.

That shared communication style is evidence of their family ties.

“Once the genes are in there, they’re in there,” Sharpe said. “It doesn’t matter — first, second, third, fourth cousin — because the genes are there.”

Booker’s Iowa roots date to the early 1900s, when his great-great-grandmother, Adeline McDonald, fled the oppression of Alabama with her 10 children to settle in Buxton, a town in southeastern Iowa founded in 1900 by Consolidation Coal Co.

The company was known to pay workers of all races equally and offered integrated housing. The town of Buxton, where, in addition to mining, black people worked as teachers, small-business owners and as justice of the peace, was commonly known as “the black man’s utopia in Iowa,” according to “Lost Buxton,” a book about the town by Rachelle Chase.

For two decades, African-Americans worked alongside European immigrants in the coal mines, as the town’s population bloomed to 5,000. Yet the mines were stripped dry by about 1920 and the town evaporated, leaving little evidence of its place in history but a small cemetery. The residents scattered, and the Bookers moved to the Des Moines area.

It’s a historical anecdote Booker tells often in his stump speech, a personal example of how the higher ideals of love and unity that he campaigns on have actually worked in the past.

“Why am I running for president?” Booker said in Boone, Iowa, on Tuesday. “It’s because I believe in that. That’s the story I heard growing up. That’s who I know we are.”

Booker's Unique Strength: More Than 80 Relatives Pulling for Him in Iowa

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Travel with Sen. Cory Booker and it will quickly become apparent that he has family in nearly every politically important state for a presidential candidate. His mother lives in Nevada. There’s the uncle from North Carolina, and a cousin in Florida.

Though many of the Democratic presidential candidates have introduced proposals to help working families, few of Booker’s rivals have offered a policy specifically aimed at cutting the child poverty rate. The Booker campaign said its plan would help at least 7.3 million children escape poverty, citing an analysis by researchers at Columbia University.

Earlier this year, Booker campaigned heavily on his “baby bonds” proposal, which would offer government-funded savings accounts for children that would be handed over as a lump sum when they turned 18 but could only be put toward “wealth-building” transactions like paying for college, buying a home or starting a small business.

His new plan seeks to help families with young children immediately. Though it includes some broadly defined goals and builds off ideas his campaign has already introduced, it also includes three proposals that could shift some wealth toward poor people.

“Building on the same American spirit that gave us Social Security, Medicare, nutrition assistance and so much more, we must come together to ensure that every child has a fair shot to participate in and benefit from our collective promise,” Booker said in a statement. “I know that we can do this, and as president, I will act.”

A central tenet of Booker’s plan is to provide a $300 monthly cash allowance to families for each child under 5 years old through a vast expansion of the child tax credit. The proposal would also eliminate a loophole that leaves out the poorest American families, whose tax credit under the current system is limited to 15% of their earned income over $2,500.

The tax credit would begin to phase out for individual filers earning at least $130,000 or couples earning $180,000.

Booker’s proposal follows a bill, the American Family Act of 2019, that was introduced by two other Democratic senators: Michael Bennet of Colorado, who is also running for the Democratic nomination, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. The bill proposed expanding the child tax credit from $2,000 per year to $3,600 per year, or $300 per month, for families with children up to 5 years old, and then $3,000 a year until the child turns 18. Booker and several other Democratic candidates have signed on to that bill.

Sending money to families with children is common in Europe and in Canada, and a Columbia University study of the 2017 version of the bill found that it would cut child poverty roughly in half.

Booker also proposed expanding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, by 30%. And he called for expanding school meals outside the academic year and allowing all children who are eligible for food stamps to receive free or reduced-price school lunches.

Experts in childhood education viewed Booker’s focus on childhood poverty as a welcome discussion in the sprawling campaign.

“We have kids operating under toxic stress because they’re not eating or they don’t have a stable home or they’re not safe,” said Paul Reville, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education. “And until you tackle this, the whole problem of human capital development can’t possibly be successfully treated.”

In a more expansive proposal, Booker called for increasing funding by 40% for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant program, which provides temporary financial assistance to families dealt an unexpected crisis like a job loss.

Citing a study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank, which found that the program is providing direct financial assistance to only about 1 in 4 families, Booker also proposed requiring that TANF grants focus on families that are most in need.

The campaign would not offer a total cost for Booker’s proposal and said that if elected, he would most likely need cooperation from Congress to increase funding levels for government programs. The campaign proposed paying for his plan with a similar method he has cited in other proposals: repealing President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and overhauling capital gains taxes and the estate tax.

Some experts questioned the expansive goals and unknown price tag of Booker’s plan.

“I think it is totally aspirational,” said Susan Neuman, a professor of childhood education at New York University. “You can do some things that really, really make a difference. If you look at the literature on child poverty, you can see that the tax credit is a benefit, providing lunches year round is a benefit. But providing more money for TANF or child care will not change behavior, and I question whether all of these policies are possible to do at one time.”

Cory Booker Wants to Talk About Child Poverty

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey rolled out a broad set of policy proposals Thursday that seek to significantly reduce child poverty, including by offering a $300 monthly cash allowance to most families with young children.

The end of the third quarter provided Booker’s campaign with one notable success: meeting a self-imposed $1.7 million fundraising goal in the final 10 days of September. The campaign told supporters that that amount was necessary to continue his candidacy, and that without it, Booker would have dropped out.

The push gave Booker his biggest 10-day fundraising period of the campaign. More than a third of what the campaign raised over the past three months came in the last 10 days.

Nonetheless, Booker’s total fundraising since his campaign began, roughly $19 million, lags behind even what Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont raised in the third quarter.

The campaign also crossed the 165,000 unique donor threshold during its end-of-quarter blitz, meeting the new requirement set by the Democratic National Committee to make the November debate stage. But Booker is still short two qualifying polls. (He has already qualified for the October debate two weeks from now.)

Booker’s financial struggles have mirrored his similarly stagnant polling, constantly in the low single digits. But he continues to rack up endorsements in key early states: His 84 endorsements in New Hampshire alone are more than those received by any other Democratic candidate, according to his campaign.

Though every campaign is starting to dig into its war chest as the primary season nears its final winter sprint, Booker’s campaign has been particularly dependent on a steady flow of cash.

Since he announced his candidacy in February, Booker has maintained one of the largest teams of paid staffers on the ground in Iowa, and has had substantial paid staff in New Hampshire and South Carolina since March.

Booker’s campaign cited this costly investment in early-state infrastructure as the key reason he needed to raise $1.7 million at the end of September.

“Cory got in this race to win it and to beat Donald Trump. With 4 1/2 months until voting begins, he is well-positioned to do just that — if he has the resources to support and grow our team,” said Addisu Demissie, Booker’s campaign manager, in a message to supporters. “But if our campaign is not in a financial position to grow, he’s not going to continue to consume resources and attention that can be used to focus on beating Donald Trump, which needs to be everyone’s first priority in this election.”

After hitting its fundraising goal, the campaign said it would begin to expand again and hire 40 new staff members in the next six weeks.

To help reach that final $1.7 million goal, Booker held fundraisers on six consecutive nights in late September, bouncing from New York City to Philadelphia to New Jersey to New England.

His fourth quarter was scheduled to kick off with three fundraisers Tuesday, in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Cory Booker Lags Leaders but Hits Fundraising Goal to Stay in Race

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey raised more than $6 million in the past three months, his campaign said on Tuesday, his best fundraising quarter yet but one that still falls short of the leading candidates’ hauls.

Bottled water would still be made available, but officials said the crisis that had gripped the city for months seemed to be easing.

Testing done jointly by city, state and federal officials found that the filters had been 97% effective at reducing lead levels to below a federally acceptable standard, meaning that 97% of test results showed the filters working properly.

“These results are a welcome jolt of positive news that allows us collectively to charge ahead in implementing our short-term, midterm and long-term solutions,” Gov. Philip D. Murphy said at a news conference Monday.

The state had set safe lead levels for the testing in Newark at 10 parts per billion. The benchmark established by the Environmental Protection Agency is 15 parts per billion, and the threshold for bottled water is 5 parts per billion.

Because 3% of the results showed rates above the level set by the state, bottled water would be provided to anyone who wanted it, officials said.

Scientists agree there is no safe level of lead in water. High blood lead levels can stunt a child’s mental development and damage organs. But even smaller amounts can affect children’s intellectual development.

More than 1,700 samples from about 300 homes were tested over five weeks. The results announced Monday are considered preliminary and a more complete report will be issued in a few weeks, state officials said. The EPA, which worked with the state and city on the testing, said it would not issue a comment until a full report was released.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that has sued Newark over lead levels, released a statement welcoming the test results, but it also pushed for more information.

“We say ‘trust, but verify,’ ” Erik Olson, a senior director at the group, said. “The city, state and federal Environmental Protection Agency should provide all test results and the protocols used to test the filters to the public so Newark residents can feel confident that filters will protect their health. Anything less than full transparency will breed further distrust and skepticism.”

The group added that the city should ensure that the water filters were installed correctly and properly maintained. “Until this is sorted out,” Olson said, “we urge the continued provision of bottled water to all at-risk Newark residents.”

The governor said the state would invest $1 million to create a community assistance program to help residents install water filters and collect water samples.

The water crisis in Newark has ripped at the fabric of this city of 280,000, casting a national spotlight on an environmental problem that many urban areas are confronting and drawing comparisons to the water emergency in Flint, Michigan.

Residents faulted city officials for a sluggish response, and the crisis exposed how years of neglect, mismanagement and corruption brought the water system to a breaking point.

Though Newark has battled lead in its water for decades, the situation escalated in October after testing showed persistently high lead levels. The city distributed water filters — the same filters used in Flint — to remove lead that had been leaching into tap water from lead pipes.

But after testing of those filters found that some were failing to adequately remove lead, the EPA sent a scathing letter to the city last month threatening penalties “should the state and city not promptly undertake” the dispensing of bottled water and other actions.

The initial distribution was marked by delays and confusion as residents lined up to wait in slow-moving lines.

Now, Newark is taking aggressive steps to overhaul its water system. Officials recently announced a financing plan that would allow Newark to significantly accelerate its efforts to replace all 18,000 lead service lines in the city. The project should be completed in less than three years, officials said.

In May the city began a chemical treatment program to prevent lead from leaching into the water, but it will take until next year for the chemicals to set.

“We are not in any way having a victory lap because this is not a victory lap for us,” Mayor Ras Baraka said. “It is good news in a long and arduous task to make sure that we have clean drinking water.”

For Newark residents, the results of the lead testing helped allay some of their anxiety.

“Homes should be a place that shelter us from harm, not a cause of one,” said Kim Gaddy, who lives in the South Ward and is an organizer of Clean Water Action, a local group. “We need every level of protection available to reduce the cumulative impacts of lead in our homes.”

Experts said the test results showed that Newark was moving in the right direction in tackling the lead problem.

“Our research on this has shown that nothing is 100% effective,” said Marc Edwards, a professor of engineering at Virginia Tech University. “The ground of acceptable risk has shifted beneath our feet in the aftermath of Flint, and that’s a good thing because obviously the old approaches were not sufficiently protective. But there is no such thing as zero risk.”

Newark Says Water Crisis Is Easing as Lead Filters Prove Mostly Effective

NEWARK, N.J. — Officials in New Jersey’s largest city announced Monday that thousands of water filters handed out to residents had significantly reduced lead in drinking water to safe levels.

And when Asbury Park fell on hard times, a steep decline that began in the 1980s and continued for years, music proved the heartbeat that sustained it. Now, multimillion-dollar condos, luxury hotels, trendy restaurants and several craft breweries have burnished Asbury Park’s image as one of the coolest shore towns in the country.

And a two-day festival last weekend offered testament that the foundation on which Asbury Park’s ascent rests is the same as when the Stone Pony opened its doors in 1974: live music.

“Last time we were here, we played in a parking lot behind the Stone Pony,” said Wesley Schultz, the lead singer of the Lumineers, as the band closed the first night of the second annual SeaHearNow music, surf and art festival, which was sold out for months and drew tens of thousands of people.

Just before Springsteen’s 70th birthday Monday, music fans crammed to the ocean’s edge as rock, folk, blues pop and punk artists issued a loud, extensive anthem for Asbury Park — a proclamation that this city that was once a promised land for music had reclaimed its status as a destination.

Just 10 years ago, a festival of this magnitude was unfathomable to even the wildest of dreamers. Even the Stone Pony briefly closed its doors in the late 1990s.

Fueled by riots in 1970s over inequities in employment opportunities for poorer residents, Asbury Park fell on hard times as jobs vanished, people moved out and crime rose. These days, developers have descended on the city, taking advantage of its seaside location, a revived boardwalk and its mystique.

“Asbury Park is in a place right now where people are loving Asbury Park,” said Danny Clinch, a well-known photographer and musician who grew up in the area with his friend Tim Donnelly, a founder of the festival.

In the 2000s, the two held makeshift art and music exhibits on the boardwalk and long dreamed of expanding to a major festival, but no promoter would take a bet on Asbury.

“We used to have to really, really sell people on even coming to visit Asbury,” Donnelly said.

“We finally got the timing right,” Clinch said.

Asbury Park’s renaissance is still a work in progress. Parts of the city away from the sleek waterfront struggle with poverty. Crime remains a problem and the summer saw multiple shootings, including one on the boardwalk during the Fourth of July weekend.

But whatever the challenges, the city continues to boom. In July, the Asbury Ocean Club, a luxury hotel, opened in a new high-rise along the water. With rooms upward of $400 a night, the hotel is more reminiscent of the high-living Hamptons than the kitschy and gritty Jersey Shore.

“When I first came 15 years ago, we always played the Pony, and I was like, ‘This place is killer, what’s going on here?’ ” said Donavon Frankenreiter, a musician and former professional surfer who played and surfed at the festival. “And they would tell me. And then every year I would come back there would be a new restaurant, new hotel, and in the last 15 years it’s become a really hip, cool place to be.”

Asbury Park has played host to large music festivals in the past. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Vans Warped Tour set up in the parking lots behind the Stone Pony, as bands like Blink-182, Less Than Jake and Bad Religion ripped through punk anthems.

“But this place was Armageddon,” said Brian Baker, a guitarist for Bad Religion, recalling looking out from the Warped Tour stage. “It was a complete dead zone. It was shocking. There were, like, broken foundations of buildings.”

Almost every musician who performed here years ago has a story about their early experiences in Asbury Park. Jake Clemons, the saxophonist for Springsteen’s E Street Band, recalled roaming the city before a gig in the late 1990s when a bandmate fell on a rock jetty and got an infection.

But the recent festival offered a stark counterpoint. As he whizzed on a golf cart among the three stages to sit in with various artists, Clemons — whose uncle was Clarence Clemons, Springsteen’s sidekick and renowned saxophonist — said Asbury Park held a special meaning for him.

“It would be naïve for anybody to say that Asbury Park hasn’t had an influence for anyone who plays rock ’n’ roll,” he said.

If the festival marked a high point for Asbury Park, the after-midnight scene at the Stone Pony hearkened back to its heyday in the 1970s as musicians shared the small, hallowed stage for an extended jam of Tom Petty, Prince and Springsteen covers that lasted into Sunday’s wee hours.

“This is a bar band place,” said Paul Janeway, the lead singer of St. Paul and the Broken Bones, a band from Birmingham, Alabama, that anchored the session. “That’s what the E Street band was: the best bar band in America. And that’s still the spirit here.”

The jam ended with about 20 musicians squeezed onto the stage, playing a triumphant and bluesy version of Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart.”

Janeway said he “never really made it out of Alabama” as a boy, but knew the clout Asbury Park held in the music world.

“For me, to be able to feel like you’re showing off your town, it’s a big deal,” he said. “If you’re from Asbury Park, or a place like Birmingham, you have a sense of, there’s a pride and a grit to it and I think that that’s important to kind of feel like you can show that off.”

The Fall and Rise of the Town Springsteen Made Famous

ASBURY PARK, N.J. — This is a city that music put on the map. Bruce Springsteen called it home, elevating a cramped rock club called the Stone Pony to legendary status and attracting national attention to a thriving local music scene.

The state will also apply pressure on major financial institutions, seeking information from banks that do business with New Jersey about their relationships and policies involving gun makers and sellers.

The state, which says it pays more than $1 billion in bank fees every year, could use the disclosure requirements to decide whether to continue doing business with financial firms.

New Jersey estimates that it spends more than $70 million per year on firearms, supplies and ammunition for the state police and other law enforcement agencies.

The measures, which will be unveiled Tuesday by Gov. Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, represent a novel strategy after a spate of mass shootings and a lack of action around gun violence in Washington.

Several major banks have already taken matters into their own hands, cutting off banking and credit card services to gun retailers and stopping the lending of money to manufacturers who do not abide by age limits and background checks.

Now New Jersey has essentially decided to make its own rules to restrict the flow of guns, and officials said they hoped it would encourage other liberal states to follow their lead.

Beside background checks, the state will also not do business with retailers who do not have policies prohibiting firearm sales to people with a history of mental illness or convictions involving domestic abuse, among other red flags.

Though New Jersey already has strict rules around background checks and people who are forbidden from buying guns in the state, Murphy is seeking to expand those rules nationwide.

Gun makers and retailers seeking to sell to the state’s law enforcement agencies would have to abide by New Jersey’s policies even if they operate in states with less stringent gun laws.

“Taxpayers are the top purchasers of firearms,” according to an executive order that Murphy is expected to sign. “The State should not be purchasing firearms, ammunition or equipment from vendors that place civilians and law enforcement in harm’s way by virtue of not adopting responsible practices related to firearms.”

Murphy’s order applies to state troopers, prosecutor offices and local law enforcement agencies that make purchases through the state. It would not include other municipal police forces that buy firearms directly from manufacturers or retailers.

New Jersey buys firearms, ammunition and related products from retailers and manufacturers based in the state and elsewhere around the country. The executive order would cover future contracts and does not need legislative approval.

New Jersey’s action is likely to draw strong pushback from the gun industry and its allies, who have been swift to promise bans and boycotts of companies that have instituted policies aimed at the gun industry.

“That’s something that the governor’s office has to consider,” said Alex Roubian, president of the New Jersey Second Amendment Society, referring to the possibility of a boycott of New Jersey by firearms manufacturers. “Because if they’re going to put police officers’ lives in danger because of politics, that’s on the governor, not on the gun industry.”

New Jersey’s action came on the same day that Congress was expected to debate various gun control measures, including restricting high-capacity magazines, though it was unclear whether the Trump administration would lend its support.

Murphy and the governors of 11 other states, including New York and California, sent a letter Tuesday to President Donald Trump and Sen. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, demanding that they support universal background checks and so-called red flag laws to prevent people who pose a risk to themselves or others from buying firearms.

“Putting an end to the gun violence epidemic is not a Republican or Democratic issue, it is an American issue,” the letter said.

While New Jersey has some of the country’s strictest gun control laws, Murphy’s executive order seeks to take on an issue that the state, like other states with similar laws, struggles with — stemming the flow of illegal guns into New Jersey.

Citing a study by the Brady Campaign, a gun-control organization, the governor’s office said that about 5% of dealers across the country were responsible for providing 90% of the guns used in crimes.

New Jersey’s plan requires that retailers, among other steps, implement policies to “prevent, detect and screen for the transfer of firearms to straw purchasers or firearm traffickers.”

Though the executive order does not provide details, the governor’s office said sellers could make sure that the name on the method of payment matches the name of a buyer or could limit the purchases of firearms to one per 30 days.

Murphy’s plan would also seek to prevent the sale of firearms to “prohibited individuals,” which as defined by New Jersey is a broad list.

Aside from people with a history of mental illness and those convicted of crimes related to domestic abuse, it would also include people convicted of any violent crimes and drug dealing, as well as buyers on a terrorist watch list kept by the FBI.

New Jersey’s move could also be the first step toward pressing other Wall Street banks to reassess their relationship with the gun industry.

While Citigroup and Bank of America publicly distanced themselves from gun manufacturers last year, many of the other big firms did not follow suit, in part, out of fear of a backlash from Trump administration regulators and conservative states.

New Jersey’s requirement that financial firms disclose their ties to gun makers could provide the public with new and specific details that some firms have been reluctant to divulge.

Murphy is hoping that other states, particularly those with large law enforcement budgets like New York, will join his effort. Last year, Murphy and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York formed a States for Gun Safety coalition that now counts eight states and Puerto Rico as members.

Murphy, who has made gun control one of the core issues of his tenure, drew praise from national gun control advocacy groups for his initiative.

“With this executive order Gov. Murphy is blazing a new path for states that want gun manufacturers, retailers and financial institutions to take action to help end gun violence,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “And we hope to see other governors quickly follow suit.”

A Novel Gun Control Strategy: Pressure Banks and Retailers

MORRISTOWN, N.J. — New Jersey intends to stop doing business with gun manufacturers and retailers that fail to adopt policies, like conducting background checks, to stop guns from falling into the wrong hands, becoming the first state to take such stringent action against the firearms industry.

The state will also apply pressure on major financial institutions, seeking information from banks that do business with New Jersey about their relationships and policies involving gunmakers and sellers.

New Jersey estimated that it has spent more than $70 million in recent years on firearms, supplies and ammunition for the state police and other law enforcement agencies.

The measures, which were unveiled Tuesday by Gov. Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, represent a novel strategy after a spate of mass shootings and a lack of action in Washington around gun violence.

Several major banks have taken matters into their own hands, cutting off banking and credit card services to gun retailers and stopping the lending of money to manufacturers who do not abide by age limits and background checks.

Besides expanded background checks, the state will also not do business with retailers who do not adopt similar policies prohibiting firearm sales to those disqualified in New Jersey, which includes more stringent restrictions such as convictions involving domestic abuse, among other red flags.

Gunmakers and retailers seeking to sell to the state’s law enforcement agencies would have to abide by New Jersey’s policies even if they operate in states with less stringent gun laws.

“We have an urgent responsibility to do this,” Murphy said. “We cannot let taxpayers unwittingly pad the pockets of anyone whose business practices may make the jobs of law enforcement even more dangerous or put our residents in harms way.”

While the plan did not include many details, officials said that within the next 30 days the state would develop policies on gun sales that would likely be shaped by measures supported by gun control groups.

These include training retail workers to detect straw purchasers and requiring sellers to keep electronic records and perform background checks for private sellers for a small fee.

The state would require vendors and financial institutions that it does business with to adopt the policies to be eligible for future contracts. While the state’s efforts are aimed mostly at retailers, it will also pressure manufacturers not to do business with sellers who do not embrace the stronger gun sale polices.

Murphy’s action is likely to draw strong pushback from the gun industry and its allies, who have been swift to promise bans and boycotts of companies that have instituted policies aimed at the gun industry.

Supporters of gun rights said existing laws adequately governed gun sales.

“Federal law already requires retailers to conduct background checks on all sales,” said Amy Hunter, a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association. “Any retailer illegally selling firearms is in violation of current law. We are confident the governor knows these facts, and we urge him to join the NRA in seeking enforcement of existing laws.”

New Jersey’s action came on the same day that Congress began debating various gun control measures, including restricting high-capacity magazines, though it was unclear whether the Trump administration would lend its support.

Citing a study by the Brady Campaign, a gun control organization, the governor’s office said about 5% of dealers across the country were responsible for providing 90% of the guns used in crimes.

New Jersey’s plan requires retailers to take steps that exceed federal standards to “prevent, detect and screen for the transfer of firearms to straw purchasers or firearm traffickers.”

The governor’s office said more specifically that sellers could ensure that the name on the method of payment matched the name of a buyer; that online orders were made by the eventual gun owner; and that buyers were limited to purchasing one firearm every 30 days.

Aside from people with a history of mental illness and those convicted of crimes related to domestic abuse, it would also include people convicted of any violent crimes and drug dealing, as well as buyers on a terrorist watch list kept by the FBI

While Citigroup and Bank of America publicly distanced themselves from gun manufacturers last year, many other big firms did not follow suit, in part out of fear of a backlash from Trump administration regulators and conservative states.

New Jersey’s requirement that financial firms disclose their ties to gunmakers could provide the public with new and specific information that some firms have been reluctant to divulge.

“With this executive order, Gov. Murphy is blazing a new path for states that want gun manufacturers, retailers and financial institutions to take action to help end gun violence,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “And we hope to see other governors quickly follow suit.”

Pressing Businesses on Guns Is New Strategy in New Jersey

MORRISTOWN, N.J. — New Jersey will stop doing business with gun manufacturers and retailers that fail to adopt policies that go beyond federal laws, like conducting expanded background checks, to stop guns from falling into the wrong hands, becoming the first state to take such stringent action against the firearms industry.

The failure in the Legislature marks one of the biggest setbacks for Murphy, who despite having full Democratic control in the state Senate and the General Assembly, had faced constant party infighting and had struggled to bend the Legislature to his progressive agenda.

But the legalization effort had fractured the Democratic Party, with some African-American lawmakers arguing that marijuana would be a public health menace to their communities.

“In my heart, and from my experience, I know the detriment it’s going to cause long term in urban communities in particular,” Sen. Ronald L. Rice, a Democrat from Newark, said in an interview this year. “We know the health problems that are going to be created and no one wants to accept that fact.”

The sweeping bill sought to redress what its supporters say are the consequences of the war on drugs on minorities and tackle concerns about fairness in the multibillion-dollar cannabis industry.

In seeking to bring recreational marijuana to the doorstep of the nation’s biggest city, the bill would have wiped away criminal records for hundreds of thousands of people convicted of minor drug offenses. It would also have given many in jail the chance to be set free and end parole for many others.

The law also aimed to diversify a booming industry dominated by white entrepreneurs in the 11 other states and Washington, D.C., where recreational marijuana has been decriminalized. New Jersey would have ensured that minorities, as well as women, have equal access to licenses to sell or cultivate cannabis.

“We have the widest white-nonwhite gap of persons incarcerated in America, and far and away the biggest contributor is low-end drug offenses,” Murphy, a Democrat, said recently at a news conference where he made his case for legalizing marijuana. “The status quo is unacceptable.”

Though polls showed that most New Jersey residents support legalizing marijuana, Murphy had struggled to win support in the Legislature for what was a centerpiece of his election campaign. It was not until final revisions were made to the bill, especially the beefing up of measures making it easier to expunge criminal records, that the plan gained support from civil liberties and criminal justice activists from New Jersey and beyond.

“I’m impressed that it has a strong criminal justice part in it,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said before the passing of the bill. “My concern had been that legal recreational marijuana has not dealt with the damage that has been disproportionately suffered by blacks and other people of color, and is just setting up people to make a lot of money.”

Murphy, he added, “answered that in an impressive way. It would be a national model that we would bring around the country, including New York.”

An effort to legalize marijuana in New York has been sputtering with black lawmakers saying they will block the implementation of the potential $3 billion statewide industry if the current bill does not ensure that minority entrepreneurs share in the profits.

New Jersey had also been taking a more expansive approach than many other states to erase criminal records of people charged with marijuana-related crimes. Anyone in New Jersey convicted of possessing up to 5 pounds would have been eligible to have their convictions erased, a far higher amount than other states with expungement systems.

The state was also seeking to make the expungement process easier by allowing it to be done online, eliminating the requirement to do it in person, which can be time-consuming and expensive.

“No state has leaned into social justice through marijuana legalization as wholeheartedly as New Jersey,” Amol Sinha, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said. The bill, he said, would have set “a baseline for what it looks like to meaningfully acknowledge the human wreckage of the drug war and make good-faith efforts to reverse the damage done.”

Ever since Murphy had announced his support for legalizing marijuana as a candidate two years ago, expungement had been central to the debate. Supporters of legalization say stringent drug laws have unfairly targeted minorities: A black resident of the state is three times more likely to be arrested on marijuana-related offenses than a white resident, a recent study found.

New Jersey was also moving to rewrite the vast racial and class disparity in the marijuana industry. White ownership makes up more than 80 percent of cannabis businesses across the country, according to a 2017 study.

In identifying communities that would have been granted licenses, lawmakers focused on places like Newark and Atlantic City, with high crime rates, including marijuana arrests, and high unemployment rates. The legislation would also have allowed anyone with a past marijuana conviction to apply for a license.

The bill would have required that a minimum of 10 percent of licenses be given to smaller businesses, which are defined as those with 10 or fewer employees.

Leaders in struggling cities like Trenton and Paterson pointed to the potential cannabis industry as a boom.

“Social justice and economic development go hand in hand,” said Mayor Reed Gusciora of Trenton. “I walk in the streets and talk to many constituents that talk about a prior record and how it’s a hindrance for them to get ahead, get a job, which will result in economic development for this city.”

TRENTON, N.J. — A monthslong effort to legalize marijuana in New Jersey collapsed Monday after Democrats were unable to muster enough support for the measure, rejecting a central campaign pledge from Gov. Philip D. Murphy and leaving the future of the legalization movement in doubt.

Nick Corasaniti

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