Lionel Leach

Lionel Leach’s comment is really bugging supporters of Newark Mayor Cory Booker.  In an interview with PolitickerNJ.com on Friday, Leach, who identified himself as a spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in Newark, said that one of the reasons Clinton has done so well gathering endorsements of Democratic officials is because they don’t like Booker.  "I think a lot more elected officials would have supported Barack Obama were it not for (Cory) Booker’s support of Obama,” Leach told PolitickerNJ.com’s Max Pizzaro.  Leach, a well-known Democratic operative, worked for U.S. Senator Robert Menendez until just recently.

Lionel Leach and Jackie Teel, working the phones in Clinton HQ in NewarkWhen Sen. Ronald Rice and North Ward Democratic Party boss Steve Adubato find themselves in the same political foxhole, something is either amiss, or it’s a presidential election year.

In certain company, the lead-up to Tuesday’s historic Democratic Primary contest looks like some incidental skirmish in Newark with here-today, gone-tomorrow alliances, played out as a backdrop to that more fervent chess war between local rivals angling for the real epic of some area city council and freeholder races later this year.

Lionel Leach, Rice’s former campaign field director, serves as spokesman for Sen. Hillary Clinton in her campaign’s week-and-a-half old Broad Street headquarters, even as North Ward Democratic Organization campaign firebrand Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz continues to steel the Latino vote for Clinton in rallies statewide. On the heels of his own family fight with Adubato, U.S. Rep. Donald Payne also intends to do some campaigning for Clinton this weekend.

Watch for a staff change in U.S. Senator Bob Menendez’s office: Lionel Leach is expected to step down as Menendez’s Director of Outreach to pursue other opportunities.