There is a real battle going on in New Jersey. Governor Chris Christie set an early date of October 16 for a special election to fill the Senate seat of recently deceased Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).  The advantage rests with Democratic Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker. The Republican is Steve Lonegan, businessman and former mayor of Bogota, NJ.  Christie endorsed Lonegan. Better than nothing, I guess.

Booker, who has seen both unemployment and crime skyrocket during his administration, has the left fawning all over him nationwide because he is well-spoken, clean cut and black. Remind you of anyone?

He is also prone to enrich himself through politics, which probably reminds you of someone too... but the media keeps giving him a pass anyway, because, well, it's the media and he's a Democrat rising star. That's what they do for fellow leftists. Not everyone though. Here is an eye-popping expose from the leftwing Salon.com:

In that same editorial, entitled "The People vs. Sharpe James," the [New York] Times (echoing similar sentiment in so much of the elite media) lauded Booker for being willing to "take the city in a different direction" when he defeated James at the polls in 2006. But over the next few years, Booker began mimicking James' moves to use the Newark mayor's office to enrich himself in a sad story that lives up to The Who's "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" lyric.

That's right, Booker did not just raise massive amounts of campaign money from the thieves on Wall Street and then attack President Obama on behalf of those thieves. He did not just orchestrate a secret $100 million deal with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that the Washington Post notes was designed to help those donors circumvent the public and "remake (Newark) public schools in the way they want to." On top of all that, he also leveraged his municipal office to personally pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate speaking fees. Additionally, in a move that makes James' larceny look altogether quaint, Booker convinced his tech-industry backers to bequeath him an entire company - and then tried to prevent the multi-million-dollar gift from showing up in campaign disclosure reports.

Despite that story, the media silence is stunning. A Booker-linked nonprofit that is involved in pay-to-play corruption also get a pass, except from the New York Post.  They have also largely overlooked another story, one which Lonegan could probably exploit more than he has. Booker has a Weiner problem. He was found to be having a tweet fest with Oregon stripper, Lynsie Lee.

But the media have also taken a pass on what may be the biggest story in this whole race: that of Lonegan's life, because what is not apparent in any of their articles about him, or the videos of their debates:  Lonegan is legally blind.  Despite that fact, he built a successful small business and became the popular mayor of Bogota, NJ. You can see a moving account of his story here.

The media has pointedly failed to tell one speck of his story. And we know why. This kind of rags-to-riches story of a man deemed destined to spend his meager life on public assistance, but who instead used his determination and other gifts to become a pillar of the community, appeals to all of us. And his integrity is obvious in his blunt, direct manner.

Watch the video of Lonegan's life story, and make up for the rampant media malpractice by spreading it around.

Lonegan has not taken this campaign lying down. He is a true fighter and even the left media acknowledges that in both debates with Booker, he has figuratively mopped up the floor with his opponent. For example, this NJ.com informal viewer poll on their last debate found Lonegan beat Booker 73% to 23%. Given the number of leftist trolls on the internet whose job is to repeatedly vote in these polls, Lonegan's performance is stunning.  One gets the sense that even the Left is none to enthusiastic about having yet another well-groomed parasite engorging himself on the public teat.  Like someone else we know...

Like Christie, Lonegan is blunt and irreverent. Unlike Christie, he is a genuine, passionate, committed conservative. This is a guy who would stand side-by-side with Cruz and Lee, and not back down. If you have an hour, watch this video and watch Lonegan clean Booker's clock. The first debate is equally entertaining. Lonegan calls out Booker on his corruption again and again. See that one here.

While the National Republican Senatorial Committee has taken a pass on supporting Lonegan -- no surprise from the RINOs there, Sarah Palin and radio host Mark Levin have come to New Jersey to campaign alongside Lonegan. One would think that the Senate fund would want to support someone like this, but one would think Republicans should do a lot of things that they don't.

He has narrowed Booker's lead so much that ACORN's Project Vote has now entered the race, threatening to sue the state for not being activist enough in registering Democrat voters. When this kind of thing happens, you know they are scared.

If you want to send a few dollars to a worthy candidate, this guy probably deserves it more than anyone on the scene right now. Here's his website.

James Simpson is an economist, businessman and investigative journalist. His articles have been published at American Thinker, Accuracy in Media, Breitbart, PJ Media, Washington Times, WorldNetDaily and others. His regular column is DC Independent Examiner. Follow Jim on Twitter & Facebook