Check out my new column at WHYY’s Newsworks:

Politico, the widely-read political journalism site, poses this question: “Do any of Cory Booker’s Democratic opponents lay a glove on him before next week’s New Jersey Senate primary?” If the tenor of Monday night’s debate at Monmouth Community College is any indicator, the answer is “no.” That’s not particularly surprising, given that the new Quinnipiac University poll shows Newark Mayor Booker with a strong lead over Frank Pallone, Sheila Oliver and Rush Holt.

Booker’s dominance says more about the leader’s media acuity, charisma, and funding than it does about any weaknesses among the other candidates; after all, on many issues these candidates are politically interchangeable.

Except for one issue: school vouchers, which allow parents to apply a government certificate to a private or parochial school. On Monday night the the Democratic U.S. Senate candidates pounded Booker for his pro-voucher stance, igniting what The Record called “the debate’s only fireworks.”

Read the rest here.