Newark Mayor Cory Booker picked up key backing in his bid for New Jersey's open U.S. Senate seat Wednesday, while one of his Democratic rivals is setting himself up as the anti-Booker.

Booker was endorsed Wednesday by 64 Democratic elected officials in South Jersey, including several of the most powerful Democrats in state government.

Gov. Chris Christie (R) called the Aug. 13 primary and Oct. 16 special election following the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D) earlier this month. Sen. Jeff Chiesa (R) was appointed by Christie to hold the seat until Oct. 16.

The South Jersey backing for Booker is unsurprising since the Newark mayor received support last week from South Jersey Democratic boss George Norcross. Among those endorsing Booker were state Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford), Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-Voorhees Township) and Camden County Clerk Joseph Ripa (D), the father of talk show host Kelly Ripa.

Also supporting Booker was Assemblyman Troy Singleton (D-Palmyra), a close ally of Jersey City Mayor-elect Steve Fulop (D), a powerful state Democrat who has remained neutral. Fulop tweeted last week to remind his followers that the Senate candidates, including Booker, did not back him in last month's mayoral race.

At the same time, Rep. Rush Holt, one of three candidates opposing Booker in the Aug. 13 Democratic primary, put out a new video on his website contrasting himself to Booker. Rep. Frank Pallone, a third candidate in the primary, announced his own set of endorsements based largely in his congressional district. State Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) is the fourth candidate in the primary.

Holt used a two-minute video to highlight his work in Congress and discuss his differences from Booker.

"I'll be the first to admit, I'm no Cory Booker," Holt said. "I don't have a million Twitter followers. I've never run into a burning building. I'm not friends with Mark Zuckerburg, though I did 'like' him on Facebook. I'm a teacher, a scientist and my most famous moment was beating the computer on Jeopardy."

Pallone announced backing from 21 Democratic leaders in Middlesex County, including two state senators and Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville), who was state Democratic Party chairman until last week. The endorsement list did not include Democratic gubernatorial nominee Barbara Buono, a Middlesex County state senator, who has not endorsed in the Senate race to date.

Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan and physician Alieta Eck are both seeking the Republican nomination.

Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was mistakenly placed on a list of gun victims read at an anti-gun violence rally, Concord Patch reported.

The Tuesday event, sponsored by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, was held outside the New Hampshire State House in Concord. According to the Atlantic Wire, the rally was part of the group's "No More Names" bus tour -- a 25-state, 100-day effort to reduce gun violence.

According to Patch, Mayors Against Illegal Guns confirmed that it had taken the names from a crowd-sourced list of gun victims on Slate.com, which included Tsarnaev. WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H., obtained a statement from the group, saying that it regretted naming the alleged Boston bomber.

"He was absolutely not a victim," the statement read. "His name should have been deleted before the list was provided to a family member for reading and his name should never have been read. It was a mistake, it should not have happened and we sincerely apologize."

Days after the April 15 Boston bombings, Tsarnaev was shot in a gun fight with police. His body was then dragged under the car driven by his brother and second terror suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died from gun shot wounds and blunt trauma to his head and torso, according to his death certificate.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) expressed support for gay marriage Wednesday, becoming the third sitting Republican senator to do so.

The Human Rights Campaign, a pro-gay rights group, announced the Alaska senator had backed marriage equality in a statement.

"This is a hard issue. It is hard because marriage is such a deeply personal issue," Murkowski told Anchorage television station KTUU. "There may be some that when they hear the position that I hold that are deeply disappointed. There may be some that embrace the decision that I have made."

"I recognize that it is an area that as a Republican I will be criticized for," she added.

Murkowski had said in March that her views were shifting on the issue. "The term 'evolving view' has been perhaps overused, but I think it is an appropriate term for me to use," she said.

Her endorsement comes as the Supreme Court is expected to rule in the coming days on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act and California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8.

“Senator Murkowski’s courageous and principled announcement today sends a clear message that marriage equality must come to all 50 states in this country," said HRC President Chad Griffin. "As the Supreme Court prepares to rule in two landmark marriage cases this month, a growing bipartisan coalition is standing up for the right of all couples to marry—and there is no turning back that tide."

Murkowski joins Republican Sens. Rob Portman (Ohio) and Mark Kirk (Ill.) in supporting same-sex marriage. Fifty-one Senate Democrats favor it as well.

UPDATE: 10:50 a.m. -- In a statement on marriage equality, Murkowski spoke of an Alaskan lesbian couple who adopted four children and said the family's story influenced her thinking:

Yet despite signing up and volunteering to give themselves fully to these four adorable children, our government does not meet this family halfway and allow them to be legally recognized as spouses. After their years of sleepless nights, after-school pickups and birthday cakes, if one of them gets sick or injured and needs critical care, the other would not be allowed to visit them in the emergency room – and the children could possibly be taken away from the healthy partner. They do not get considered for household health care benefit coverage like spouses nationwide. This first-class Alaskan family still lives a second-class existence.

She also explained how her views have changed since backing a state gay marriage ban in 1998:

With the notion of marriage – an exclusive, emotional, binding ‘til death do you part’ tie – becoming more and more an exception to the rule given a rise in cohabitation and high rates of divorce, why should the federal government be telling adults who love one another that they cannot get married, simply because they happen to be gay? I believe when there are so many forces pulling our society apart, we need more commitment to marriage, not less.

This thinking is consistent with what I hear from more and more Alaskans especially our younger generations. Like the majority of Alaskans, I supported a constitutional amendment in 1998 defining marriage as only between a man and a woman, but my thinking has evolved as America has witnessed a clear cultural shift. Fifteen years after that vote, I find that when one looks closer at the issue, you quickly realize that same sex unions or civil marriages are consistent with the independent mindset of our state – and they deserve a hands-off approach from our federal policies.

Read her full statement here.

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said Monday that abortion should be banned as early as 15 weeks after conception because he has witnessed male fetuses masturbate at that stage.

RH Reality Check first reported Burgess' comments, which came during a late-night House Rules Committee hearing on a GOP bill that would ban abortions starting at 20 weeks after conception.

"This is a subject that I do know something about,” said Burgess, a former OB/GYN. "There is no question in my mind that a baby at 20 weeks after conception can feel pain. The fact of the matter is, I argue with the chairman because I thought the date was far too late. We should be setting this at 15 weeks, 16 weeks."

"Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” Burgess continued. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to think that they could feel pain?"

The bill, called The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, is scheduled for a House vote later Tuesday.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), the bill's author, sparked outcry last week after saying he opposed an exception for rape victims in the bill because "the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low." Members of the House Rules Committee later, and quietly, added in exceptions to the bill for rape and incest victims. It's unclear who was behind the change. A spokesperson for Franks did not return a request for comment.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- Joseph Naso, serving as his own attorney in his trial for the decades-old killings of four women, used his opening statement to give jurors a thorough personal history, replete with childhood photos, saying he is not the "monster" prosecutors have made him out to be.

The 79-year-old defendant's opening statement Monday came after prosecutors spent the morning showing graphic images of the four women's bodies discovered in Northern California, leading some jurors to wipe away tears.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration on Monday threatened to veto farm legislation that would cut billions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.

"The bill makes unacceptable deep cuts in SNAP, which could increase hunger among millions of Americans who are struggling to make ends meet, including families with children and senior citizens," the White House said in a statement, adding that the president's senior advisers would tell him to veto the legislation if it reached his desk.

The House Agriculture Committee passed a farm bill last month that would reform the safety net for farmers and trim food stamp spending by $20 billion over 10 years, denying benefits to nearly 2 million people, according to the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The bill's fate in the full House of Representatives is uncertain.

Food stamps currently support roughly 47 million Americans with $133 per month at an annual cost of $80 billion. The program's cost has grown dramatically in recent years as a result of the bad economy, making it a prime target for conservatives.

Several House Republicans have signaled the farm bill's food stamp cuts aren't deep enough. House Democrats, meanwhile, have been protesting the cuts by going on one-week food stamp diets.

For years farm bills have paired nutrition assistance with subsidies for farmers in a deal between urban and rural lawmakers. Republicans support shifting the agriculture safety net from a system of direct payments and subsidies that help farmers buy crop insurance to one mainly based on insurance subsidies. President Barack Obama's 2014 budget blueprint would cut the payments and insurance subsidies while leaving food stamps untouched.

"The Administration believes that Congress should achieve significant budgetary savings to help reduce the deficit without creating hardship for vulnerable families -– for example, by reducing crop insurance subsidies," the White House said.

HuffPost readers: Economy screwing you over? Tell us about it -- email arthur@huffingtonpost.com. Please include your phone number if you're willing to be interviewed.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) brushed off his conservative critics on Friday, saying he wasn't too concerned that such "chirpers" could derail a possible 2016 presidential run.

"If I decide to run for office again, it will be based on what I believe, and it will be based on my record," said Bush in an interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

"I will be able to, I think, manage my way through all the chirpers out there," he added.

Bush's outspoken advocacy for comprehensive immigration reform has become a lightning rod for conservative critics such as right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

During a Friday speech at a conservative conference in Washington, D.C., Bush said the country needed more immigrants to become taxpayers to fund the social safety net for the baby-boomer generation.

"Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families. ... Immigrants create far more businesses than native-born Americans over the last 20 years," he said.

Palin later knocked Bush for his comment, saying it was "touchy territory to want to debate this over one race's fertility rate over another, and I say this as someone who is kind of fertile herself."

With the "chirpers" comment, Bush becomes the second Republican to use an avian label for conservative colleagues. In a March interview with The Huffington Post, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) "wacko birds" because of their hardline conservative-libertarian advocacy.

In the interview with CBN, Bush called Cruz "gifted" and said he hoped the Texas senator would play a "constructive role."

"I'm for solutions," Bush said. "To me, being able to use your skills to solve problems should be the focus for everybody in elective office today, because our systems are broken -- they’re not working. And to point out the fact that they're broken is one thing; to actually find creative solutions in a divided country to solve them is what we ought to be focused on."

Bush's mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, said in April that she doesn't want her son to run for president because "the nation's probably had enough Bushes."

But when asked on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday where his father, former President George H.W. Bush, stood on the issue, Bush replied, "I think we've got a split ballot amongst the Bush senior family."

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) announced on Monday another amendment to throw a wrench into the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill: tying it to voter ID.

The amendment, which he first announced on Twitter, is unlikely to make it into the eventual bill. Cruz voted three times -- once in the Judiciary Committee and twice on the Senate floor -- against moving the "gang of eight" bill forward even for debate, and is considered unwinnable as a "yes" vote for the legislation as a whole.

Still, he has attempted to add his own touches to the bill, such as stripping it of its path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The most recent amendment would touch on the equally contentious issue of whether would-be voters should be required to show identification to prove their citizenship before registering to vote.

I'll file amendment to immigration bill that permits states to require ID before registering voters & close this hole in fed statutory law.

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) June 17, 2013

The Supreme Court ruled earlier Monday that states cannot require people to prove their U.S. citizenship before using a federal voter registration system.

UPDATE: 6:30 p.m. -- Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) announced an amendment later Monday aimed at addressing voter ID issues brought up by the Supreme Court ruling. According to a statement, his "Secure the Vote" amendment is meant to ensure immigrants do not vote until they become citizens -- they are already banned from doing so -- by providing "new procedures to enable states to check that individuals gaining status or a work visa are not illegally registered to vote."

"Not only would this amendment prevent voter fraud, it would also clear up the problem created by today's Supreme Court decision," Paul said in a statement. "My amendment requires states to check citizenship before registering people to vote in federal elections."

Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) had a close call this past Thursday, choking on his food at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington before being saved by Republican House aide Nick Muzin.

National Review reported on the incident Monday:

Poe was not able to breathe, and [Rep. Matt] Salmon and the lobbyist called 9-1-1 and began to shout for a doctor. Several minutes had elapsed, and the situation was quite serious, witnesses said.

Muzin, coalitions director for the House Republican Conference and also a physician who keeps his medical license active and sometimes practices, rushed over to help. He delivered the Heimlich maneuver, which has to be administered at just the right position and in an upward thrursting [sic] manner, helping dislodge the food.

A spokeswoman for Poe did not immediately return a request for comment, but according to the National Review report, the congressman stayed to finish his meal and remained in good spirits.

The food-related medical emergency was reminiscent of then-President George W. Bush's encounter with a pretzel in 2002. Bush fainted while eating a pretzel at the White House and suffered bruising and scraping from his fall. The president was alone at the time but sought treatment from the White House medical office after regaining consciousness.

Organizing for Action is launching a seven-figure ad campaign promoting Obamacare, as the administration works to convince more Americans to sign up for health care under the president's signature law.

"Americans are already seeing the benefits," says the narrator in the new spot, which is the first in a series of ads that will air on the Affordable Care Act. It touts more wellness visits for seniors, rebates from health insurance companies and tax credits for small businesses.

"Better coverage and lower costs, that's what Obamacare means for them," adds the narrator.

OFA announced in a press release on Monday that it will also be kicking off "a parallel education effort on the ground in the coming weeks" with the help of more than 800 summer fellows.

Some of Obamacare's provisions are already in place -- such as the one that allows young people to stay on their parents' health insurance longer. But the administration is working to educate the public in advance of Oct. 1, when the rest of Americans can begin shopping for 2014 health benefits on state exchanges established under the law.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Serial murder suspect Joseph Naso delivered an hours-long personal history Monday replete with childhood photos, as he launched his defense, denied the decades-old slayings of four women and claimed he is not the "monster" prosecutors have made him out to be.

The 79-year-old defendant's opening statement came after prosecutors spent the morning showing the jury graphic images of the four women's bodies discovered in Northern California, leading some on the panel to wipe tears from their eyes.

Former President Bill Clinton revealed on Friday why he felt confident that Democrats would win Florida in the 2012 elections.

"I looked in the eyes of [the people in line to vote]... and I said, 'If they have to stay here 'til tomorrow morning, they are going to vote,'" Clinton said. "That's when I realized that our side would win Florida."

Clinton was referencing the long early voting lines in Florida ahead of last fall's presidential election, which had many voters facing record wait times and extended time in the sun. Gov. Rick Scott (R) approved an order to fix Florida's early voting problems in May 2013.

Clinton's comments came during an interview with MSNBC's Alex Wagner that included a longer discussion on immigration reform. The former president highlighted Republicans' struggles with outreach to Latinos.

"It's not a winning political strategy to alienate all these Hispanic voters," Clinton said.

Clinton said hes "55 to 60" percent confident an immigration reform bill will soon pass.

Watch Clinton's comments above.

Since Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) claimed earlier this week that it's incredibly rare for women to become pregnant from rape, he has been under fire from women's rights groups, Democrats and even some members of his own party. Instead of running from his remarks, however, he's attempting to cash in and raise money out of the controversy.

"NARAL, Planned Parenthood and the taxpayer-funded abortion lobby is attacking me for one reason -- I'm 100 percent unapologetically pro-life and I won't back down," he wrote in an email to supporters on Thursday, according to the Arizona Republic. "Will you contribute $25, $50, $100, or even $500 right now to help me fight back?"

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Franks said he opposes abortion access even for rape victims because "the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low." The congressman is pushing a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks nationwide, with no exception for rape victims.

His comments, however, are not scientifically accurate. Medical experts agree that rape does not lower the incidence of pregnancy, with one study by the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology finding that more than 30,000 pregnancies result from rape in the United States each year.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Franks' comments showed an "alarming disregard for women." The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent an email saying Franks' remark was "reprehensible and utterly false" and asked for donations to its "Women's Health Rapid Response Fund." And on Thursday, NARAL sent out an action alert based on Franks' bill and followed up with a fundraising email on Friday morning.

Even members of Franks' own party have condemned his remarks. Massachusetts GOP Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez called Franks a "moron." Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) said the fact that an all-male House Judiciary Committee panel voted to advance Franks' anti-abortion bill was a show of "staggering" "stupidity."

Franks has defended his remarks, saying he was taken out of context. He told the Arizona Republic that he meant that the number of pregnancies resulting from rape and carried past 20 weeks is low.

"Usually, if a victim of rape intends to abort, she doesn't wait for the child to enter the sixth month," Franks said. "Once this bill engages, the question of rape or incest has long since been dealt with in almost every case."

A top staffer for congressional progressives is leaving to become the new head of a political action committee founded by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D).

Charles Chamberlain, the executive director of Progressive Congress, will be rejoining Democracy for America as executive director in August. Chamberlain spent five years as DFA's political director before moving in 2012 to Progressive Congress, which is the foundation arm of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Chamberlain replaces Arshad Hasan, who is leaving DFA after eight years at the helm. DFA is the outgrowth of Dean's 2004 presidential campaign and is chaired by the former governor's brother Jim Dean.

“While we are sad to see Arshad go, we couldn’t be more excited to bring Charles Chamberlain back to Democracy for America as our new executive director," Jim Dean said in a statement. "From volunteer to political director and now executive director, Charles' rise is a reflection of DFA’s member-driven ethos and few people understand DFA, our values, and, most importantly, our members better than him.”

Chamberlain started with DFA as a volunteer on Dean's 2004 campaign and headed DFA's volunteer efforts in Miami. According to Chamberlain's biography from Progressive Congress, he spent 11 years doing grassroots organizing for labor and children's issues, among others, before taking the DFA political director spot in 2006. Progressive Congress was founded in 2009 by the Congressional Progressive Caucus to work with other progressive groups for future growth of the movement.

The staffing move comes as the group begins a new effort to flip state legislatures from Republican to Democratic control. Earlier this year, it launched a "purple to blue" program in an effort to wrest state legislative seats away from Republicans in swing districts. The program is centered in Virginia this year and is expected to expand to more states in 2014, including possibly Michigan and Pennsylvania. DFA has indicated the goal is to build an infrastructure in state legislative districts to help elect Democrats in the future.

DFA has also endorsed several Democratic state Assembly candidates in New Jersey against Republican incumbents, but those are not part of the formal program. The group also endorsed Democratic gubernatorial nominee Barbara Buono in her uphill campaign against New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) this year.