Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) put talk of his likely U.S. Senate campaign and love of Twitter aside Tuesday night to engage in a "Star Trek" trivia contest while calling into a New Jersey radio station's pledge drive.
Booker competed with comedian and "Daily Show" correspondent John Hodgman in the contest on WFMU, a Jersey City-based radio station, around 11 p.m. Tuesday. The Star-Ledger first reported Booker's late night geek-a-thon Wednesday evening, posting audio of the 15-minute interview.
“John and I know the difference between a Vulcan mind meld and a Jedi mind trick," Booker told host Tom Scharpling when he was challenged to battle Hodgman in the trivia contest.
Questions included "Star Trek" trivia from the original series and the more recent incarnations. Booker was asked about the shirt color most likely to indicate a character will get killed. He said that while red is the prevailing guess, a recent statistical analysis he read showed it was yellow. Booker indicated he was pointed to the statistical analysis on his favorite medium, Twitter.
Booker's love of "Star Trek" was never a secret, sharing his inner Trekkie with his more than 1.3 million Twitter followers. During the recent South by Southwest conference, Booker engaged his Twitter followers in a "Star Trek" discussion before his presentation.
Booker has formed an exploratory committee for a 2014 run for the seat now held by retiring Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.).
A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released Wednesday shows Booker with 50 percent of the vote in a hypothetical Democratic primary match-up against Rep. Frank Pallone, who received 4 percent and Rep. Rush Holt who received 7 percent. Neither Pallone nor Holt has announced a run for Senate, but Pallone is considered a likely candidate. State Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) has also indicated that she is considering entering the Senate race.
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