Booker Struggles as Zuckerberg, Robertson ‘Bet Big’

Cory Booker says his plan to fire hundreds of municipal workers, including 15 percent of the police force, to help close the latest of a decade of budget deficits is his toughest decision yet in five years as mayor of Newark, New Jersey.

“These are very difficult things,” Booker, 41, an Oxford University graduate who attended as a Rhodes Scholar, said during a telephone interview from the back seat of his police-driven sport-utility vehicle. “Those are families that have been relying on city jobs. It’s a very gut-wrenching, difficult process to go through.”