Zuckerberg to hold fundraiser for Cory Booker

Booker announced his Senate candidacy Saturday; Zuckerberg has deep history with New Jersey politics

Mark Zuckerberg is probably one of the most politically active high-tech CEOs out there right now, or possibly ever, having donated to both parties, as well as started his own PAC. But that also makes it almost impossible to pin down which side he actually comes down on!

Only a few months ago, Zuckerberg held a fundraiser at his house for Chris Christie, the Republican Governor of New Jersey, and a man who will, in all likelyhood, be running for President in 2016. Now Zuckerberg will now be holding another fundraiser for a New Jersey official, but this time it will be for one of Christie's biggest rivals in his state: Democratic Newark Mayor Cory Booker, ot was reported by Bloomberg late Friday.

The fundraiser will be to help Booker in his run for the Senate seat vacated by the death of Frank Lautenberg, who died of viral pneumonia on Monday. Booker announced that he was running for the seat on Saturday morning.

Details regarding the fundraiser, including when and where it will be held, seem to be scarce at the moment. VatorNews has reached Facebook but the company could not be reached for comment.

Zuckerberg's political activities

Mark Zuckerberg has a stong relationship with New Jersey politics, despite spending his early life in New York

The Facebook founder has a long relationship with New Jersey, and with Christie and Booker, beginning In 2010, when Zuckerberg founded the Startup: Education foundation in Newark, New Jersey, and personally donated $100 million to the Newark public school system.

Since then, Zuckerberg has been working alongside Christie and Booker to help sign the most progressive teachers contract in our country, open four new district high schools, 11 new charter schools and more.

More recently, Zuckerberg seems to have more focus on national issues, though, and so he co-founded a new political action committee, called FWD.us.

While the PAC is beginning its focus on immigration reform, with education reform and science funding in the pipeline.

Of course, these are contentious issues, and the PAC has already lost two of its backers, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, and David Sacks, Founder and CEO of Yammer, over a controversial decision to run ads in favor of Republican senators who support the controversial Keystone Pipeline, which will  transport tar sands oil from Canada and the northern United States to refineries in the Gulf Coast of Texas.

Other political CEOs

Zuckerberg is, of course, far from the only Silicon Valley CEO to get involved with politics.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is a well-known Republican donor. He even held a fundraiser for Connecticut’s Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon in August. 

There is also Meg Whitman, whose political allegiance is no mystery: she was the Republican candidate for Governor of California in 2010. She gave $100,000 to Restore Our Future, Mitt Romney's SuperPAC.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who held a fundraiser for President Obama at her house in 2010.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, though, seems to follow the Zuckerberg model by spreading his money around to both parties.

He has supported the leadership PACs of Republican House Speaker John Boehner, as well as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, but also given to a number of well known Democratic Representatives, including James Clyburn of Maryland, John Conyers of Michigan and Heath Schuler of North Carolina
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(Image source: https://classroomconscious.wordpress.com)