Newark Mayor Cory Booker's national prominence suggests he's got ambitions higher than running the city, but, until Thursday, he's always kept his cards close to his vest about that. Booker finally acknowledged what we all suspected, telling an audience at the Fair Lawn Democratic County Committee that he was "strongly considering the options at the end of my term," according to Fair Lawn Patch (via Politico). Booker's been rumored to be considering a Senate run, but he didn't get that specific with the Fair Lawn Democrats, leaving talk of his future ambitions to that vague hint.

Still, it's more than he gave Oprah Winfrey when she pressed him on his ambitions in May, when he told her he couldn't "visualize" running for president, following up with this vagary: "I don’t know if I’ll run for a third term. I don’t know if I’ll run for a higher office. I don’t know if I’ll do something outside of politics." But as we've noted before, Booker's got a massively busy national media schedule, which included his now-infamous criticism of President Barack Obama for attacking Romney on Bain Capital. With national attention like that, you don't stay in Newark forever.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at amartin at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Adam Martin