Newark Mayor Cory Booker (Bennett Raglin/Getty Images)
Cory Booker, America's favorite mayor and occasional superhero, is preparing to live for a week or more on food stamps—if his challenge to a Twitter user is accepted.
The challenge came when the Newark mayor got into a tête-à-tête on Twitter about the role of government in funding food programs for schoolchildren.
"We have a shared responsibility that kids go to school nutritionally ready," Booker wrote on Sunday after a follower tweeted nutrition "is not a responsibility of the government."
Booker—who said last week that superstorm Sandy prompted him to postpone his decision to run for New Jersey governor against Chris Christie—then responded to a tweet from another follower who doubted there are families "'too poor' to afford breakfast."
"[Let's] you and I try to live on food stamps in New Jersey (high cost of living) and feed a family for a week or month," the mayor wrote. "U game?"
The user, "TwitWit," replied, "Sure, Mayor, I'm game."
"Great. Let's do this," Booker wrote. "I hope you live in New Jersey. Let's film it and see how we do."
Booker added that they would have to get a referee.
On his monthly radio show, the Democratic mayor said the response to the storm delayed his 2013 gubernatorial plans. "The reality is Sandy has pushed my timeline back," Booker said.
The mayor said he would not make a decision on a potential run against Christie until mid-December.
Christie, it's worth noting, has not said whether he will seek re-election.