Weight loss newsletter the New York Post has taken notice of maybe-gay Newark mayor and U.S. Senate contender Cory Booker's recent weight gain gross pudginess, as evidenced by a recently snapped photo of Booker, sans heavy jacket, walking leisurely along a boardwalk near the beach (like a big ol’ fatty):

Democrat Cory Booker, 44, is starting to resemble rotund Republican Gov. Chris Christie as he packs on the pounds while campaigning for the Senate seat vacated by the late Frank Lautenberg.

The formerly fit Newark mayor, who is leading his opponent in the race by 28 percentage points, has been chowing down on far too many funnel cakes at the Jersey Shore, where he waddled down the boardwalk last week with his shirt untucked and clinging to his chest.

Booker told the tabloid that he “is eating [his] way through New Jersey” and that, being the athletic fellow he is, he can slough off the extra weight as easily as he accumulated it. And while the Post frequently makes fodder of people’s weight — even when nobody knows who they are — Booker has invited scrutiny of his body into his political career. In December he tried to lose weight by going on a food-stamp-only diet, and he regularly volunteers his stats to exercise magazines and his many Twitter followers:

Not that it matters! (Except to the weight-watching enthusiasts at the New York Post.) RealClearPolitics places Booker ahead of his Republican opponent, the cigar-smoking/whisky-swilling Steve Lonegan, by 23 points.

[New York Post // Image via Associated Press]