All right. This definitely isn't going away anytime soon, now:

A ThinkProgress examination of New Jersey campaign finance records for Booker’s first run for Mayor — back in 2002 — suggests a possible reason for his unease with attacks on Bain Capital and venture capital. They were among his earliest and most generous backers.

Contributions to his 2002 campaign from venture capitalists, investors, and big Wall Street bankers brought him more than $115,000 for his 2002 campaign. Among those contributing to his campaign were John Connaughton ($2,000), Steve Pagliuca ($2,200), Jonathan Lavine ($1,000) — all of Bain Capital. While the forms are not totally clear, it appears the campaign raised less than $800,000 total, making this a significant percentage.

Near as I can tell, nobody has checked to see if Bain contributed to the other side of that race, too. I think it'd be hard to find any successful politician in a major northeastern city who hasn't taken money from Bain or some Bain-alike private equity firm, but whatever. Let's keep going with this witch hunt! It's a great idea to drag down a rising star in the Democratic party while simultaneously chasing after Wall Street investors who donate to Democratic causes. We'll have the purest party in the whole country once we've driven all the money out of it! Booker will be on The Rachel Maddow Show tonight at 9 Eastern Time.