NEWARK - When Barack Obama won the presidential election, politicos saw instant inner circle implications for Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a vociferous Obama supporter and “rising star” in Obama’s words, who nonetheless had insisted back in Denver that even if Vice Presidential Joe Biden dropped out and Chicago called him, he was committed to running for reelection as mayor.

When Obama made his cabinet appointments and the mayor remained local and not primed to fill the ambassadorship to the Court of St. James or some other ceremonial post, the back chatter decibel level started rising about Booker and lieutenant governor.

No, he probably wouldn’t take the second banana job outright, said sources, but maybe he would bite at the properly framed offer to be Gov. Jon Corzine’s running mate.

Seventy-two hours before Obama’s swearing-in ceremony at a “Sing in Praise of Martin Luther King, Jr.” event at the Grace Episcopal Church on Broad Street, Booker said for the record it won’t happen.

“We’ve had casual conversations, and I let them know I’m not interested,” said Booker of communications he’s had in recent weeks with representatives of the governor’s office. “I’m the luckiest man in the world to be mayor of the city of Newark.”

Committed to running for reelection in 2010, the mayor said he wants to help change the narrative of New Jersey’s cities and continue to make efforts to kickstart Newark as an economic engine.

Standing with the MLK event’s keynote speaker, Academy Award-Winning actor Forest Whitaker, in the Grace Church chapel, Booker told a battery of reporters, “I have no interest in any other job.”

He says even though he won’t be on the ticket, he wants to play a significant role helping to reelect Corzine, a governor who has a ”tough race” in front of him, Booker acknowledged, but who has compiled a good record, in Booker’s view, providing crucial education and crime-fighting dollars to Newark.

As for people Booker likes as candidates for lieutenant governor, he suggested, “my big brother Mayor in Trenton, Mayor Doug Palmer, (state Sen.) Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), chair of the senate finance committee. We’re in a budget crisis, after all. And I have to say, (U.S. Rep.) Rush Holt (D-Princeton), you don’t hear his name mentioned too much, but I’m a huge fan of his.

“I will say, I reject the box-checking on a choice like this. I don’t think the candidate should be picked on the basis of race or gender or north-south status. Just the best person,” the mayor added.

Regarding any future statewide endeavors, Booker smiled and demurred.

“You do the best where you are right now and the future will take care of itself,” he said.