Given the opportunity yesterday, Mayor Cory Booker wouldn’t endorse Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s re-election in 2008.

On the 44th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech, the 83-year old Lautenberg was scheduled to attend an anti-violence rally in Ivy Hill Park with Booker, but he didn’t make it. His office reported a scheduling conflict.

Booker did go to the event, which was sparsely attended.

"I haven’t even thought about that right now," a fatigued mayor told PoliticsNJ.com in response to whether he would support a Lautenberg re-election bid. That was his only comment on the subject at an event where he remained focused on making Newark safer, outlining new crime fighting laws at the state and local level in addition to calling on volunteer support from the community.

 State Sen. Ronald Rice talks to Elaine Lane, whose son, David, was killed in 1998.Mayor Cory Booker and his team arrived in office promising youthful vigor and now they’re the authority figures and the older generation of resistance-schooled Newarkers are still the fiery outsiders beating on the gates of power - even as they hold power.

And Newark is still battling.

In honor of the 44th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s "I Have a Dream" speech, the mayor and other city leaders revisited the Ivy Hill neighborhood in the West Ward on Tuesday evening to re-commit themselves to the fight against guns and gang violence in the wake of schoolyard executions here earlier this month that left three young Newarkers dead.

Some candidates will admit they’re long shots, that the odds are stacked against them. But they don’t consider themselves “kamikaze candidates.”

Rev. Clenard Childress switched parties in January and is the GOP Assembly candidate against Tom Giblin and Sheila OliverTake Rev. Clenard H. Childress, Jr. who’s running for the State Assembly as a Republican in the 34th District. Talk to him about his campaign, and you can tell he’s a man of faith.

“Most of what I do is long shots, trust me. But I believe our message resonates with the community, and we’re looking forward to a spirited debate,” said Childress, a Montclair resident who is running with Robert Bianco; there is no Republican state Senate candidate.