NEWARK - Mayor Cory Booker jogged down the steps of the Quitman School this morning, flashing a broad grin at faces in the crowd, snapping a wink at one of them.

"There's the movie star," said a woman, chuckling at the sight of the mayor, three days after the completion of cable television's five-night debut reality TV series, "Brick City."

Behind Booker slogged Gov. Jon Corzine, here with five weeks remaining in his reeelection campaign to announce new crime prevention and community building initiatives to keep at-risk children in school. 

Not immune to the mayor's statewide star status as they war with Corzine, Chris Christie's gubernatorial campaign has hit the Booker button on several occasions, trying to gouge out a gulf between Booker and the governor, notably when Christie earlier this month said the high-profile mayor of New Jersey's most populous city would enjoy a "real partner" in the governor's office were Christie to unseat incumbent Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine.

"He's doing the best he can under the circumstances," Christie running mate Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno added of the mayor.

Today, at an unveiling of new urban school initiatives in the Central Ward, Booker, the man many believe to be a lock as the 2013 Democratic nominee for governor, made the case for Corzine and why, contrary to Christie's pronouncements, he believes the sitting governor is a good partner for Newark.

Describing a strong alliance among President Barack Obama, Corzine, and himself, the mayor ultimately made a case for the city's strides over the course of the last few years and Newark's capacity to continue with Corzine as governor.

"The stars are lining up," said Booker, standing beside Corzine in front of the Quitman School. "The President is so concerned with this particular city. Just last night, I walked these streets with the HUD (Housing and Urban Development) Secretary, who understands that we must have a holistic approach to transforming neighborhoods.  And we have a governor who wants to know what's happening with our communities and our kids.

"Without this governor, that would not happen," Booker said. "Without him we would not have the Green Acres funds for parks, and affordability housing funds."

After gripping the shoulder of a uniformed young student and quipping, "he has on a blue sweater vest, he can be a governor," and delivering what sounded like a heartfelt if largely inaudible speech, Corzine admitted of Booker following the mayor's remarks, "I think he does a better job communicating what we all believe."  

Whatever Booker's special charisma and effort as mayor, that shared belief hasn't translated into measurable results, according to Christie, who invokes Booker as a workable partner but bemoans Corzine's overall leadership effort on New Jersey's urban front.

"Programs like the Urban Fund and New Jersey Enterprise Zones have been renewed year after year despite the absence of any clear indication that they are actually working," says Christie's Website. "Meanwhile, unemployment in our urban cities is nearly 15%, only 40% of students pass the High School Placement Test, on average there are 1,700 violent crimes per year, and more than 22% people live below the poverty line." 

A Newark native whose U.S. Attorney offices were in the city and who kicked off his campaign at the Performing Arts Center, Christie said public demand convinced Republicans to open a Christie campaign headquarters downtown on Sept. 8th.

Many observers on both sides of the aisle say he can't meaningfully penetrate Newark. Polls giving him an eight to ten point lead over Corzine show opportunity for Christie among New Jersey's 1.6 million registered Democratic voters (1 million of New Jersey's registered voters are Republicans, and over 2 million are independents). Eight-hundred thousand are urban voters, and of that number, 119,648 of them - including undeclared, Democratic-leaning voters - live in Newark. 

But another 800,000 - half - of those registered Democrats are suburban voters, whom sources say could represent Christie's best flanking move, if he could strip sections of base support away from Corzine in the neighborhoods and households of what Republicans call old "Reagan Democrats."

Despite these identifiable sections and the political advantage in working the latter rather than the former, Christie has doggedly "spent that past eight weeks attempting to make inroads into urban areas, trying to reach out to Obama voters," said Dr. Brigid Harrison, political lscientist at Montclair State University. "It's puzzling to me, because African Americans are the most cohesive voting bloc in country. In the last 40 years, they have voted 90% for Democratic Party candidates. I understand the urban outreach strategy somewhat if you're looking at Jersey City, which faces gentrification issues, and Christie is looking to attract young white city dwellers who might be more inclined to vote Republican."

"Christie's campaigning in the urban areas has amounted to 'I'm not the typical scary Republican,'" said Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray. "The risk for him is it enables Corzine, yes, to counter with scare tactics. Now Corzine can say to urban voters, 'he'll come in and cut everything you hold dear.' The Democrats believe those tactics will snap urban voters into Jon Corzine's corner.

"The Christie campaign knows urban voters don't look to Jon Corzine as one of them," Murray added. 'It's a lot like (Gov.) Jim Florio in 1993. It's not a strong urban attachment, and Christie knows that, and hes saying, 'You're not thrilled withh this guy. You might not vote for me but you can stay home.

Christie's entrance onto the urban scene here in Newark - even if it's not a 24-7 effort - brings a redoubled Democratic Party effort to nullify him, and to that end, the posters of Christie and President George W. Bush with the tagline, "Shared Values, Same Results," stand on telephone polls up and down MacArthur Boulevard. 

Christie fundraised for Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign. When asked about the War in Iraq earlier this year, the candidate said, "Mistakes were made."

"We like the fact that he has a campaign presence in here," said a Democratic Party operative. "He provides advertising for us, people are reminded that there's an election - and of course, it's to our advantage if people think there's a contest."

In Newark, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans, 64,541 to 3,399.

"It's an old trick," state Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Lawrenceville) said during last year's Democatic Presidential Primary, as she campaigned for Obama in Trenton in neighborhoods where there was no sign that Hillary Clinton's supporteres were organized.

"They want the cities to sleep," Turner said of Clinton Democrats.

Speaking to the notion that Christie's presence could contribute to GOTV presence for Democrats, "Don't forget, there are many Newarkers out there who still love Sharpe James," Harrison said of the former Newark mayor, whom Christie as U.S. Attorney jailed on corruption charges.

"Right now, every four blocks in the cities you see Jon Corzine and Barack Obama billboards," said Murray. "What Corzine is doing is attaching himself to Obama. The message Corzine is sending is Chris Christie is scary, and if you're with Obama you need to be with me. Corzine is running a bit by proxy. By campaigning in the cities the way he has, Christie has believed he doesn't need to convince a lot of suburban voters, but from a strategic point of view he opened the door on the Corzine campaign running the mammogram ads, for example. Christie may have been taking for granted that he would pick up the independent vote, which is where Corzine is trying to draw a distinction."

Today, at an event packaged as policy, Corzine did his best to amplify his own party's GOTV efforts on his behalf.

"We are reaffirming our efforts to clear a path where every child, regardless of economic status, can realize their full potential and lead healthy, happy and productive lives," Corzine said in selling the $220,000-Ford Foundation pilot program, which strengthens "the connection between school curriculum and available employment opportunities, increasing coordination with health and social service programs and after-school activities."

Particulalry after committing in 2008 to carve $2.5 billion out of income tax receipts to replace schools such as the Oliver Street School in the Ironbound, Corzine bulked up his cred with allies here, including Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark) of the East Ward.

"With Gov. Corzine, we have had an historic commitment to education and urban transit hubs," said Coutinho. "I haven't heard one initiative from candidate Christie that would help Newark. And the number one criticism I would have is regarding the money he has taken from the NRA and his positions on gun control."

Another Corzine ally is West Ward Councilman (and Team Booker member) Ronald C. Rice, who points a to a reduction in violent crime in his city while deriding the urban agenda on Christie's Website, which emphasizes charter school investment and improved affordable housing.

"All he's done is blow off the warmed over dust from what Tom Kean did," said Rice, who believes the broad swipes Christie takes at policy more or less mirror much of what Booker and the City Council have done over the course of three tough years - with Corzine as ally.

"I knew Tom Kean, Tom Kean was a friend of Newark - Chris Christie, you're no Tom Kean," said Rice. "These guys have not updated their urban policy for cities frankly ravaged by two Bushes. Until the Republican Party can propose something that actually works it's a slap in our face to talk about fear in our cities and to trot out a warmed-over playbook from 1985.

"We've doubled affordable housing in Newark in three years," Rice added. "With Chris Christie's cuts we wouldn't have home funds, we wouldn't be able to build a community center in the armory. Business improvement district tax cuts and tax incentives alone won't lead to investment. Look, we have a lot of stuff online, including five development projects and NJIT development, a nightlife and mixed use project. Even in this national recession, new projects are coming online. Chrs Christie wouldn't know know to do redevelopment project in Newark if his life depended it."

For Herbert Glenn, a Christie ally who's running for the Assembly on the Republican ticket in the 28th District in what most observers see as a kamikaze mission, the former U.S. Attorney has demonstrated a commitment to serving the whole state with his forays into typically non-Republican areas like Newark.

"More than any one policy, he has sincerity," Glenn said of Christie. "I like vouchers, we need competition in our schools, but mostly it's sincerity. He was born here. This is real for him. Remember, Republicans backed the Civil Rights movement. Democrats get credit for it because they were the ones in power, who needed to be convinced."

Other cities where Christie has made campaign stops include Jersey City, Union City and Perth Amboy. In the last of these, Councilman Ken Balut - a Democrat and a Christie supporter - argues that the Corzine administration has focused more on Newark to the detriment of cities officially under the 50,000 population mark, such is the case with Perth Amboy.

"What New Jersey needs is someone.... who has the courage to stand up against organized crime and power brokers that have intruded on our public resources and robbed our tax dollars," Balut said earlier this year in his quixotic and aborted primary challenge of Corzine, which he ended after a little over a week with an endorsement of Christie, then the emerging GOP nominee.

In Paterson, City Council President Jeffrey Jones - a fierce opponent of Mayor (and Corzine ally) Jose Torres, remains uncommitted in the gubernatorial sweepstakes and bewails the Corzine years as mostly top-down sound and fury.

Booker, for his part, has never wavered in his declaration of support for the governor, and spent much of the past year saying, "If only the story of Jon Corzine's success as a governor, as a partner for Newark, were told..." but now there may be more reason for the mayor, who's lost most of his recent election-level political battles, to back Corzine months before his own May 2010 mayoral reelection bid.

No one doubts he'll win against retired Municipal Judge Clifford Minor, who to date has run a geared-down campaign.

But every election is a test drive for the next election, and after losing last year's Central Ward council race, Booker's politicos want a gauge going into next year. 

Newark sources say key Bookerites studied the polls carefully through the summer, alert to the possibility that if the goverrnor failed to show traction in his matchup with Christie, Booker could become a substitute candidate for the bealeagured Corzine with one Obama telephone call.

The fact that it never happened is good news for the governor, at least from an organizational standpoint, say those same sources, who argue that the mayor's campaign apparatus, definitely not ginned up for the governor as long as there was potential for Booker to be the statewide candidate, is now online for Corzine, with a Republican adversary on Park Place.