Cleopatra Tucker

Council President/Obama delegate candidate Mildred Crump

While the other side dozed strategically in parts of New Jersey’s biggest city, the Obama campaign stood 1,000 volunteers on the pavement of Newark Saturday and mobilized through all five wards.

Two days ago, Zora Menguelti and Peter Geier worked in an otherwise empty room in Obama campaign headquarters on Broad Street, handing out the makeshift literature they had, and waiting for reinforcements and supplies. On Saturday, they stood with two dozen volunteers amid stacks of glossy new Obama fliers and signs.

Women state legislators supporting Barack Obama for President stood together at Democratic State Committee headquarters in Trenton on Monday to put a collective exclamation point on their endorsement of the Illinois senator.

Senators Shirley Turner and Loretta Weinberg; and Assemblywomen Linda Greenstein, Elease Evans, Cleopatra Tucker and L. Grace Spencer said Obama is the candidate best equipped to deliver change.

Assemblyman L. Harvey SmithThree newly-elected state representatives have endorsed the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, citing what they describe as his unique background and ability to create change.

Assemblywoman Cleopatra G. Tucker of the 28th district, Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith of the 31st district and Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer of the 29th district all joined Team Obama this week.

"Senator Obama represents a new generation of leadership for the United States," said Tucker. "I am confident that he will end the war in Iraq and will help all communities in New Jersey and across the nation."

Assemblyman Craig Stanley will appear in Superior Court on September 11th to contest the results of the June Democratic primary in the 28th district. He lost to Cleopatra Tucker, the widow of the late Assemblyman/Newark City Councilman Donald Tucker, by 127 votes.

"We have identified numerous anamolies," Stanley said.

Assemblyman Craig Stanley will drop his Independent bid for State Senator in the 28th district, leaving incumbent Ronald Rice a clear path to an eight term in the New Jersey State Senate.  Stanley, who lost his bid for renomination to the Assembly in the June Democratic primary, had filed as an independent Senate candidate -- most likely in the event that Rice had lost his own race to challenger Essex County Freeholder Bilal Beasley. 

Assemblyman Craig Stanley filed for a recount yesterday in his narrowly lost 28th District primary bid.

“We went through with some volunteers the votes that were cast. We saw a number of anomalies. We’re certainly encouraged and we certainly think that this recount will bear fruit for us,” said Stanley, who lost his Assembly primary race to Cory Booker-backed Cleopatra Tucker by just 110 votes.

Craig Stanley’s staff is rummaging through last week’s ballots.

Last week, Stanley, a six-term incumbent from Irvington, lost the Democratic Assembly primary by 110 votes to Cory Booker-backed Cleopatra Tucker. He told PoliticsNJ.com that he’s looking into a recount. While he still hasn’t filed, he appears to be taking the prospect of a recount seriously.

Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin confirmed that a Stanley has sent staff to his office to review last week’s absentee and provisional ballots. Durkin said that Stanley has until June 20 to officially file.

It has been thirty years since Mary Scanlon won a State Assembly that once belonged to her late husband.  Patrick Scanlon was serving his frst term in the Legislature when he died in office in June 1977.  A protege of the late Democratic State Chairman Philip Keegan, Scanlon won the Newark-Irvington-South Orange Assembly seat Keegan gave up in 1975; in  that same primary, Scanlon's running mate, incumbent Rocco Neri, lost re-electon to 23-year-old Peter Shapiro, who would go on to serve as Essex County Executive and become the Democratic nomine for Governor ten years later.

Assemblyman Craig Stanley is not ready to admit defeat.

Stanley, the six-term Essex County Democrat who lost yesterday’s primary to Cory Booker-backed Cleopatra Tucker by just 110 votes, is mulling the possibility of a recount.

“I have not conceded yet," said Stanley.  "I believe in my heart that there is still victory here, and we’re going to pursue all of all legal avenues available.”

Expect a recount in the 28th district Democratic primary, where Assembly Education Committee Chairman Craig Stanley trails Cleopatra Tucker by 110 votes, with just one of the 143 voting districts not in the tally.  Stanley, the nephew of Congresman Donald Payne and Assemblyman William Payne, was a casualty of the Essex County Democratic Civil War between the Payne's and Newark Mayor Cory Booker.