Cory Booker

Newark Mayor Cory Booker

Hoping to gnaw at what they believe is a soft GOP county underbelly ready to turn blue in the right circumstances, Somerset Democrats will bring in Newark Mayor Cory Booker this month for a fundraiser at the home of Somerset County Democratic Vice Chairman Zenon Christodoulou.

Republicans say it's not happening, no matter how much statewide starpower their rivals attempt to leverage.

"He's a Newark mayor and what does he have to do with Somerset County?" asked an unimpressed Bridgewater Council President Pat Scaglione, Republican candidate for freeholder here with incumbent GOP Freeholder Jack Ciattarelli.  "I want to talk about the issues."

For Immediate Release:

Contact: Daniel Beckelman

(201)-446-9889

August 18, 2009

Urban Republican Bloschak Says Wave of Shootings In Newark Highlights Need for Change

Candidate says violent crime will continue to plague Newark if jobs and hope do not return to state's largest city

Newark-Urban Republican Assembly candidate Andrew Bloschak expressed sympathy for victims of the recent wave of shootings in Newark and called on the police to be extra vigilant in preventing further shootings. But Bloschak also asserted that until real economic prosperity returns to the neighborhoods of the state's largest city, crime will continue to be well above the state average.

Central Ward Councilman Charles Bell

City Hall sources confirmed today that not only is Central Ward Councilman Charles Bell a done deal as Mayor Cory Booker's Central Ward candidate, but that Booker protege Nakia J. White will serve as Bell's chief-of-staff.

A victor in a special 2008 election to fill the unexpired term of ousted Councilwoman Dana Rone, Bell is telling his allies he's ready to run for a full, four-year term, and now he has Booker in his corner.

After losing her Central Ward bid to Bell last year, White ran for a School Board seat this spring and won. 

The death of Dwight Brown, Bell's chief of staff, earlier this summer created the key opening at his soffice which sources say White is poised to fill.

As late as this week, White was pondering her options and considering challenging Bell for the Central Ward council seat. Her name remains on the Booker Team's state Elections Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) filing as the mayor's Central Ward candidate, but Booker put her there simply as a placeholder while he and his operatives hammered out the deal with Bell, sources say.

North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato, left, and Gov. Jon Corzine last year.

NEWARK - It was a day of celebration in the Central Ward for North Ward stalwart Steve Adubato, who personally cut the ribbon on the Robert Treat Academy-Central on William Street for kindergarteners and first graders.

Adubato nearly a year ago read in Barack Obama's presidential victory a macrocosm of his own efforts citywide.

The way the North Warder figured, if Obama as an African American could secure entire white voter towns, then why should Adubato as a white feel trepidatious about going full bore in areas where black voters dominate; areas like the Central Ward, for example, where the end of the Mayor Sharpe James era left a political crater that both Adubato and James successor Mayor Cory Booker both eagerly tried to fill.

Newark is composed of five wards, and although a phys ed teacher by trade, James knew math well enough to know that if he controlled three wards, he could maintain control of his domain, and he did: the West, the South and the Central.

His departure from the scene two years ago tilted more South Ward power into the hands of Payne family, and enabled state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) to consolidate power in the West.

Booker today in the Central Ward.

NEWARK - Many a cupped hand over the phone conversation has gone on in the Central Ward about who Mayor Cory Booker plans to run next year in that sprawling fifth of the city where he once served as councilman.

Today, at a ribbon cutting ceremony in the Central Ward for Steve Adubato's new Robert Treat Academy-Central on William Street, Booker all but affixed his imprimatur to the reelection of Councilman Charles Bell.

"The stars have aligned from Charlie Bell all the way to Barack Obama," crooned Booker.

Decked in a gold suit and matching hat, Bell beamed in the front row of a packed auditorium.

"Like Councilman Bell said, 'It's just about getting it done,'" Booker added to the issue of education.

Council President Mildred Crump, left, with her ally, School Board member Nakea White.

NEWARK- Along with the South Ward, where organizer Ras Baraka is building to mount an aggressive challenge of South Ward Councilman Oscar James II, the central ward again looms as a battleground in the Newark 2010 municipal race, with one candidate a definite go and two others hovering near the starting gate.

The Booker Team's filing report shows the mayor listing freshman School Board member Nakea White as his ticket mate for central ward council, but White won't comment about whether that means she's a lock to run next year.

That may be in no small part because Central Ward Councilman Charles Bell says he's ready to run to secure a full term after defeating Booker's candidate last year in a special election war.

His decision is not definitive, but very close.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is scheduled to appear on NBC's "Meet the Press" this Sunday morning.

Booker will join New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg for an interview with host David Gregory.

According to the mayor's office, Booker and Bloomberg "will reflect on major issues affecting American cities today including unemployment, housing foreclosures and bankruptcy in an uncertain economy."

Since Corruption Thursday, I continue to hear people say that it is impossible to govern effectively in Hudson County without playing the corruption game.  I quickly respond to such nonsense by citing the ultimate counter-example, Bret Schundler, who governed as mayor of Jersey City most effectively and without a hint of scandal from 1992 until 2001.  He did so also as a Republican, in a city and county where Republicans are virtually an extinct species.

When I think of Bret, I also think of the man I regard as his Democrat counterpart in integrity and excellence in urban government, Mayor Cory Booker of Newark.  It is remarkable how much these two outstanding men have in common, aside from being successful urban reform mayors.

Clifford Minor

In a statement he sent to PolitickerNJ.com this weekend, Newark Mayoral candidate Clifford Minor slammed Mayor Cory Booker for twittering a reaction to three shooting fatalities in the city on July 20, a response Minor called "insensitive." 

"At a time when Newark reels from the murders of three people and several others maimed by gunfire, citizens look to their elected officials for guidance and strength," wrote Minor. "In the immediate aftermath of this violence, what did Newark get that would reassure its grief-stricken citizens? A message from the mayor. On Twitter. Mayor Cory Booker condemned the violence through his Twitter account, calling the violence “outrageous” and “unacceptable”. Yes, and water is wet."
 
Already irritated by a Time Magazine feature story on Booker that depicts the youthful mayor as a Batman-like superhero, Minor unleashed his own image of Booker as a press hungry, caped evader.