Cory Booker

Mayoral candidate/state Sen. Dana Redd (D-Camden)

CAMDEN - Ensconsed in the trappings of Democratic Party power, hometown hero state Sen. Dana Redd (D-Camden), whose parents were the victims of a double homicide when she was eight years old, today announced her candidacy for mayor with a promise to bring a crime-beleagured city back to waterfront glory. 

"Let's put an end to the petty, counter-productive bickering, no more fighting, ward against ward, black against Hispanic. I'm declaring it today, it is over," said Redd in an atmosphere still energized by President Barack Obama's Jan. 20th swearing-in and his call for national unity.  

The 40-year old Camden native entered the race with the blessing if not official backing of incumbent Mayor Gwendolyn Faison, 82, who stood briefly onstage and appeared to be just bucked up enough to make some “Camden first” comments in the face of party leaders who respectfully acknowledged Faison’s service before firmly throwing whatever heft they have behind rising star Redd. 

"I'm the mayor that made Camden work," an almost defiant-sounding Faison said. "I'm here today because the city is bigger than me. My heart is with Camden. ...I am here to support anyone who will help the City of Camden. That is my statement."

She said she had intended to declare her intentions regarding her political future at a Feb. 23rd press conference, and gently made it known that Redd's presser today pre-empted her own plans somewhat.

North Ward Democratic Party leader Steve Adubato

Essex County insiders said all along that North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato, Sr.’s incessant political jockeying to the determent of Newark Mayor Cory Booker could come to a standstill with one ring-kissing session. 

That might have come this weekend albeit not in a formal ceremony, as The Star-Ledger reported that Adubato, Sr.’s celebrated North Ward Center received a $500,000 gift courtesy of Booker’s pal Oprah Winfrey, part of $1.5 million the television star gave to nonprofit organizations in the city. 

Adubato told the Ledger the money will be used "to provide scholarships to graduates of the center's charter school, the Robert Treat Academy," which consistently graduates high achieving urban students.

It’s not a given that the gift will grind to a halt the Booker-prodding political machinations of the North Ward mastermind, but insiders say Adubato is certainly less likely to mount a serious challenge to Booker when the mayor runs for reelection in 2010.

Jersey City Mayor Jerry Healy, flanked by Gov. Jon Corzine, left, and U.S. Rep. Albio Sires (D-West New York).

JERSEY CITY - Professing to be an agent of "change you can see," Mayor Jerry Healy launched his bid for a second term tonight in the politically muscle bound company of Gov. Jon Corzine, Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), State Party Chairman Joe Cryan, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and no fewer than three congressmen.  

The apparent backing of longtime local foe, Councilman Steve Fulop, drew some bewildered gasps from the crowd here at the Culinary Arts Institute, and one of Healy's three challengers, former Assemblyman Lou Manzo (D-Jersey City), later admitted of the councilman's presence at the event, "I'm surpirsed." 

Newark Mayor Cory Booker

Pulling away from President Barack Obama’s Inauguration this afternoon with the crowd, Newark Mayor Cory Booker conceded the times ahead are going to be hard but that the new President delivered “the perfect speech for the time.” 

“The totality of his words penetrated to the core of our country’s cynicism and awakened us with a sense of what our history proves are our abilities,” said Booker, who in slow-moving traffic was on his way to meetings before attending tonight’s New Jersey ball at the Washington Court Hotel on New Jersey Avenue. 

Obama threw an oratorical life line out to New Jersey in the form of a reference to the Battle of Trenton, an historical allusion Booker himself repeatedly used in the primary as a metaphor for the Obama forces’ hard slog ahead.  

“In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river,” Obama said in his speech. “The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people.”

Democratic sources say that Newark Mayor Cory Booker will likely remain on shorts lists for Lieutenant Governor despite his insistence that he’s not interested in the job.  “No serious candidate for Vice President actively campaigns for the job or talks about his interest,” said one key Democratic leader.  “I imagine the race for Lt. Governor will be no different.”

Mayor Cory Booker, center, with Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, left, and jazz pianist Eric Lewis

NEWARK – On the city’s 21st anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, 72 hours before Obama’s presidential inaugural, Newarkers at Grace Episcopal Church rejoiced in a ceremony of blended Obama-MILK symbolism that apparently left no room or reason for last minute retaliatory elbows thrown at the outgoing Bush administration. 

In short, the most joyfully considered and relevant transition of power here was from King to Obama. 

“I’m a child of the 1960s. There are still a few of us around, right, Mildred?” said Gov. Jon Corzine, finding Council President Mildred Crump’s smiling face in the crowd. “King defined our aspirations, and what we could seek to find. When he was killed in Memphis he was talking about a living wage. We have a long way to go, but at this moment, when Barack Obama is sworn in, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream will become a reality. 

“God bless the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the presidency of Barack Obama,” added Corzine, and moments later, Crump cried, “That’s my governor,” as people in the crowd lurched to their feet.

Mayor Cory Booker, right, and Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker, who keynoted a Newark event honoring MLK today.

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.

Hillside At-large Councilman Jerome Jewell prepares for Tuesday evening's council meeting.

HILLSIDE – Crammed between highways in an industrial terrain just beyond the grip of two oxygen-hoarding metropolises to north and south, Hillside has that forgotten city feeling, as if residing within its limits between Newark and Elizabeth were actually the ultimate New Jersey emblem of honor, where the ironic allusion to being disrespected comes with a special appreciation of big and rough edges.  

Indeed, if Newark can claim to be the triumphant birthplace of Red Badge of Courage author Stephen Crane, Hillside was handed the unhappy task of burying the 28-year old wunderkind in the local cemetery. 

Peruse the names of native silver screen personalities, and Hillside fares no better.  Newarkers can brag of living in the birthplace of tough guys like Ray Liota and Joe Pesci while Hillside provided the early stomping grounds for the brilliant if largely unknown actor Michael Gazzo, whose claim to fame was getting bumped off in the Godfather II.

Bill Matsikoudis, the Jersey City Corporation Counsel, is the leading candidate to become the Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to sources familiar with the appointment process.  The nomination of Lisa Jackson to head the EPA led some Democrats to believe that the veteran regulator, who became Chief of Staff to Gov. Jon Corzine in December 1, might have her own candidate in mind to replace Alan Steinberg, a Republican who was appointed by George W. Bush.  Jackson spent many years at the EPA before joining the Corzine administration as Commissioner of Environmental Protection in 2006.