Dana Rone

Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow has asked a Superior Court Judge to terminate Dana Rone’s service as a Newark City Councilwoman following her conviction on a disorderly persons charge.  Rone has a Zulima Farber problem – she intervened on behalf of her nephew during a 2006 traffic stop.  There is some talk that the idea of removing Rone from office didn’t come from Dow, but instead from Mayor Cory Booker – once a close Rone ally (he endorsed her for his old Central Ward seat when he first ran for Mayor in 2002) and now a fierce rival.  One version of the chain of events, according to a front office source, suggests that Booker sought Rone’s removal by going through the offices of Gov.  Jon Corzine and the state Attorney General, Anne Milgram.

 Fearing political motivation, Newark Councilman Ronald C. Rice Councilman Ronald Rice: Politicker photoquestioned the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office decision to ask a Superior Court Judge to remove Councilwoman Dana Rone from office.

"That’s what’s wrong with New Jersey: selective prosecution and selective enforcement of our laws," said Rice. "That’s why other people laugh at us."

Found guilty of obstruction of justice last year after a 2006 traffic stop involving her nephew, Rone appealed in state Superior Court two months ago and lost.

According to the Star-Ledger, Prosecutor Paula Dow now wants the court to enact a state statute requiring officials who have been convicted to forfeit public office. In this case, it means Rone, who ran twice with Team Booker - once in 2002, unsuccessfully; and a second time, successfully, in 2006 - would be gone.

Congratulations to Newark City Councilwoman Dana Rone, who has emerged as the early front runner for the 2008 Zulima Farber Award. She seems to be running ahead of Annette Lartigue, a City Councilwoman from Trenton, and former Jersey City Municipal Court Judge Wanda Molina.

And newly-elected Orange Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, Jr. is now a candidate for the 2008 Oink! Oink! Wayne Bryant Award – a category that always has considerable competition in New Jersey.

Newark City Councilman Augusto Amador no longer wants to be considered a member of Team Booker after the Mayor Cory Booker ran County Committee candidates against him and his East Ward allies. There are also reports that State Senator Ronald Rice is negotiating a deal with Newark Democratic leader Steve Adubato to keep Freeholder Blonnie Watson as Central Ward Democratic Chairman. Booker is backing Jermaine James for the post, and Dwight Brown is also running.

Gov. Jon Corzine in Newark today 

NEWARK - Gov. Jon Corzine stood with Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark), Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Newark) and other lawmakers in the East Ward today and promised to back legislation to pay for new urban schools construction.

"We need action before June 30th, so that we can fulfill our Constitutional obligation to provide our children with a thorough and efficient education," said the governor, moments after taking a tour of the Oliver Street Elementary School.

Coutinho, an Ironbound native who cosponsored the legislation with Spencer, described dilapidated and overcrowded conditions in the facility.

Newark Councilwoman Dana Rone today will officially endorse U.S.Newark Councilwoman Dana Rone Rep. Rob Andrews for U.S. Senate.

Rone, who serves the Central Ward, joins North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos and South Ward Councilman Oscar James II as those members of the Newark City Council backing Andrews.

Ramos was the first to announce his support for Andrews, at an Aspira event last month. James declared his support last week. 

Rone ran with the Booker Team that swept out the old guard in 2006. Since then, and particulalry recently, she has regularly butted heads with the Booker.

U.S. Senate candidate Rob Andrews has won the endorsements of two Newark City Councilmembers, and the Atlantic-Cape May Central Labor Council.  Dana Rone, who represents the Central Ward, and North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos, announced their backing of Andrews over incumbent Frank Lautenberg this morning. 

The YouTube of Newark Mayor Cory Booker making a controversial comment at a Summit fund-raiser in May had been in web circulation for a couple of months, according to the mayor’s staff.

This week, the issue came to the attention of the Newark City Council, and after viewing the YouTube at City Hall after Wednesday's meeting, council members Donald Payne, Ron Rice, Jr., Dana Rone, Anibal Ramos and Luis Quintana condemned the mayor’s remarks. 

The poetry of the mayor’s phrasing leaves young audiences whispering that Barack Obama has nothing on Cory Booker, but the gruffest old time Newarker-naysayers found - or dragged - some youthful allies here Wednesday to join their baleful chants about managerial mayhem in the city.

The fact that almost half of the children participating in Newark Works’ summer employment program didn’t receive their paychecks on time enabled the anti-Booker forces to fit another generation - and another rack of feathers into their war bonnets as they descended on City Hall to berate a likewise chagrined Newark City Council.