Ras Baraka

Sources close to Newark Mayor Cory Booker say that Central Ward Councilman Charlie Bell - who bested Booker-backed Eddie Osborne in a November 2008 special election to replace ousted Councilwoman Dana Rone - has cut a deal to run on the Booker Team's ticket in next year's municipal elections.  The deal was reportedly negotiated a few days ago over golf between Bell, Booker's former law partner and (ex-Pittsburgh Steeler) Elnardo Webster, and campaign manager Pablo Fonseca.

This leaves only one real race in Newark next year, between South Ward Councilman Oscar James and former Councilman Ras Baraka.  Sources say Booker expects to have between $5 and $7 million by the end of the year and is committed to spend as much as necessary to ensure a South Ward victory.  James is a favorite of Booker and Webster.

Mary Rone, Central Ward council candidate

NEWARK – As the juggernaut campaigns of Charles Bell and Eddie Osborne hit each other at full speed in the Central Ward, Mary Rone mounts a grassroots operation from below that she hopes will knock both of the bigger operations to their knees on Nov. 4th.

“I’m going to win it for the people,” says the community activist, who with her late husband, James Rone, advocated for fair housing in the city going back to the late 1960s. “I’ve had enough of the ring-kissing style of politics, and I know the people of the Central Ward have too.”

She comes at the campaign with an extra burst of motivation.

Thirteen candidates are vying in a special election to fill the seat of Rone’s daughter, former Councilwoman Dana Rone, whom an assignment judge removed in August after determining that the councilwoman used her office to impede the work of Rutgers University cops in a Dec. 2006 traffic incident involving her nephew.

“You could say Dana losing her seat was my fault,” says the older Rone. “I instilled in her what my family instilled in me. If a family member is in distress, you help them. That’s all it was. It’s not about her improperly using her authority. My daughter is very protective, both of her community – and of her own family.”

Former Newark Councilman Ras Baraka plans to announce his plans for a 2010 run at the Newark City Council tomorrow evening at the Key Club.

Principal of Central Ward High School, the South Ward-based Baraka is the son of poet/political activist Amiri Baraka. He assisted state Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Essex) in Rice's re-election bid last year, and is a political foe of the Booker Administration.

Baraka ran in opposition to the Booker Team in 2006.

The prospective council canddiate notified supporters of his Wednesday reception via email.

Newark voters will return to the polls on Tuesday to determine whether suporters of Mayor-elect Cory Booker will win a majority of seats on the City Council. Three Booker allies won Council seats in the May election: Augusto Amador, who was re-elected in the East Ward; Dana Rone, who defeated incumbent Charles Bell in the Central Ward; and Anibal Ramos, who unseated North Ward Councilman Hector Corchado. Team Booker needs to win two of the six remaining seats for a majority.

All four incumbent At-Large City Councilmembers are in the runoff: Luis Quintana, Bessie Walker, Gayle Cheneyfield-Jenkins, and Ras Baraka. Quintana, the top vote-getter in May, is running on a Booker-backed slate that includes Freeholder Donald Payne, Jr. (the Congressman's son), former Councilwoman Mildred Crump, and Carlos Gonzalez. Walker and Cheneyfield-Jenkins, who were allies of outgoing Mayor Sharpe James, are running together, and Baraka (appointed last year after the death of longtime incumbent Donald Tucker) is running alone.

In the South Ward, where incumbent Donald Bradley did not seek re-election, the runoff features an epic contest between John Sharpe James, the son of the retiring Mayor (who is listed on the ballot as J. Sharpe James), and Oscar James, Jr., a Booker ally who managed James 2002 campaign against Booker. In the West Ward, incumbent Mamie Bridgeforth, a James ally, battles Ronald Rice, Jr., a Booker supporter and the son of Booker's opponent in the most recent mayoral race, State Senator Ronald Rice.

The Star-Ledger reported today that Cleopatra Tucker has three of the five votes needed to fill the Newark City Council vacancy created by the death of her husband, Donald Tucker, last week. Her primary competition may be Deputy Mayor Ras Baraka, the scion of a prominent Newark family.