Ras Baraka

Newark Mayor Cory Booker on Election Day, 2008

Standing in the vanguard of opposing parties makes Gov.-elect Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker obvious political adversaries - a relationship made more intriguing by their agreeable history and the crisis demands on both of them to deliver reforms in their respective spheres of power - but whatever the dynamics of their personal and professional relations, allies of both men expect a coming collision between Newark and New Jersey.

Don't count Booker among them.

"I know people want to turn this into a rivalry but when you consider the monumental challenges we are up against right now, he is my greatest ally," Booker said of Christie, the Republican who on Nov. 3rd defeated Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine. "To characterize us as rivals would be like saying Democrats and Republicans were the chief antagonists during World War II. We're in a crisis."

"I would also say - and I use this word because it is accurate - that Chris Christie is my friend. We have been friends for three years and he can assume credit for things we have accomplished here these past three years."

Booker knows the buzz about how he's the Democratic Party's most likely nominee for governor in 2013, to which he gives the only politic response: he's focused on the city's crime problem.

Prodded on politics and Christie, he adds, "I'm focused on next year's mayoral election and on electing the Booker Team (of council candidates)."

Newark West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice, left, with state Senate President/former Governor Richard Codey (D-Roseland)

NEWARK - Over 100 people packed the Spot on Tuesday night for a fundraiser in support of West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice, who's up for re-election next year as a member of the Booker Team.

So far, Rice has no challengers to the seat he has held since he landed in office three and a half years ago and there was considerable buzz in the room and all up and down the bar about his moving up politically in the not too distant future.

"This is the last time you'll be running for the West Ward council seat," Assemblyman Tom Giblin (D-Montclair) told the Essex County rising star.

But Rice proclaimed that whatever happens next year or beyond, he intends to protect his "little brother" on the council, South Ward Councilman Oscar James, Jr.

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.