Sharpe James

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)."

NEW BRUNSWICK - Obama's on the ballot Tuesday.

That's what U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark) told a group of black activists and Payne allies at a meeting of the African-American Political Alliance here aat the United Methodist Church on Saturday.

"This race has national significance," the veteran congressman told a room packed with 100 leaders and community activists. "The Republicans would love to say a Corzine loss is a referendum on Obama. If we lose Virginia, and then lose New Jersey, you can see the headline: 'Clean sweep by GOP: Obama on the decline.' They just can't wait to write that story.

"There's no way we're going to allow that to happen, right?"

"Right," the crowd called back.

Payne called up Corzine Deputy Campaign Manager James Gee.

"It's essential the - and they have all these fancy names for it - the base vote comes out," said Gee.

Jurors in the federal corruption trial of former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero will begin deliberation at 9:45 AM. 

Few corruption cases have actually gone to trial: it took three days to convict former Hudson County Freeholder Nidia Davila-Colon and former State Sen. Wayne Bryant (D-Lawnside), four days to convict former State Sen. Joseph Coniglio (D-Paramus), and six days to convict former Newark Mayor/State Sen. Sharpe James. 

If Ferriero is found not guilty, it would be the first acquittal on a federal corruption charge in more than eight years.

Republican 28th District Assembly candidate Herbert Glenn outside of Christie headquarters in Newark.

NEWARK - Mayor Cory Booker jogged down the steps of the Quitman School this morning, flashing a broad grin at faces in the crowd, snapping a wink at one of them.

"There's the movie star," said a woman, chuckling at the sight of the mayor, three days after the completion of cable television's five-night debut reality TV series, "Brick City."

Behind Booker slogged Gov. Jon Corzine, here with five weeks remaining in his reeelection campaign to announce new crime prevention and community building initiatives to keep at-risk children in school. 

Not immune to the mayor's statewide star status as they war with Corzine, Chris Christie's gubernatorial campaign has hit the Booker button on several occasions, trying to gouge out a gulf between Booker and the governor, notably when Christie earlier this month said the high-profile mayor of New Jersey's most populous city would enjoy a "real partner" in the governor's office were Christie to unseat incumbent Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine.

"He's doing the best he can under the circumstances," Christie running mate Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno added of the mayor.

Today, at an unveiling of new urban school initiatives in the Central Ward, Booker, the man many believe to be a lock as the 2013 Democratic nominee for governor, made the case for Corzine and why, contrary to Christie's pronouncements, he believes the sitting governor is a good partner for Newark.

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.

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.

SOMERVILLE - Striking the familiar podium pose of a law enforcement official, this time with the accoutrements of county brass behind him, GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie today vowed to reduce violent crime as governor and stem the spillover of urban gang violence into the suburbs.

"We need a governor who understands that we need to get violent criminals with handguns off our streets," said the former U.S. Attorney, standing in Veterans Memorial Plaza near the Somerset County Courthouse as all eleven Republican county sheriffs endorsed him for Governor.

"We have a lot more to do to fight violent crime," said Christie. "Anyone who travels with any frequency around this state knows we need to do much more. Mayor (Cory) Booker entered a partnership with the U.S. Attorney's Office, and it has been effective in Newark, but there is much more."

It took jurors four days to convict former Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Wayne Bryant. Oink! Oink!

Jurors on the federal corruption trial of former State Sen. Joseph Coniglio (D-Paramus) are now in their fourth day of deliberations - an amount of time that is somewhat typical of recent trials involving elected officials.  Others:

Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark)

NEWARK – The creeping disillusion Fred Linhares felt with the East Ward Democratic Party reached its denouement two weeks ago when the Ironbound attorney, Kean University professor and former municipal judge changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican and filed to run for the Assembly in the 29th Legislative District. 

“I’ve been a registered Democrat my whole life,” said Linhares, 40, who served on the local bench from 1999 to 2002, when he hung up his robes to run for freeholder on a ticket with then-county executive candidate Tom Giblin.

That ticket famously lost to Joe DiVincenzo and his team, and when it comes to assessing the self-styled progressive Linhares, who admits he feels no heartfelt tug from the GOP and says he voted for Ralph Nader in the last three presidential elections, members of his former party generally point to 2002 as Linhares’s real turning point in politics.

“I’ve known Fred Linhares since we were kids, and I think he should have stayed as a judge. I respect everyone’s right to run, but he was a good municipal judge,” said Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark).

Does Gov. Jon Corzine view Joe Vas as part of the Steele/Hackett group, or the James/Bryant group?

In 2007, Gov. Jon Corzine had a litmus test when it comes to pushing state legislators accused of corrupt acts to resign: are they seeking re-election.  That's how Corzine came to call for the resignations of Assemblymen Mims Hackett (D-Orange) and Alfred Steele (D-Paterson) after their September 2007 arrests, but did not seek the ouster of State Sens. Wayne Bryant (D-Camden) and Sharpe James (D-Newark) following their indictments on federal corruption charges.  At the time, Corzine's spokeswoman explained that Hackett and Steele were candidates for office, while Bryant and James had already announced they were not seeking re-election.

After Joseph Vas was indicted on state corruption charges last week, Corzine called for his resignation from the State Assembly.  But now that Vas has said he won't be a candidate for a fourth term in 2009, will Corzine shift Vas from the Hackett/Steele category to the one reserved for Bryant/James?  His staff says no, suggesting that Corzine has a new litmus test for the current cycle: hard evidence.  According to a Corzine spokesperson, prosecutors had hard evidence - a tape - against Hackett and Steele, but did not have such evidence against Bryant and James. 

But if one were to follow Corzine's logic, the governor's call for Vas' resignation would be rescinded under both litmus tests.  Vas is not a candidate for re-election, and unless the Governor knows something that was not in Anne Milgram's indictment, no video tape of Vas' theft exists.