Terrance Bankston

South Ward Councilman Oscar James II, left, and his choice for U.S. Senate, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1).

NEWARK - The car pulls into New Jersey’s northern urban stronghold on Saturday and slices through traffic on a mission.

Failing organizational power in the north, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) continues to try to nail together enough of a credible presence to drain his opponent in this part of the state where U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg has a snap-of-the-fingers ability to put people in the street.

The South Jersey congressman travels up Clinton Avenue in Newark’s South Ward, eager to connect with his own Democratic primary allies here.

But where he anticipates finding Andrews for Senate support in front of his destination, he instead encounters an army brandishing shiny blue Lautenberg signs.

NEWARK - U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) in Newark’s South Ward on Saturday.

NEWARK - His local adversaries delight in noting that Mayor Cory Booker is sending mixed messages by endorsing Sen. Frank Lautenberg, while allowing key young allies to organize for his challenger. But Terrance Bankston, a failed freeholder candidate and Booker’s director of constituent affairs, argues that his boss is not a dictator.

After failing to secure party line, Terrance Bankston bows out of freeholder raceVanquished by the Essex County Democratic Party machine this week, Terrance Bankston said he regards the leadership’s rejection of his freeholder at-large candidacy as a direct snub of Mayor Cory Booker, and a failure to reward hard campaign work.

But no matter, he says now that his candidacy is over - he means to return to Newark’s South Ward to labor on behalf of district leader candidates as part of an effort to provide an alternative to the machine of U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-12) and Payne ally Essex County Chairman Phil Thigpen.

“It was disrespectful to the mayor, and what was even more insulting about the situation was we didn’t just go to the table expecting to get put on the slate, we went out and worked for it,” said the 25-year old employee of the Booker administration.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker 

NEWARK - Since Mayor Cory Booker beat Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex) for mayor, he has gone 0-2 against the maverick West Ward lawmaker.

First there was Rice’s re-election victory last year over Freeholder Bilal Beasely. Over the weekend, it was Rice staffer Rufus Johnson who won the party’s endorsement for a vacant freeholder seat over Booker staffer Terrance Bankston.

The retirement this year of Johnny Jones from the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders left a vacancy, which Newark Mayor Cory Booker wanted to fill with long time South Ward ally Terrance Bankston. 

On Saturday, however, the party selected Rufus Johnson - chief of staff to Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex), the man Booker defeated for mayor in 2006.

Johnson will run on the line with incumbent freeholders Ralph Caputo, Linda Cavanaugh, Carol Clark, Blonnie Watson, Bilal Beasley, Patricia Sebold, Samuel Gonzalez and Donald Payne, Jr.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Council PresidenTerrance Bankstont Mildred Crump, South Ward Councilman Oscar James II, and former Council President Donald Bradley on Saturday officially endorsed Terrance L. Bankston for Essex County Freeholder at-large.

Bankston, 25, a resident of Newark’s South Ward, serves as director of constituency services for the Booker administration.

"During my tenure as a Newark Municipal Council member, Terrance was a volunteer in my office at a young age," Booker said. "Over the years, I have had the distinct pleasure of watching this young man mature into a great student, humanitarian and father."

Terrance Bankston, an aide to Newark Mayor Cory Booker, says he'll run for Freeholder in 2008
The 25-year-old Constituent Services Director for the city of Newark has formed a committee to explore a potential bid for Essex County Freeholder At-Large.

Terrance Bankston, a native Newarker who ran Mayor Cory Booker’s south ward campaign operations for the 2006 election, says he offers youth, education and experience.