Corey Booker Easily Wins Newark Mayoral Election
In what he claimed to be a landslide victory, Cory A. Booker, romped his way to an easy victory in the re-election for Newark's Mayor's office.
The icing on the cake is that at least seven of his allies on the nine-member Municipal Council are on way for a victory too.
With about 98% of the election districts reporting, Booker had 59% in a field of four defeating his nearest rival Clifford J. Minor who had 35% of the vote.
“Newark is going to continue to rise,” Mr. Booker told his vociferous supporters at the Robert Treat Hotel. “Newark, New Jersey, has great days ahead.”
On a more cautionary note, he warned that in a city battling with recession and mired in poverty, the process of development would take time and enormous efforts. “The reality is Newark has a mountain to climb to create an economy that serves its entire people,” he said. In a statement to reporters, he called the election results “a pretty profound statement in an economy and a nation that seems to be throwing incumbents out left and right.”
Though the win was eye catching it failed to relive the magic of a clean sweep that Booker's team achieved four years ago. Booker himself had 72% of the vote that year and his slate won all nine Council races.
One of Booker's staunch critic and former council member, Ras Baraka, won the South Ward seat, easily defeating the incumbent, Oscar S. James II, an ardent ally of the Mayor. Charles A. Bell, the Central Ward councilman, another member of Booker's team, had a wide lead but was just under 50 percent of the vote, forcing a runoff against Darrin Sharif.
Another candidate who was touted as a possible competition to the Mayor's slate was John Sharpe James, son of the former mayor, Sharpe James. But in a competition for four at-large Council seats, he came in a distant fifth.
Speculations are still going on whether the Mayor would have as tough a time dealing with the Council as the last year. Booker is often touted as destined to bear a higher office but these future prospects rest on his ability to govern the state's largest city. Not an easy task given the deep rooted problems, political instability and a constant change of allegiances.
Booker first made an attempt for the Mayor's office in 2002 but lost it to Sharpe James in a very close finish. In 2006 James decided not to contest the elections and Booker through his superb campaigns and gift of speech won over the masses and was elected to the office of the Mayor.
While in the Mayor's seat he has been applauded for bringing down the crime rates and reforms, but he said on Tuesday, “we’ve made progress, but this is not success.”
