After Cory Booker, Newark Takes A New Turn
by ALAN GREENBLATT
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| Ras Baraka (right) is greeted by supporters after casting his vote Tuesday in Newark, N.J. Baraka defeated Shavar Jeffries, a former state assistant attorney general, for the mayoral office Cory Booker occupied from 2006 until October 2013. |
It's not Cory Booker's city any longer.
In Newark's first mayoral election since the Democratic senator left for Washington, voters picked a progressive candidate whose election signaled a break from both the Booker era and the period of dominance Republican Gov. Chris Christie has had over New Jersey politics.
Ras Baraka, a city councilman, won election as mayor Tuesday after running a populist campaign that had strong support from unions and other groups on the left.
"We are the mayor," he declared in his victory speech, echoing a campaign slogan that promised, "When I become mayor, we all become mayor."
His victory over Seton Hall law professor Shavar Jeffries was taken as a signal that the city was rejecting the corporate interests that thrived in Newark while Booker was mayor.
Jeffries had the backing of Wall Street figures and organizations promoting charter schools, as well as prominent Democratic leaders in a state where machine politics still matter.
The groups aligned with Jeffries outspent Baraka in a local race that may have cost $4 million in total.
But it wasn't enough.
"That wing of the Democratic Party, the quote unquote progressive wing, was brought to its knees under Christie the last four years," says Bruno Tedeschi, a consultant to the Jeffries campaign. "Their message was, we're going to take it back from them."
Coupled with the election of other liberal mayors such as New York's Bill de Blasio last fall, Baraka's victory has some progressives hoping the policies they support will spread beyond local government.
"Ras Baraka is, in my estimation, one of the most — maybe the most — progressive mayors that Newark has elected," says Analilia Mejia, executive director of the New Jersey Working After Cory Booker, Newark Takes A New Turn : It's All Politics : NPR: