RAS BARAKA WINS NEWARK MAYORALTY, DEFEAT FOR ED SABOTEURS Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública:

Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública: RAS BARAKA WINS NEWARK MAYORALTY, DEFEAT FOR ED SABOTEURS:

RAS BARAKA WINS NEWARK MAYORALTY, DEFEAT FOR ED SABOTEURS

 The New Mayor Will Struggle to Take Back Newark Public Schools for the People

Mayor Ras Baraka with his daughters.

Ras Baraka, a high school principal and the son of a poet, yesterday easily defeated a Wall Street-backed promoter of school privatization to become the next mayor of Newark. Baraka's victory repudiated the policies not just of his rival, Shavar Jeffries, but those of Gov. Chris Christie, former Mayor Cory Booker, and state-appointed superintendent Cami Anderson who is trying to close neighborhood public schools and replace them with privately run charter schools.

"We are the mayor!" declared Baraka, 45. A constant theme of his campaign was that, if he wins, all Newark residents become mayor. Jeffries, 39, a faculty member at Seton Hall Law School, conceded shortly afterward.

Baraka's victory celebration at the downtown Robert Treat Hotel erupted into cheers shortly after 10 pm when it became obvious the son of the late poet and playwright Amiri Baraka, had won with strong backing from his home South Ward—which he serves as a councilman—and the predominantly African-American Central and West Wards. His rival, also an African-American, was strongest in the predominantly white and Latino North and East Wards. Baraka won 54 percent of the vote.

Baraka, an often tough-talking champion of the poorest residents of the city, had been the front runner for most of the race. But, in the last few days, Wall Street financiers and hedge-fund managers—strong supporters of former Mayor Cory Booker—poured $3 million into the Jeffries campaign, including $300,000 in street money that went to young men and women in the city, many of whom apparently took the money and then urged voters to vote for Baraka.

He also won despite an extraordinarily harsh depiction of his campaign by the local newspaper, The Star-Ledger, Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública: RAS BARAKA WINS NEWARK MAYORALTY, DEFEAT FOR ED SABOTEURS: