Poll shows Newark election shifting along racial lines

The Star Ledger ^ | May 4, 2002 | Jeffery C. Mays and Star Ledger Staff

[Exit 109]

With 10 days before the Newark mayoral election, a new WABC-TV Eyewitness News/SurveyUSA poll shows that Mayor Sharpe James and challenger Cory Booker are still even but the electorate is becoming more divided along racial lines.

"We are seeing a polarization in the electorate. Whites and Hispanics are moving toward Booker. African-Americans are consolidating their support for James," said Jay Leve, editor of Verona-based SurveyUSA.

[OldFriend]

It will be a mighty sad day in a LONG line of sad days for the city of Newark if James is re-elected.

[Exit 109]

This thing is very close . . . Booker could still pull it out. I'm wondering if James is going to be able to muster his GOTV minions . . . it seems to me that he's not getting the full support of the Dems this go 'round.

From PoliticsNJ on Wed, May 1:
Clinton aide says ex-President won't stump for James... An aide to former President Bill Clinton today denied claims made yesterday by Newark Mayor Sharpe James that the ex-President will campaign for James before the May 14th municipal election. "The President will not be coming to Newark to campaign for Sharpe James," Clinton spokeswoman Julia Payne told PoliticsNJ.com today. The Star-Ledger reported today that James told a group of senior citizens that Clinton will come to Newark to campaign for him. "President Bill Clinton will be in Newark supporting me because Bill Clinton knows the struggle and where we come from," the Star-Ledger quoted James as saying. (Brian Murphy, 04/01/02)

And this lovely addition from "The Inside Edge" on Friday, May 3:
One take of just how nasty the Newark mayoral race has become came in a recent edition of New York Magazine: "In a March breakfast for a City Council candidate, James called Booker 'a Republican who took money from the KKK.' To a group of his own supporters, he claimed Booker took money from the Taliban. In an encounter on the street with a group of Booker supporters, he said their candidate was 'collaborating with the Jews to take over Newark.' And in a recent public confrontation between the two men and their supporters, James referred to Booker as 'the faggot white boy.' ('That was an emotional reaction' was James spokesman RICHARD MCGRATH's rather understated explanation.)"

Newark deserves better leadership than this miserable man.

[The Old Hoosier]

Check out this piece on booker from Human Events.

[The Electrician]

I've just heard a Booker ad on WABC radio (which might not have quite the right demographics in its listening audience to make a difference), where he was slamming James for becoming personally wealthy at the expense of Newark. It's a devastating ad - I wonder whether that same ad is playing on other stations...

[OldFriend]

It is the same ad that Booker has been running since the beginning.

I doubt that James supporters care how much money he has scammed from the system. The exploited seem to thrive on their misery. No matter how corrupt there are those who don't mind a bit.

If James is re-elected there will be NO honest devlopment in the city.....only those willing to buy off the powers that be.