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You think Sharpe James could have taken him again?

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on May 7, 2006 - 8:37am.
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Yup. I think so too.

But between the bizarre way he passed in one side and out the other of the mayoral race, and the positive publicity blitz (one must acknowledge Mr. Cose as part of "the Oprah crowd") the behind the scenes discussions must have been fascinating.

High Hopes
With support from the Oprah crowd, the charismatic Cory Booker is poised to become Newark’s next mayor. Will he disappoint New Jersey’s troubled city?

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Ellis Cose
Newsweek
Updated: 1:25 p.m. ET May 6, 2006

May 6, 2006 - Barring being hit by a bus or something similar, Cory Booker seems fated to become Newark’s mayor-elect this Tuesday. He has raised some $6.5 million to New Jersey State Sen. Ronald Rice’s $177,845, giving him a financial edge of nearly 37 to 1. A poll a few weeks ago by the Star-Ledger newspaper had him ahead by 43 points. Rice himself is perhaps the sole remaining sunny contrarian who sees the numbers ultimately breaking in his favor. The questions, in short, are no longer about the horse race but about the favored horse—a splendidly credentialed thoroughbred with whom America’s fancy crowd fell in love at first sight. The reason why Booker, 37, evokes adoration in the likes of Oprah and others of the media elite is not hard to discern. A tall, athletic bundle of enthusiasm, he spouts finely burnished words in a polysyllabic cascade. He is clearly a man of destiny in a hurry. Indeed, in the eyes of his detractors, he is in way too much of a hurry—and has been ever since this native of suburban New Jersey washed up in Newark just over a decade ago.

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james would've lost this
Submitted by kspence on May 7, 2006 - 8:03pm.
james would've lost this time around.  it's why he dropped out.  booker not only raised more money this time around, but he absorbed most of james' key supporters--the exception being the teacher's union.  money doesn't mean everything in these types of races, but it still means a great deal.  i'm not even sure it'd have been close.

however the real question is whether booker will really be the breath of fresh air that he promises.  not only did he have to take money from most of the forces he said he'd repudiate once he got in office, he's still dealing with NEWARK.
james would've lost this
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on May 8, 2006 - 7:05am.

james would've lost this time around.

Okay. I'm obviously paying only peripheral attention to New Jersey. I feel like James was at minimum capable of making a brutal public spectacle of the election again.

One of the things I always
Submitted by ptcruiser on May 8, 2006 - 7:06am.
One of the things I always found distressing, if not wearying, was the constant description of the contest between James and Booker as being a struggle between the "old guard civil rights leaders" and the new generation of black leaders. For a lot of us who fall into the civil rights era age category,James did not represent the style of pressgressive leadership or new urban vision that we had hoped would emerge out of that titantic struggle. James, in fact, represented, a continuation of the leadership style and approach that the white ethnics had pioneered three or four generations earlier.

African Americans, unfortunately, became so caught up in the hoopla and excitement of finally being able to elect blacks as mayors that they began copying and replicating the old machine style of urban politics that they had inherited or seized control of beginning in the early 1970s. In other words, instead of trying to forge new alliances and configure them along lines more appropriate to contemporary developments black elected leadership simply took on the trappings and vestments of a leadership style that was becoming exhausted as early as the 1930s. By the 1970s it was actually extinct - white ethnics and Jews had fled the cities for the suburbs and were becoming increasingly assimilated - but nobody bothered to tell the black community save for those of us in the black community who thought that the Carl Stokeses, Kenneth Gibsons and Tom Bradleys did not represent the sort of leadership that the black community so desparately needed during this transitional period.

They did not, for example, creatively use the tools of urban redevelopment to generate real economic growth, entrepreneurial development and job creation in the black community. They continued to push the plans that their predecessors had favored, which favored downtown business interests, but they added some layers of black faces to the process to make the plans seem more palatable and attractive. The result after more than 30 years is that, although there is now a growing black middle class that is increasingly suburban-based, there is a black underclass that is trapped in urban neighborhoods that have not enjoyed the benefits of economic growth. The pity is that the political capital of these black people was used to fuel and support various plans and projects that have created a virtual explosion of appropriate economic development in many urban neighborhoods except the ones they live in. 

If Booker is elected as mayor of Newark, it remains to be seen if he and his advisors truly understand what havoc has been wrought to Newark's poor by his predecessors - white and black - and begin to implement policies to turn this situation around. The usual and standard approach - stadiums, mega-building complexes etc. will not work because these projects do not put capital into the communities that need it and they don't even produce jobs for the residents of these communities.

Booker should be thinking about using, for example, the city government's economic clout to encourage the creation of micro-lending programs that can assist city residents in starting businesses that serve the everyday needs of the residents. Activities like produce stands, tacquerias, coffee shops, shoe repair shops, dry cleaners etc.
The development of safe, decent, affordable housing will be an area in which Booker's promises to do things differently than his predecessors can be put to the test. Entrenched and regressive real estate interests, construction unions and parochial neighborhood organizations often prevent the quick development of new housing but the current economic realities the city is facing may be in Booker's favor if he forces the issue. The development of modular housing as opposed to traditional stick built housing can help to spur a renaissance in some of Newark's most blighted neighborhoods.