Cory Booker

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Cory Booker

Incumbent
Assumed office 
July 1, 2006
Preceded by Sharpe James
Member of the Newark City Council
In office
1998–2002
Born April 27, 1969 (1969-04-27) (age 40)
Washington, D.C.
Political party Democratic Party
Alma mater Yale Law School (J.D.)
Oxford University (B.A.)
Stanford University (M.A.)
Stanford University (B.A.)
Profession Mayor, Newark, New Jersey
Website www.corybooker.com

Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey and a Democrat. Booker is a former Newark Councilman and community activist. Booker was elected Mayor in 2006, becoming the 36th mayor of Newark.

Contents

[edit] Background

The son of African-American trailblazers (Cary and Carolyn Booker were among the first African-American executives at IBM), Booker was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in the predominantly white, affluent town of Harrington Park in Bergen County, New Jersey.[1] He is an alumnus of Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan where he was an All-American football player.[2] Following graduation, Booker traveled west to study at Stanford University and earned a B.A. in political science in 1991 as well as an M.A. in sociology the following year. He played varsity football — he made the All–Pacific Ten Academic team — and was elected to the council of (four) presidents. In addition, he ran The Bridge, a student-run crisis hotline and organized help for youth in East Palo Alto from Stanford students.[3] While at Stanford, Booker also became good friends with Rachel Maddow.

After Stanford, Booker won a Rhodes Scholarship and studied at The Queen's College, Oxford, where he was awarded an honors degree in modern history in 1994. While at Oxford he became friends with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and became President of the L'Chaim Society, the local chapter of Chabad, and brought together a diverse community there.

Booker obtained a J.D. in 1997 from Yale Law School where he started and operated free legal clinics for low-income residents of New Haven. He was also a Big Brother, and was active in the Black Law Students Association. Booker lived in Newark during his final year at Yale and following graduation served as Staff Attorney for the Urban Justice Center in New York and Program Coordinator of the Newark Youth Project.

From 1998 to 2006, he lived in Brick Towers, a troubled housing complex in Newark's Central Ward. Booker organized tenants to fight for improved conditions. In November 2006, as one of the last remaining tenants in Brick Towers, Booker left his apartment for the top unit in a three-story rental on Hawthorne Avenue in Newark's South Ward, an area described as "a drug-and gang-plagued neighborhood of boarded-up houses and empty lots."[4] Brick Towers has since been demolished and a new mixed-income development will be built there in 2010.[5]

[edit] Councilman

In 1998, Booker won an upset victory, beating a four-term incumbent to get elected to the Newark Municipal Council, a council known for its corruption and hard-fought elections.

Once on the Council, Booker proved to be an unconventional public official. In 1999, he went on a 10-day hunger strike, living in a tent in front of one of Newark's public housing projects (Garden Spires), to protest open-air drug dealing and the associated violence. For five months in 2000 he lived in a contemporary motor home, parking on street corners where drug trafficking frequently occurred.[6]

He proposed a variety of Council initiatives that impacted housing, young people, law and order and the efficiency and transparency of City Hall, but was regularly rebuffed by a resistant Municipal Council and often outvoted 8–1. While on the Council, Booker became an outspoken advocate of education reform.

[edit] 2002 Mayoral run

In 2002, rather than run for re-election as Councilman, Booker decided to run for Mayor of Newark. This pitted him against longtime mayor, Sharpe James. In this campaign and the next, James' supporters questioned Booker's suburban background, calling him a carpetbagger who was "not black enough" to understand the city.[7] Booker was defeated, 53 percent to 47 percent. Filmmaker Marshall Curry chronicles the campaign in his documentary Street Fight, which was nominated for the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

After concluding his service as a Councilman, Booker in 2002 founded Newark Now, a grassroots non-profit organization that connects Newarkers to useful resources and services in order to help transform their communities.[8] In addition, Booker also became a partner at the West Orange law firm, Booker, Rabinowitz, Trenk, Tully, Lubetkin, DiPasquale and Webster, and a senior fellow at Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Booker is currently a member of the Board of Trustees at Teachers College, Columbia University, and was formerly a member of the Executive Committee at Yale Law School and the Board of Trustees at Stanford University.

[edit] 2006 Mayoral run

As expected, Cory Booker announced on February 11, 2006 that he would again run for mayor, an intention he had made clear after his loss in 2002.

On March 6, 2006, Deputy Mayor (and State Senator) Ronald Rice entered the race, adding "that Mayor James had encouraged him to run but noted that if the mayor decided to join the race, his candidacy could change."[9] On March 27, 2006, James announced that he would not seek a sixth term, preferring to focus on his seat in the New Jersey Senate.[10]

Rice ran a campaign attacking Booker for raising over $6 million for the race. Booker's campaign outspent Rice's 25 to 1. Booker tried to identify Rice as a "political crony" of former mayor Sharpe James, to whom Booker lost in 2002.[11][12]

On Election Day, May 9, 2006, Newark's nonpartisan election took place. This time Booker won with 72 percent of the vote, soundly defeating Rice. Booker's entire slate of City Council candidates, known as the "Booker Team," swept the Council elections, giving Booker firm leadership of the city's government.

Before taking office as mayor, Booker sued Sharpe James’ administration in order to terminate cut-rate land deals favoring two redevelopment agencies. Each organization had recently been created by the Municipal Council and listed Sharpe James as a member of its advisory board. The Municipal Council claimed that these low prices were necessary to promote development in Newark's blighted neighborhoods; however, Booker argued that the state’s “pay-to-play” laws had been violated and would furthermore cost the city more than $15 million in lost revenue if these land deals were approved at the next council meeting. Specifically, Booker referenced a case on Broad and South streets – a piece of land that would generate $87,000 under the proposed land deals yet was valued at $3.7 million under current market rates.[13] On June 20, 2006, Superior Court Judge Patricia Costello ruled in favor of Booker, stating that his attorneys had "made a persuasive argument that campaign contributors were given discounted land deals".[14]

In late June 2006, before Booker took office, New Jersey investigators foiled a plot, led by Bloods gang leaders inside 4 New Jersey state prisons, to assassinate Booker. The plot was led by New Jersey Bloods gang leader Lester Alford, an inmate in East Jersey State Prison in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. The plan called for prisoners in 4 New Jersey state prisons to riot and then for Bloods gang members on the outside to assassinate Booker simultaneously. The threats against Booker are believed to be in response to Booker's campaign promises to increase the number of police on the streets and take a harder line on crime.[15][16][17]

[edit] Mayoral administration

Booker campaigning for Barack Obama in Newark.

Booker assumed office as mayor of Newark on July 1, 2006, and is only the third person to govern the city since 1970.[18][19][20] After his first week in office, Booker announced a 100-day plan to implement reforms in Newark. Some of the proposed changes included: Adding police officers; ending background checks for many city jobs, an effort to help former offenders find employment in the city; refurbishing police stations; improving city services; and expanding summer youth programs.[21][22]

On October 16, 2006, Booker formally introduced his administration's first adopted Newark City Budget. The approved $697.1 million budget resulted in an 8.3% increase in the city's property tax, which is one of the largest property tax increases in the city's history. The budget also increased the number of city employees from 3,968 to 4,197.[23][24]These increases were cited as necessary to fix the structural financial deficit and secure a solid foundation for Newark’s future. Booker pledged to not increase taxes the following year, a promise he kept – the City of Newark has not raised taxes in over two years. His administration has also since reduced the size of government with a 2009 Budget proposal containing 3935 city employees. In addition, the City of Newark has for the last two consecutive years received the GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, reflective of the Booker Administration’s continued commitment to an honest, transparent budgeting process ending decades of neglect and setting a foundation to balance the city’s finances.[25][26]

Booker at a fundraiser with Cy Vance

One of the mayor's first priorities was to reduce the city's crime rate. Booker appointed Garry McCarthy, former Deputy Commissioner of Operations of the New York Police Department, as the director of the Newark Police Department.[27] Public safety in Newark has been overhauled under Director McCarthy’s lead. A new Central Narcotics Division was created as well as a Fugitive Apprehension Unit which has been responsible for the capture of 11 out of 12 Most Wanted Felons in Newark. In addition, major technological advances have been made to crime-fighting initiatives such as citywide camera and gunshot detection systems. Community-oriented and privately funded programs such as the Crime Stoppers and Gun Stoppers anonymous tip lines have made a important impact in crime prevention and apprehension of criminals in Newark. Crime reduction has been such a central concern to the Booker Administration that Booker, along with his security team, was known to personally patrol the streets of Newark until times as late as 4 a.m. early in his first term.[28]

Crime has dropped significantly in the City of Newark, which currently leads the nation in violent crime reduction. From 2006-2008, crime dropped by the following percentages: murders 36%, shooting incidents 41%, rapes 30%, and auto thefts 26%.[28] In 2008, Newark had its lowest murder rate since 1959.[28] Despite the success indicated by these statistics, as the global economic recession set in, robberies rose 27% in 2008 and another 10% through late June 2009.[28]As of July 26, 2009, murders are down 42% overall, rapes are down 41% overall and robberies are down 12% since 2008.[29]

In addition to lowering crime, Booker has both doubled the amount of affordable housing under development, and quadrupled the amount under predevelopment. Booker has slashed the city budget deficit from $180 million to $73 million.

Despite criticisms, Booker has also raised the salaries of many city workers.[28] Most recently, however, the Booker Administration and the City of Newark imposed one-day-a-month furloughs for all non-uniformed employees from July through December 2010, as well as two-percent pay cuts for managers and directors currently earning more than $100,000 a year. Citing the reason for the pay cuts, Booker noted, “In 2006, we took over a city in financial crisis. We have made significant steps to address our financial future and decided that we would not balance the budget on the backs of our residents.” Booker has reduced his own salary twice since taking office, voluntarily reducing his salary by 8% early in his first year as mayor. None of Booker’s senior managers have received pay increases since taking office.[30]

Mayor Booker’s leadership has attracted approximately $100 million in private philanthropy to the City of Newark and a variety of nonprofits and public/private partnerships have been created and used to better the lives of Newark residents. In April of 2008, the Newark Charter School Fund was established to provide grants in support of Newark’s charter schools to support a successful public school system in Newark.[31]The City of Newark also works with GreenSpaces, which has committed $40 million toward the largest park expansion initiative in over a century with a total of twenty one park construction and rehabilitation projects scheduled for completion in every ward by the end of 2010.[32]To support the Newark Police Department, the Newark Police Foundation was established in 2006 and provides funding and other services to the Police Department which has had a significant impact on the NPD’s ability to pay for necessary resources that would otherwise not be readily funded through the department’s budget.[33]

In 2009, after President Barack Obama became president of the United States, Booker was offered the chance to head the new White House Office of Urban Affairs Policy; Booker turned the offer down citing a commitment to Newark.[28]

In an effort to make government more accessible, Booker's administration has held regular open office hours during which city residents can meet personally with the Mayor to discuss their concerns.[34]

Booker was honored in October 2009 by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence with the Sarah Brady Visionary Award for his work in reducing gun violence. [35]

Booker made news when on December 31, 2009, a constituent used Twitter to ask the mayor to send someone to her father's house to shovel his driveway because her father, who was 65 years old, was going to attempt to do it himself. Booker responded by tweeting; "I will do it myself where does he live?" Other people volunteered, including one person who offered his help on Twitter and 20 minutes later the mayor and some volunteers showed up and shoveled the man's driveway. [1]

Booker is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition,[36] a bi-partisan group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition is co-chaired by Boston mayor Thomas Menino and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

[edit] Senior cabinet

His senior cabinet consists of the following:[citation needed]

  • Modia Butler, Chief of Staff to the Mayor;[37]
  • Michelle L. Thomas, Business Administrator;
  • Stefan Pryor, Director & Deputy Mayor for Housing Economic Development;[37]
  • Margarita Muniz, Deputy Mayor for Community Engagement;[37]
  • Julien X. Neals, Corporation Counsel;
  • Desiree Peterkin Bell, Director of Communications;[37]
  • Bari J. Mattes, Senior Advisor to the Mayor;[37]
  • W. Deen Shareef, Senior Advisor;
  • Melvin Waldrop, Neighborhood Services Director;
  • Maria Vizcarondo, Child and Family Well-being Director;
  • Garry McCarthy, Police Director;
  • David Giordano, Fire Director;
  • Linda Landolfi, Acting Finance Director;
  • Darlene Tate, OMB Director;
  • Kecia Daniels, Human Resources Director.

[edit] Conan O'Brien feud

On September 23, 2009, on The Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien made the following joke: "The mayor of Newark wants to set up a city-wide program to improve residents' health. The health care program would consist of a bus ticket out of Newark." Booker responded in a YouTube video telling Conan O'Brien to apologize, and that Conan is banned from ever entering Newark Liberty International Airport by putting him on the "No fly list." Conan responded by further making fun of Newark saying the only way he could get to Newark now would be like everyone else, "through a series of poor decisions." He also called out Cory Booker to come on the show to air out their grievances. Booker subsequently banned Conan from the state of New Jersey (despite having no authority to do so) as well as all the sister cities of Newark. In response, Conan read a letter on air from Elizabeth, NJ, Mayor Chris Bollwage, declaring that he will temporarily rename Terminal A of Newark Liberty (which lies in Elizabeth) the Conan O'Brien Terminal. Conan did a skit in which he complimented all the cities around Newark and said he had created a "geographic toilet seat" around Newark. The mayors of Bayonne, East Orange, Kearny, Jersey City, and Elizabeth have publicly sided with Conan O'Brien. He ended this by saying, "Your move, Mayor Booker." The feud was unofficially ended when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for it to end during a prepared comedy bit, telling Booker to chalk it up to Conan's head injury suffered less than two weeks earlier.[38] Mayor Cory Booker appeared as Conan's first guest on the Tonight Show on Friday October 16, 2009 and assured viewers that the feud was over and that he was actually a big fan of Conan O'Brien. They settled their feud with a deal that everytime Conan made a joke about Newark, Conan would put $500 in the Newark jar, and the money would be donated to city of Newark. Conan then made the following joke, "You can trust that this jar is safe because it is not in Newark", after which Conan placed the first $500 in the jar. Conan then made a $50,000 donation to the Newark Now charity which was matched by NBC Universal totaling $100,000.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cory Anthony Booker: On a Path That Could Have No Limits The New York Times, May 10, 2006
  2. ^ Home Is Where the Heart Is, Education Next, 2006 No. 4, accessed December 6, 2006.
  3. ^ Alum Booker elected mayor of Newark, N.J. The Stanford Daily, June 8, 2006
  4. ^ Mayor moves to tough Newark area, Janet Frankston Lorin, November 24, 2006, Philadelphia Inquirer
  5. ^ http://www.nj.com/newark/index.ssf/2008/07/razed_brick_towers_no_longer_i.html
  6. ^ http://www.nationalmajority.org/booker.php
  7. ^ Damien Cave, "In a Debate of Newark Mayoral Candidates, Some Agreement and a Lot of Discord" May 4, 2006 The New York Times
  8. ^ http://www.newarknow.org/about.html
  9. ^ New York Times Metro Briefing - NEWARK: DEPUTY MAYOR ENTERS THE RACE The New York Times, March 6, 2006
  10. ^ Sharpe Drops Out: James cites only his position against holding dual offices NJ.com / Star-Ledger, March 28, 2006
  11. ^ Damien Cave, "On 2nd Try, Booker Glides In as Newark Mayor" May 10, 2006 The New York Times
  12. ^ Damien Cave, "Newark Feature: A New Political Era" May 10, 2006 The New York Times (Multimedia)
  13. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/19/nyregion/19newark.htm
  14. ^ Katie Wang, "Booker wins fight on city land sales" June 21, 2006 The Star-Ledger
  15. ^ Richard G. Jones, "Threat to Newark's Mayor-Elect Leads to 24-Hour Police Guard" June 5, 2006 The New York Times
  16. ^ Jay Dow, "Newark P.D.: Bloods Threaten To Kill Booker" June 21, 2006 CBS News
  17. ^ Jay Dow, "Booker Stands Up To Jailhouse Death Threats" June 22, 2006 CBS News
  18. ^ Newark Elects Cory Booker First New Mayor in Two Decades in Landslide Victory, ABC News, May 9, 2006
  19. ^ Damien Cave "Pledging to Revive Newark, a New Mayor Goes to Work" July 2, 2006 The New York Times
  20. ^ David Segal, "Urban Legend How Cory Booker Became Newark's Mayor: By Being Almost Too Good to Be True" July 3, 2006 The Washington Post
  21. ^ Ronald Smothers, "Booker Has 100-Day Plan for Newark’s Reorganization" July 11, 2006 The New York Times
  22. ^ Jay Dow, "Booker Unveils '100-Day Plan' To Battle Crime" July 10, 2006 CBS
  23. ^ "Mayor Booker Unveils Newark Budget" Press Release
  24. ^ Katie Wang, "City council to review budget with 8% hike" August 23, 2006 The Star-Ledger
  25. ^ http://www.ci.newark.nj.us/userimages/downloads/Budget_I_Budget_Introduction.pdf
  26. ^ http://www.ci.newark.nj.us/press/press_releases/2009_05_04_01.php
  27. ^ http://www.newarkpdonline.org/bio.html
  28. ^ a b c d e f Gregory, Sean (2009-07-27). "Cory Booker is (Still) Optimistic That he can Save Newark" (Magazine). New York: Time Inc.. pp. 36–40. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1910983,00.html. Retrieved 2009-07-19.  Note:When sourcing this article, the print edition was used. The exact same text from the web version however is used for the URL. The print version has a different title than the web version, Why Cory Booker Likes Being Mayor of Newark Strangely, both versions state that the article was published on the 27th, while the article itself was accessed on the 19th?
  29. ^ http://www.newarkpdonline.org/index.html
  30. ^ http://www.ci.newark.nj.us/press/press_releases/2009_03_31_02.php
  31. ^ http://ncsfund.org/
  32. ^ http://www.njand.com/news/green.php/2009/08/20/newly_renovated_west_end_park_opens_toda
  33. ^ http://newarkpolicefoundation.org
  34. ^ Andrew Jacobs, "Access to Mayor Doesn’t Solve All Problems" March 8, 2007 The New York Times
  35. ^ "Brady Center: Stand Up for a Safe America Gala, NYC". http://www.bradycenter.org/donate/events/nyc. 
  36. ^ "Mayors Against Illegal Guns: Coalition Members". http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/html/about/members.shtml. 
  37. ^ a b c d e "City of Newark, NJ - Contact Information". Newark, New Jersey: City of Newark, NJ. http://www.ci.newark.nj.us/government/mayor_booker/con.php. Retrieved October 2, 2009. 
  38. ^ Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien, October 5th-9th, 2009, NBC

[edit] External links

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Sharpe James		 Mayor of Newark
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