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Cory Booker

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Cory Booker
36th Mayor of Newark
In office
July 1, 2006 – Present
Preceded bySharpe James
Personal details
Born (1969-04-27) April 27, 1969 (age 55)
Washington, D.C.
Political partyDemocratic Party
WebsiteMayor Cory A. Booker

Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is the current Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. He is a Democratic politician and former Newark Councilman and community activist who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2002 against longtime incumbent Sharpe James. Booker ran again in 2006 and won a sweeping victory against Ronald Rice to become the 36th mayor of Newark.

Background

The son of civil rights activists, Cary and Carolyn Booker, who 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.[2] Booker traveled west to study at Stanford University, where he earned a B.A. in political science in 1991 and 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. While he was there, he ran The Bridge, a student-run crisis hotline and organized help for youth in East Palo Alto from Stanford students.[3]

He won a Rhodes Scholarship and studied at The Queen's College, Oxford, where he was awarded an honors degree in modern history in 1994. At Oxford, he became friends with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. He became the President of the L'Chaim Society, a Jewish group founded by Boteach, to signify his commitment to end tensions between Jews and African Americans.

After Oxford, he obtained a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1997 and, while there, 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. After law school, Booker returned to New Jersey. He 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 notorious public housing project in Newark's Central Ward. Booker organized tenants there to fight for improved conditions. In November 2006, Booker left his apartment for the top unit in a three-story rental on Hawthorne Avenue on Newark's south side, an area described as "a drug- and gang-plagued neighborhood of boarded-up houses and empty lots."[4]

Councilman

In 1998, Booker won an upset victory, beating an unorganized four-term incumbent to get elected to the Newark City 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 worst housing projects (Sunset Pines), to protest open-air drug dealing. For five months in 2000, he lived in a motor home which was very contemporary, parking on street corners known to be places where drug trafficking occurred.

He proposed a variety of Council initiatives that impacted housing, young people, law and order, and the efficiency of City Hall, but was regularly rebuffed by a resistant City Council and often outvoted 8-1.

While on the Council, Booker became an advocate of school vouchers as part of a reform of the education system.

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 long-time 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.[5] Booker was defeated, 53 percent to 47 percent. The Academy-Award-nominated documentary by filmmaker Marshall Curry entitled Street Fight details the campaign.

After concluding his service as a Councilman, in 2003 Booker founded, and became the director of, Newark Now, a grassroots nonprofit group. He also became a partner at the West Orange law firm, Booker, Rabinowitz, et al., and a senior fellow at Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Booker also became a member of the Board of Trustees at Teachers College, Columbia University, a member of the Executive Committee at Yale Law School and was formerly a member of the Board of Trustees at Stanford University.

2006 Mayoral run

As expected, Cory Booker announced on February 11, 2006 that he would run for mayor again, an intention he 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." [6]. 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. [7].

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. [8] [9]

On Election Day, May 9, 2006, Newark's nonpartisan election took place. Booker won with 72 percent of the vote, soundly defeating Ronald 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.

On May 31, 2006, before taking office as Mayor, Booker sued Newark in order to get the New Jersey state courts to stop the city from selling land at prices he felt were too low. The land was mainly sold at prices ranging from $1 to $4 per square foot. The city council argued that this was the only way to promote development in Newark's blighted neighborhoods. Booker was also criticized by council members because as a councilman he approved of some of these deals. Booker's attorneys argued that the city had violated the state's "pay-to-play" law by rewarding campaign contributors with land deals at favorable financial terms. 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". [10]

Days before Booker took office in late June, New Jersey investigators foiled a plot, led by Bloods gang leaders inside four 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 four New Jersey state prisons to riot and then for Bloods gang members on the outside to simultaneously assassinate Booker. Booker has been placed under 24-hour surveillance by the Newark Police Department. The reason for 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.[11][12][13]

Mayoral administration

Booker assumed office as mayor of Newark on July 1, 2006, just the third person to govern the city since 1970.[14] [15] [16] After a week, Booker announced a 100-day plan to implement reforms in Newark. The centerpiece is adding police officers; other changes include 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. [17] [18]

Booker campaigned for U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman in Connecticut on August 6, 2006, two days before the Democratic primary pitting Lieberman against challenger Ned Lamont.[19] [20]

On August 21, 2006 Booker formally introduced his proposed Newark City Budget before the Municipal Council for approval. Booker's $697.1 million budget calls for an 8.3% increase in the city's property tax, which if passed would be one of the largest property tax increases in the city's history. The budget would also increase the number of city employees from 3,968 to 4,197. [21] [22]

Booker appointed Garry McCarthy, a former police commander of Manhattan's 33rd Precinct in the late 1990s, as the director of the Newark Police Department. McCarthy was credited with sharply reducing crime in the precinct but was also criticized by some for methods including setting up police barricades around neighborhoods in order to monitor the drug trade. [23]

Booker's administration has held monthly office hours with city residents where residents can meet personally with the Mayor to discuss their problems. [24]

Booker is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition[25], 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.

Personal life

Cory Booker has an older brother Cary. He is known to be personal friends with former New York Giant's star Tiki Barber [26] and U.S. Senator Barack Obama[27].

Senior cabinet

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

  • John Kemp, Business Administrator;
  • Pablo Fonseca, Chief of Staff/Acting Business Administrator as of 2007;
  • Stefan Pryor, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development;
  • Ron Salahuddin, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety;
  • Margarita Muniz, Deputy Mayor for Community Engagement;
  • Jermaine James, Deputy Chief of Staff;
  • Julien X. Neals, Corporation Counsel;
  • De'Shawn Wright, Chief Policy Advisor;
  • Desiree Peterkin Bell, Director of Communications;
  • Bari Mattes, Senior Advisor;
  • W. Deen Shareef, Senior Advisor;
  • Matthew Klapper, Policy Advisor;
  • Melvin Waldrop, Neighborhood Services Director;
  • Maria Vizcarondo, Health and Human Services Director;
  • Garry McCarthy, Police Director;
  • David Giordano, Fire Director;
  • Linda Landolfi, Finance Director;
  • Darlene Tate, OMB Director;
  • Michelle Ralph-Rawls, Human Resources Director;
  • Michelle Thomas, Innovation and Performance Management Director

See also

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. ^ Damien Cave, "In a Debate of Newark Mayoral Candidates, Some Agreement and a Lot of Discord" May 4, 2006 The New York Times
  6. ^ New York Times Metro Briefing - NEWARK: DEPUTY MAYOR ENTERS THE RACE The New York Times, March 6, 2006
  7. ^ Sharpe Drops Out: James cites only his position against holding dual offices NJ.com / Star-Ledger, March 28, 2006
  8. ^ Damien Cave, "On 2nd Try, Booker Glides In as Newark Mayor" May 10, 2006 The New York Times
  9. ^ Damien Cave, "Newark Feature: A New Political Era" May 10, 2006 The New York Times (Multimedia)
  10. ^ Katie Wang, "Booker wins fight on city land sales" June 21, 2006 The Star-Ledger
  11. ^ Richard G. Jones, "Threat to Newark's Mayor-Elect Leads to 24-Hour Police Guard" June 5, 2006 The New York Times
  12. ^ Jay Dow, "Newark P.D.: Bloods Threaten To Kill Booker" June 21, 2006 CBS News
  13. ^ Jay Dow, "Booker Stands Up To Jailhouse Death Threats" June 22, 2006 CBS News
  14. ^ Newark Elects Cory Booker First New Mayor in Two Decades in Landslide Victory, ABC News, May 9, 2006
  15. ^ Damien Cave "Pledging to Revive Newark, a New Mayor Goes to Work" July 2, 2006 The New York Times
  16. ^ 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
  17. ^ Ronald Smothers, "Booker Has 100-Day Plan for Newark’s Reorganization" July 11, 2006 The New York Times
  18. ^ Jay Dow, "Booker Unveils '100-Day Plan' To Battle Crime" July 10, 2006 CBS
  19. ^ Healy, Patrick and Medina, Jennifer, "Lieberman Makes Final Push to Fend Off Lamont" August 6, 2006 The New York Times
  20. ^ Melissa Bailey, "Lamont Hits Gospel Fest" August 6, 2006 New Haven Independent
  21. ^ "Mayor Booker Unveils Newark Budget" Press Release
  22. ^ Katie Wang, "City council to review budget with 8% hike" August 23, 2006 The Star-Ledger
  23. ^ William Kleinknecht, "New Newark police director saw both criticism and results in N.Y." September 19, 2006 The Star-Ledger
  24. ^ Andrew Jacobs, "Access to Mayor Doesn’t Solve All Problems" March 8, 2007 The New York Times
  25. ^ "Mayors Against Illegal Guns: Coalition Members".
  26. ^ Tiki Barber building affordable housing in Newark - Breaking News From New Jersey - NJ.com
  27. ^ The Ties that Bind Cory Booker and Barack Obama « the HNIC Report
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