In contrast to the GOP parade, you’ve got someone like Cory Booker – the new mayor of Newark, NJ.
Cory Booker, a 37-year-old former Rhodes scholar, became Newark’s first new mayor in two decades by a landslide Tuesday, ushering in a new era for the struggling city.
Booker swamped his nearest challenger, state Sen. Ronald L. Rice, taking 72 percent of the vote compared with 24 percent for the lawmaker in the nonpartisan election.
“I’m very excited by the results and encouraged by what the people of Newark said today,” he said after a victory party.
Booker’s resounding win marks a generational change of black leadership in a city trying to turn around decades of urban decay.
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He’s a DLC guy, Oliver. I thought you hated those guys as “wishy – washy.” Once again, race trumps ideology. It’s conservative black guys that you hate.
It disgusts me that Newark has been allowed to rot. To see such want in proximity to Manhattan and the fancy suburbs of New Jersey is shocking. D.C. strikes me the same way. I guess people are used to it, but to my Hawaiian eyes it’s just appalling.
Cory Booker has the cutest smile! He looks so warm in that picture. I hope he can help lift Newark out of its despair.
As I’ve said 10,000 times, I’m probably as DLC as they come. What I don’t like about the DLC leadership is how they shy away from strong advocacy (limp advocacy doesn’t get you 72% of the vote). Booker hasn’t done that at all. I don’t hate conservative blacks, I just think they’re a propped-up joke.
WORD!
As a NJ native Republican and one who’s deeply mourned the recent potential demise of the NJ Governor’s Schools, any ‘capital-D’ Democrat who may perhaps serve as an overdue voice for ’small-d’ democratic ideals in NJ (ideals which remain central to all Republican ideology despite the way in which today’s supposedly “elected” Republicans regularly seem to forget that fact) is far beyond welcome as a voice in the corruption infested maelstrom of back-scratching that is not only NJ politics (see the recent cinematic documentary) but apparently *any* office, state or federal, currently in need of reformation.
If public service is its own reward, then…
We must resolve to PAY ALL PUBLIC SERVANTS ONLY MINIMUM WAGE.
And AUDIT THEM to HELL!
Excuse my typing — before my morning tea…
Thank goodness the Times had a photograph of his opponent. A black incumbent dropped out of race, and one of the remaining black candidates won. Kind of the revers of wht happened all over the South before the Voting Rights Act.
It would have been great if a true conservative black man was in the race.
Of course, you have nothing but respect for “ptopped – up jpkes” Don’t we all?
Cory Booker of course, was tossed under the bus in 2002 by the Democratic Party. A lot of people wanted Booker to be chosen to take Torricelli’s spot on the ballot when he dropped out of the race. Instead, the Dems went with that crusty old WHITE fossil, Frank Lautenberg. The word was that Booker wasn’t a “Yes massa!” type black Democrat that would knee-jerk oppose anything the President proposed. That’s information that came directly from a source that works for a NY State Senator and works for the state Dem party.
I like Booker. He’s going to have one HELL of a task ahead of him cleaning up Newark. And when I say cleaning up, I’m not talking about the city itself, but rather the political machine within that city that is so corrupt it would make Jack Abramoff blush.
I wish him the best of luck.
objet: I’m for paying public servants the median wage for their family size…
If they can’t raise everybody’s wage, then they don’t get a raise.
Cory Booker isn’t a “conservative” in the mold of Steele or Blackwell. If you had to put a label on it, he’s probably a moderate. By national standards, he’s probably moderately liberal – like Obama. The basis of support for people like Steele or Blackwell is the white, Fundamentalist, modern far-right GOP – not reform-minded black voters frustrated with the 60s generation’s corruption.
Vin Diesel’s high school yearbook picture?
I’m glad we have an authentic black man like John Street (since just having a “D” behind ones name apparently makes a black man authentic) as mayor here in Philly.
The 400 people that were murdered last year probably aren’t all that glad, nor are the 150 that have been murdered so far this year, but on Planet Ollie, it’s okay for a black elected official to be corrupt, racist, and completely incompetant as long as he’s a Dem.
Besides, I’m sure most of the victims of the crimes are other authentic black people that voted for him, so that’s on them.
Newark has long been a corrupt cesspool. It remains to be seen how effective Booker can be when the incumbent mayor remains a State Assemblyman and de facto policitcal boss. I would imagine that Booker is eyeing Lautenberg’s Senate seat in 2008.
This is the guy from the documentary, right? Wow, that was such a stirring movie, and to know that he kept fighting makes me really proud.
Yep, if you haven’t seen it, check it out.
Having dealt in the past with Newark city officials and their incredible capacity for jaw-dropping ignorance, venality and incompetence all I can say to Corey is: Bring a big broom.
Hell, just fire everyone you pass through the corridors of City Hall that first morning and replace them with people you grab at random walking around on the street during lunchtime and I guarantee you that by close of business you will have improved Newark city government. I’m not kidding.
I don’t know anything about the politics of Newark, but anyone with eyes to see knows what a mess it is. It’s the fault of the rich, as far as I’m concerned.
To the extent that the corrupt politicians who have run Newark into the ground are rich, yes, it is the fault of the rich.
Hmm.
Some people think Booker is nothing but another Thomas, Rice, Powell, etc.
According to the Black Commentator, Cory Booker is nothing more than a trojan horse democrat backed by right-wing foundations and conservative corporate money. He ain’t nobody, He ain’t no savior. He is the latest black political fraud foisted onto the black body politic. After his corporate sponsors finish plundering Newark, we’ll revisit the corporate media love fest coverage this covert republican has been receiving. It is a sad day in America when a corporate sell out like this is lauded as if he is the second coming of JFK.
The Black Commentator’s opinion is important because?
Is he called a sellout, because he’s not promising business as usual with the Teachers’ Unions?
http://www.blackprwire.com/display-news.asp?id=2474
Cory Booker is no Clarence Thomas or Ken Blackwell. It’s dishonest for people like the Black Commentator to suggest as much. There are legions of post-civil rights black politicians who have helped reform major cities (Tony Williams, Dennis Archer, even Ray Nagin – at least before Katrina). Just because somebody doesn’t come from the old machine doesn’t mean he’s a corporate sell-out, or a Republican mole.
Well, I went and read the Black Commentator’s column, and found the evidence a little, um, lacking. A lot of friend-of a friend of a friend is right-winger stuff, but nothing really showing Booker himself to be a right-winger at all. I’m not happy about Booker showing up at the Manhattan Institute, but who really knows the context there?
The Newark political system is broken, and it has been since long before Gibson took over in the late 1960s. When the Irish ran it, Newark was just as corrupt.
Booker “showed up” at the (shudder!) Manhattan Institute?
Aiiieee! Stone him!!
Viral Cyrus brings up John Street above.
As a Philly resident I have voted against Street consistently in city council and mayoral elections since 1981. I can’t tolerate the guy for the same reasons I believe bush is an abysmal president. He hires cronies, is not very bright, favors government funding of faith-based social services, feels that the pay-to-play method of awarding contracts is OK, and is often an embarrassment to the citizenry when he speaks in public.
Cyrus apparently has no problem with any of these shortcomings in bush, but holds Street against a higher standard. He pins 400 murders in Philly on Street, but how about holding bush accountable for the thousands of American and Iraqi deaths in Iraq?
Elrod, Cory Booker is nothing more than a younger version of Tony Williams, another corporate whore sellout to the developers and right-wing corporate foundations pushing vouchers. Williams placed over $500 million taxpayer dollars behind the private interests pushing that damn baseball stadium which will benefit nobody but a motley collection of wealthy investors looking to make a fast buck. He is a whore. Period. Bought and paid for, ergo so is Booker. Take a look at Cory Bookers $6 million dollar bankroll and tell me the brotha ain’t sold his soul. He raised more money running for Mayor than the two major Republicans running for Governor in Nebraska? He has raised more money than Harold Ford, Jr. running for the Senate in Tennessee. I know you know that Harold sold out long ago, right? Cory is a corporate Ho, Baby.
Well gee, buma, you blithering idiot, considering that Bush sent the troops to Iraq, obviously he’s responsible for the deaths of the American soldiers there. Sorry to ruin your incredibly intelligent “oh yeah, how about _______” response that is so common among left-wingers.
And i voted for Bush in 2000, but not 2004, so that’s strike two on your theories.
Besides, the post had nothing to with Bush. It was the fact that Uncle Tom Willis, who spends his entire life sucking up to white people, thinks he has the cred to say which black man is or isn’t authentic.
Cyrus, I hear Thorazine can help your condition quite a lot. You may want to look into it.
Thanks to Cyrus for that fine lesson in civility. My post was comparing two politicians I don’t like at all, the John Street character the Virus brought up and another miserable failure with many of the same characteristics. My post called attention to how much they have in common and why I vote against both.
Cyrus also points to his own stellar intelligence by sharing that he voted for bush before he voted against him. Cudos, guy. And I figured you for someone only half as smart.