Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is the 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. Booker is a graduate of Stanford, Oxford (as a Rhodes Scholar), and Yale Law School.
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. 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.
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.
Since 1998, he has 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."
Booker is a churchgoing Baptist who professes an interest in Buddhism and says that he meditates once or twice a day.
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, to protest open-air drug dealing. For five months in 2000, he lived in a motor home, 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.
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. His campaign was ultimately unsuccessful. The Academy-Award-nominated documentary by Filmmaker Marshall Curry entitled Street Fight details his bid for mayor.
After concluding his service as a Councilman, in 2003 Booker founded, and became the director of, Newark Now, a grassroots nonprofit group, 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. He is also 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.
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." . 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. .
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.
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".
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, 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. [10] [11] [12]
Booker assumed office as mayor of Newark on July 1, 2006, just the third person to govern the city since 1970.[13] [14] [15] 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. [16] [17]
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.[18] [19]
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. [20] [21]
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. [22]
Booker's administration has held monthly office hours with city residents where residents can meet personally with the Mayor to discuss their problems. [23]
Booker is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition[24], 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.
His senior cabinet consist of the following: John Kemp, Business Administrator Pablo Fonseca, Chief of Staff Stefan Pryor, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Ron Salahudddin, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Margarita Muniz, Deputy Mayor for Commmunity Engagement Jermaine James, Deputy Chief of Staff Aney Chandy, Corporation Counsel Desiree Peterkin Bell, Director of Communications Bari Mattes, Senior Advisor W. Deen Shareef, Senior Advisor
