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Cory Booker
The contentious and nationally watched 2002 mayoral campaign in
Newark, New Jersey, pitted the wily, 66-year-old four-term
incumbent, Sharpe James, against Cory Booker, a Rhodes scholar,
lawyer, community activist, and one-term city councilman
representing the city’s Central Ward. The challenger, who was then
in his early 30s, cast himself as a reform-minded candidate who
would take the necessary steps to reduce gang violence and other
crime, improve the city’s failing schools, and root out cronyism and
corruption in city government. The acrimonious campaign (captured in
the Academy Award–nominated documentary Street Fight) ended
with Booker narrowly defeated at the polls but still determined to
head Newark's government someday. Toward that end, he redoubled his
efforts to forge relationships with union officials, the police, and
others who had not supported him in his attempt to unseat James. In
2006, having broadened his support base, he won the election for
mayor, this time in a race with a challenger far less formidable
than Sharpe (who had decided against running for a sixth term). On
July 1, 2006 Booker was sworn in as Newark’s first new mayor since
1986. While he is a Democrat, many argue that his politics defy
classification. According to Ellis Cose, writing for Newsweek
(May 13, 2002), he has come to represent “a post-racial man for an
increasingly diverse Newark who believes in multiracial, multiethnic
coalitions and nondoctrinaire thought.” In April 2006 U.S. News &
World Report included Booker in its profiles of America’s best
leaders. “[People] can’t believe he’s for real,” Shmuley Boteach, a
rabbi and friend of Booker’s, said to Damien Cave and Josh Benson
for the New York Times (May 4, 2006). “But it’s rare that a
man of the level of sincerity and authenticity of Cory Booker comes
into politics and, God willing, as he goes through the process,
those incredible qualities will remain.”
The younger of the two sons of Cary Booker Sr. and Carolyn Booker,
Cory Anthony Booker was born on April 27, 1969 in Washington, D.C.
His older brother, Cary, is a professor of education at Rutgers
University at Newark and an associate dean in charge of the New
Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund on that campus. Booker's parents
were among the first African-Americans to hold executive positions
with IBM, his father as a salesperson and his mother as a personnel
director. Around the time of his birth, his mother and father bid on
a house in Harrington Park, New Jersey, an affluent neighborhood,
roughly 20 miles northeast of Newark, that was then made up entirely
of white families. A real-estate agent spurned the Bookers' offer,
telling the couple, falsely, that the house had already been sold.
The Bookers, sensing discrimination, contacted the New Jersey Fair
Housing Commission. On the family's behalf the organization sent a
white couple to make an offer on the house, which was promptly
accepted. With the realtor's discriminatory behavior exposed, the
Bookers were soon allowed to purchase the house, where they raised
their sons. Cary and Carolyn Booker were also actively involved in
the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, often taking their
children along to rallies. Mayor Booker has recalled listening to,
even memorizing, his father's recordings of speeches by the civil
rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Booker has often said that he
was inspired by the story of his parents’ actions and, in general,
by the previous generation’s fight to end racial discrimination. He
said to David Segal for the Washington Post (July 3, 2006),
“I feel like I was born on second base. My parents, they weren’t
even born in the dugout. They couldn’t afford tickets to the
stadium. They gave me everything I could dream of, raised me in one
of the country’s wealthiest suburbs, rooted me in the culture of
this country, black culture. I would have betrayed all of the
opportunities I’ve had if I didn’t give something back.” He told
Susan Headden for U.S. News & World Report (April 24, 2006),
“The stories I would hear from my parents were often of the ugliest
pictures of America, but my parents raised me to believe that I had
to be a part of this unfolding story, and that the best way to do
that was to be a part of the struggle.”
By all reports, as a youth Booker was extremely well-behaved,
bright, and even-tempered. Those close to him predicted a political
career for him. He attended Northern Valley Regional High School,
where he and his brother were among a small number of black
students. In high school he played football, becoming a high-school
All-American and winning Player of the Year honors; he also became
class president in his senior year. By that time, by virtue of his
gregariousness, those who knew him well at Northern Valley took to
calling him “the Mayor.” “He was the kind of guy who slowed you down
when you hung around him because he’d say ‘hi’ to everyone,” Chris
Magarro, a friend of Booker’s since grammar school, said to David
Segal. “The kids, the teachers, the janitors. Everyone.”
Booker received a full scholarship to play football (tight end) at
Stanford University, in California. He maintained high grades and
played a key role in student government. In his free time he
volunteered at a crisis-counseling hotline serving the disadvantaged
neighborhood of East Palo Alto, near the campus. While working there
during his senior year, he took a phone call from a person
threatening to jump off a building. “I remember having this profound
conversation on the side of the ledge about why he shouldn’t jump,
and it was almost like a gift to me,” Booker said to Susan Headden.
“I’ll never forget the power I felt when he touched hands for me to
pull him over. And at that moment, I realized, ‘What am I doing? I
don’t want to be a football player. I want to get back to the
business of making connections with people through my work.'”
Booker earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford
in 1991 and a master’s degree in sociology from the school in 1992.
He then won a prestigious Rhodes scholarship to attend Oxford
University, in England, where he earned a degree in modern history,
with honors, in 1994. While there, to the consternation of many,
Booker--a Baptist--joined the l’Chaim Society, a Jewish student
group. He explained to Headden that he became “more Christian” by
learning about other religions, adding, “You see the divine core in
all these religions, you see the beauty and the power and the
possibilities, then you yourself gain a deeper reverence for God.”
He has also said that his interest in the l'Chaim Society stemmed
from its emphasis on serving others. After he befriended Rabbi
Shmuley Boteach, its founder, Booker was instrumental in organizing,
in the group’s name, some of the most popular events on campus.
Booker later became the group’s president, which led to an increase
in the number of non-Jewish students who joined the organization. As
Headdon reported, one member of the l'Chaim Society said that Booker
had made him a better Jew. According to the New York Times
(April 24, 2002), when a faction of the group's leaders demanded
Booker's dismissal, the British press caught wind of the controversy
and covered it extensively; both Booker and Rabbi Boteach were later
forced to leave the organization. After he returned to the U.S.,
Booker attended Yale University Law School, in New Haven,
Connecticut, graduating in 1997. While in law school Booker
volunteered in a local Big Brother program, ran a student legal
clinic, and was a founding member of the Yale Chai society.
It was in 1995, while in law school, that Booker began his
association with Newark, a scene of urban blight where he hoped to
make positive contributions to the community; he had relatives in
Newark and connections to some of the city’s churches. He began by
serving as a volunteer with children and working as a legal adviser
for an association of low-income tenants. “At the time I had a very
negative view of politics and politicians,” he said to Cave and
Benson. “So I was going to be the great sort of social activist--a
person that makes politicians move toward social justice.” To get to
know the tenants he was representing, Booker rented an apartment in
a dilapidated housing project called Brick Towers. He organized a
letter-writing campaign among the tenants, then took their
management company to court over the substandard conditions of the
dwellings. Meanwhile, he served as a staff attorney for the Urban
Justice Center and as a coordinator of the Newark Youth Project. In
1998, at age 29, Booker--at the urging of the tenants--ran
successfully for a seat on Newark's Municipal Council, becoming the
youngest person ever elected to that body. He defeated George
Branch, a 16-year incumbent and well-entrenched member of Newark's
political machine. In the following year, in a protest against
dangerous conditions in Newark's poor neighborhoods--symbolized by
open-air drug dealing outside an apartment complex where a violent
crime had recently occurred--and against the city government's
seeming unwillingness to address the problem, Booker staged a 10-day
hunger strike. During the strike he lived in a tent in front of the
complex, where dozens of people soon joined him. “It transformed my
life,” Booker said to Segal.
For much of the 19th century, Newark stood as one of the U.S.’s most
vibrant industrial centers. Among other industries, manufacturing,
shipping, and insurance businesses flourished there, and some of the
country’s most prominent inventors and businesspersons called the
city home. In the 1920s the bustling city’s population had reached
nearly 415,000. To accommodate that growth, one of the country’s
first subway lines opened there in 1935. The city’s decline was due
to a number of factors. As a result of the Housing Act of 1934, the
Federal Housing Administration “redlined” virtually all of the
city’s land--that is, it divided neighborhoods according to their
residents' races and socioeconomic status; the intention was to
improve housing for poor residents, but the effect was to segregate
the city, with poor and/or minority citizens able to obtain
mortgages only in certain areas while, in other areas, mortgage
loans were not available. It became easier to secure mortgages in
the suburbs than in the city, thereby leading to a “white migration”
out of Newark. The building of several major highways that
intersected the city, including the New Jersey Turnpike and
Interstate 280, enabled middle-class people to live in the suburbs
and commute to the city for work. People fled Newark in droves:
according to Kit R. Roane, writing for U.S. News & World Report
(May 13, 2002), from 1950 to 1990 Newark’s population fell from
nearly 439,000 to about 275,000. At the same time, lower-wage jobs
became more prevalent in Newark. By 1966 Newark had a black
majority, but its political institutions and economic power remained
white-controlled. On the night of July 12, 1967, during a time of
pervasive poverty, high unemployment, instances of police brutality,
and a feeling of disenfranchisement among the city’s black
population, John Smith, a black cab driver, was arrested and beaten
by police who had accused him of tailgating a police car. Rumors
spread that the police had killed Smith, setting off six days of
riots, looting, and violence in Newark that led to 26 deaths and
more than 1,000 injuries. The National Guard was brought into
Newark, and reports about the unrest were broadcast on national
television. As Kit R. Roane put it, “Newark came to symbolize
America’s worst nightmare of urban decay.”
In the 1990s, under the administration of Sharpe James--who had come
to prominence during the civil rights movement and become the city's
mayor in 1986--Newark’s social indicators steadily declined. The
city lost 20 percent of its tax base and collected only 83 percent
of the taxes it was owed. Its infant-mortality rate and unemployment
rate climbed at one point to twice the state averages; 80 percent of
the city’s public-school students qualified for free or reduced-cost
lunch programs; and Newark's murder rate skyrocketed, to three times
those of the nearby urban centers of Paterson and Jersey City. In
the mid-1990s New Jersey's state government took control of the
city’s underachieving schools. According to the New Republic
(June 3, 2002), a poll taken in 1999 ranked Newark “the worst place
in the United States to raise a child.” In 1997 James’s chief of
staff was convicted of bribery; also that year, the city’s police
chief was found guilty of embezzlement. James’s defenders, claiming
that the city was undergoing a “renaissance,” pointed to such
achievements as the completion, in 1997, of the sprawling New Jersey
Performing Arts Center, in the heart of downtown, and to the
construction of a new minor-league baseball stadium.
Such were the conditions in Newark when, in 2002, Booker announced
his mayoral candidacy. Having raised some $3 million in
contributions, Booker campaigned aggressively on a platform of
change that included strengthening the police force, requiring the
state to channel more money to the city's schools, and making job
training available to ex-convicts. James, meanwhile, attempted to
cast Booker as an interloper, someone not “black enough” to lead
Newark's mostly African-American population. The incumbent enjoyed
the support of such popular Democrats as then–U.S. senator Jon
Corzine, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Directly or indirectly, James accused Booker, at various stages of
the extremely negative campaign, of being everything from a closeted
homosexual to an instrument of Jews, Republicans, and the Ku Klux
Klan. (Booker spoke favorably during the campaign of school
vouchers, a stance that is supported most often by Republicans.)
Arianna Huffington, writing for Salon.com (April 30, 2002),
noted that the mayoral race had “become a case study in the
nationwide clash pitting reformers vs. the establishment, the
afflicted vs. the comfortable, the politics of ideas vs. the
politics of dirty tricks.” James edged out Booker by a margin of
3,494 of the roughly 53,000 votes cast in the nonpartisan election,
held on May 14, 2002. After the election Booker turned down a job
offer from CNBC to host a talk show as well as an opportunity to
work in New Jersey’s state government.
In his 2005 documentary Street Fight, Marshall Curry captured
events connected with the hostile 2002 election between Booker and
James. Street Fight, which was nominated in 2006 for an
Academy Award in the documentary-feature category, examined a
campaign that the film critic David Denby, writing for the New
Yorker (March 6, 2006), called “a testing ground for the
political weight of ‘blackness.’” In the film, which covers the
month leading up to the election and ends after voting day, Curry, a
Booker supporter, encounters aggression on the part of some of
James’s supporters. After describing a scene in which Curry is
treated aggressively by Newark police, Denby wrote, “In the middle
of the fracas, [Curry] holds the camera at his waist and keeps it
running, as angry faces loom over him. James’s people, in their
dealing with the filmmaker, reveal a good deal about their customary
way of doing business.”
Following his defeat by James, Booker remained active--and
visible--in Newark. He co-founded a law firm, located in downtown
Newark, that specialized in bankruptcy cases, municipal law, and
tenants’-rights issues. He also started Newark Now, a not-for-profit
organization whose mission is “to equip and empower Newark residents
with the tools and resources needed to transform their communities
through neighborhood-based associations and tenant organizations,”
according to its Web site. Booker also took time to respond to his
critics, particularly those who had charged that he was “not black
enough” to be Newark’s mayor. In an article for Esquire
(December 2002), he wrote: “Each time I ran for office, as soon as I
announced my candidacy, I was loudly reviled by my opponents as the
white candidate, not black enough, the tool of the Jews or a pawn of
white society trying to take over Newark. Jesse Jackson, whom I have
greatly admired, came to town and called me a ‘wolf in sheep’s
clothing.’ Leaders who ascended to office during times of great
racial strife, who themselves overcame great racial obstacles, now
used a racial bludgeon to protect themselves from (in both cases)
their first real electoral challenge. Moreover, they sought to
appeal to a narrow essentialism that is an affront to the very
racial expansiveness and diversity their generation fought to
obtain. My generation and the increasingly diverse black experiences
we know owe a terrific debt to the previous generation’s historic
struggles. But many in the political establishment in Newark labeled
us as pawns of others, as disloyal to their struggles for black
advancement, or worse, as co-opted traitors. Well, as much as the
epithets enraged my civil-rights-activist parents, they can call me
what they will. I know who I am. I know what has to be done.”
To appeal to a greater number of voters in Newark as he prepared for
his next mayoral run, Booker worked to make himself appear less of
an outsider. His daily appointments included meetings with union
heads and other political insiders. He also hired a media-consulting
firm that had recently helped elect Jon S. Corzine to the
governorship of New Jersey, and he even chose as an adviser a former
Sharpe James employee. Booker was gambling that he could broaden his
support among Newark’s powerful political establishment without
alienating his original supporters. Joseph Marbach, chairman of the
Political Science Department at Seton Hall University, said to Terry
Golway for the New York Times (September 26, 2004), “If you
want to have a significant impact, you have to operate within the
established rules. It looks like Cory Booker has figured that out.
You have to be pragmatic. Last time, he had the support of many
intellectuals, but on the ground, the people who vote were
blue-collar union workers and churchgoers.” For his part, Booker
said to Golway, “What we’re trying to do is create a transition in
governance in Newark. We’re not using terms like ‘clean house’ or
worse. The goal is not to beat Sharpe James or punish his
supporters. The goal is to create a strong, vibrant city.”
In April 2003 Booker received a political boost when supporters of
Newark's state-appointed school superintendent, Marion Bolden, won
election to the local school advisory board, defeating incumbents
who were political allies of James. Golway described that
development as indicating a change in voters' attitudes and as a
sign that James “would be vulnerable if he tried for a sixth term.”
In what was perhaps a related development, on March 27, 2006 James
announced that he would not run again for mayor. (James said at the
time that he preferred to concentrate on defending his seat in the
New Jersey State Senate, which he held simultaneously.) On May 9
Booker defeated Ronald L. Rice Sr., Newark’s deputy mayor under
James from 2002 to 2006--whom he had outspent by a substantial
margin--to win election as mayor, taking 72 percent of the vote. Six
of Booker's supporters were elected to the City Council, promising
the incoming mayor a secure grasp on the city government. In the
days leading up to his swearing-in ceremony, state and local
investigators uncovered a plot, coordinated by incarcerated members
of a Newark street gang, to assassinate Booker. As a result of the
discovery, Booker has been placed under 24-hour protection by the
Newark Police Department. The threat is believed to be a reaction to
Booker’s hardline stance against violence and other gang activity.
Since he took office, on July 1, 2006, Booker has moved swiftly to
make changes in Newark's government. He announced the hiring of Bo
Kemp, the co-founder and former executive vice president of the
publishing company Vanguarde Media, as the city’s business
administrator, and promoted Anthony Campos, previously the city’s
deputy police chief, to the position of acting police chief. He also
delivered an ambitious 100-day plan to address the issues of public
safety, economic empowerment, programs to support families,
children, and seniors, and government reform. The plan includes the
creation of the Department of Child and Family Well-Being, which
will bring a number of already existing agencies under one umbrella;
the creation of a new post whose occupant will focus exclusively on
helping ex-convicts to train for and find jobs; and a refurbishment
of the city’s police department, which will include a more visible
street-level police force and the renovation of several precincts.
In addition, Booker announced that land owned by the city would no
longer be sold at a discounted rate to the politically influential,
a practice of the James administration that had long been a target
of criticism from Booker. In announcing the bold reforms, Booker
said that he wants Newark to represent “America’s leading urban city
in safety, prosperity, and the nurturing of family life,” as quoted
by the Philadelphia Inquirer (July 11, 2006). He added, “We
all as Newarkers have to start thinking of ourselves in these larger
terms. . . . It’s time for this city to get up again and lead our
nation at a time when there is darkness in America.” Putting Newark
on fiscally sound footing is also a major goal of his
administration; to that end Booker is reviewing the Newark
sports-arena deal, which he does not consider to be, in its current
form, good for the city.
Booker’s critics have charged that he is merely attempting to use
Newark as a springboard to higher political office. Booker, who
takes great offense at that suggestion, said to David Segal, “It
frustrates me because it’s as though this challenge isn’t
important.” Booker has indicated that inner-city Newark, and U.S.
inner cities in general, represent “the greatest challenge facing
this country.” He said, “If you think about it, besides some rural
areas, inner cities are the last great challenge to this country, to
be what [the country] says it is.” The mayorship of a U.S. city,
Booker said in an interview with Lawrence Aaron for the Bergen
County, New Jersey, Record (June 25, 2006), represents “the
most powerful position in the country for dealing with America’s
unfinished business.” Elaborating on that idea, he said that crime
and urban decay are problems “for a mayor--to manage change, to make
an impact. This is the most enviable position to be in if that’s
your goal and your dream.”
Booker, who stands six feet three inches tall, has often been
described as handsome and telegenic; he is known for his “perpetual
smile and gregarious earnestness”--attributes that initially gave
residents of Newark the impression that he “seemed too polished to
be sincere,” according to Damien Cave and Josh Benson. Booker, they
added, “seemed almost like a caricature of a politician.” A
vegetarian, Booker exercises and meditates regularly and does not
drink alcohol. He is a fan of science fiction, Star Trek in
particular. Booker, who is single, has maintained his residence on
the top floor at Brick Towers. He is a member of the Executive
Committee of Yale Law School; the Columbia University Teachers’
College board of trustees; and the boards of the Black Alliance for
Educational Options, the North Star Academy, Integrity Inc., and the
International Longevity Center. Esquire listed him among the
40 “Best and Brightest” in 2002; in 2005, New Jersey Monthly
named him among the state's “Top 40 Under 40,” and Black Enterprise
hailed him as one of “America's Most Powerful Players Under 40.”
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