After the Trailblazers
They represent a ‘sea change’ in black politics: leaders who appeal to all races by stressing consensus over conflict.
A friend linked me this piece about the new generation of black politicians. It doesn’t offer anything new or insightful. But you may want to check it out for yourself: newsweek
[Cory] Booker is turning his attention to enforcing quality-of-life crimes—something he’s passionate about. Driving with his police escort recently, the mayor watched as occupants of the car in front of them hurled trash out of their window. Ordering his escort to pull over the car, the mayor rolled down his window and berated the offenders. “I told them that what they did was an act of violence,” he recalls
From The City Journal
“In Chicago, sometimes when I talk to the black chambers of commerce, I say, ‘You know what would be a good economic development plan for our community would be if we make sure folks weren’t throwing their garbage out of their cars,’ ” Obama told a group of black state legislators in a speech in South Carolina last month.
From The Washington Post
Newark Mayor and media darling Cory Booker has officially thrown his surging political weight behind the Barack Obama campaign. Not only is he pledging his political clout, he announced he will be heading up Obama’s presidential push in New Jersey as either chair or co-chair of the state’s campaign. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Their political careers have evidenced a similar concern with access to housing and healthcare, combating violence and resurrecting a crumbling educational system. With regard to education, Booker seems more amenable than Obama to vouchers, although that could merely be a function of being a local rather than national politician. Public education in its purest form is still too tightly woven into the fabric of American idealism for a national dialogue to begin about eliminating the public education system as we know it. As far as health care is concerned, Obama announced his pledge to universalize healthcare by the end of his term in office at the same Trenton gathering of AFL-CIO workers, where Booker threw what we must presume is his full and knowing support behind the Senator. “We can have universal health care by the end of the next president’s first term, by the end of my first term,” Obama said, bringing more than 600 union workers to their feet. Read the rest of this entry »
I came across this long profile of Cory Booker and Newark that I highly recommend for anyone who really is interested in a) how Newark became the armit of America and b) why Booker is lauded as a leading politician for the 21st Century. The article manages to connect Newark’s seedy past with its contentious present and offer an insightful analysis of where Booker is trying to take the city. At the same time, the article comes down unfairly hard on Newarkers while painting an rosy picture of Booker as a savior. Like a lot that’s been written about Booker for the last few years, it glosses over the criticisms people have with him and those who support him.
These are some highlights from the article:
By 1986, after 16 years under [former Mayor Kenneth] Gibson, the city’s unemployment rate had risen nearly 50 percent, its population had continued dropping, it had no movie theaters and only one supermarket left, and only two-thirds of its high school students were earning diplomas.
Even as a smattering of office towers, an elegant arts center, and a baseball stadium have risen near the waterfront, Newark remains grindingly poor. Nearly a quarter of its residents live below the poverty line—almost twice the national average. Newark’s unemployment rate is double the nation’s, while the median family income of $30,665 is just half the Jersey average. Social dysfunction is endemic, contributing heavily to the poverty number. The city has a nearly 70 percent out-of-wedlock birthrate, and, as social scientists note, over half of all American kids born without a legal father will arrive in the world poor.
Only 13 percent of Newarkers have college degrees, compared with 32 percent of the residents of Jersey City, which benefited from a strong dose of reform in the 1990s under former investment banker Bret Schundler.
Even as Booker zeroes in on crime, he’s had to deal with a raft of troubles left over from the previous administration, among them a surprise $44 million budget hole uncovered by state auditors. The audits have revealed a fiscal mess in Newark under James, with unpaid invoices going back years, questionable allocations, and estimates that the city is failing to collect some $80 million a year in taxes. Prosecutors in Newark are investigating last-minute spending by the James administration, including more than $80,000 charged to city credit cards for trips to Brazil, Martha’s Vineyard, and Puerto Rico. Booker had to plug the late-year budget gap with a property-tax increase that enraged homeowners.
Student performance has continued to plummet. “High school achievement rates have virtually flipped, from almost 70 percent of graduating Newark kids passing the state’s high school proficiency exam when the state took over, to only about 30 percent passing it now,” says Richard Cammarieri, a member of the Newark schools advisory board.
The man definitely has his work cut out for him
Before there were “good blacks” there were “model negroes.” And before there were “model negroes” there were Head Negroes In Charge. Though distinguishable, they are each part of a continuum, a tradition, that traces itself back to Frederick Douglass and is fully crystallized in Booker T. Washington. All three strains of the “acceptable” black are in conversation with one another. They borrow each other’s symbolic elements even as they put them to use – and are put to use – in their specific epoch to allay white America’s anxieties. Their emergences and particular characteristics are in large part dependent upon the contours of their counterpart— the “bad black,” the “black separatist” and “uppity nigger.” For example, Bayard Rustin once noted how, following Paul Robeson’s 1949 statement that blacks would not go to war against the Soviet Union because of it racial egalitarianism, the mainstream black leaders of the day – Mary McLeod Bethune, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Roy Wilkins and Walter White – successfully used Robeson to gain ground on the integration front. Even as they isolated and denounced him, Rustin noted,
[H]is “wild” statement helped to make their demands, by comparison, appear reasonable and even modest; his implied threat of future disorder made the passage of their “responsible, middle-of-the-road” program seem more urgently necessary. (Duberman, 345)
NEWARK, March 19 — The broom was an effective prop during Cory A. Booker’s electoral juggernaut last spring, when he won the mayor’s office by a landslide and swept his slate of candidates into the nine-seat Municipal Council. On election night, he and his allies pumped corn husk brooms over their heads to drive home the point that they were clearing away the old guard that had governed this city for decades.
Now, eight months after his inauguration, Mr. Booker is hoping to wave those brooms again, this time in a countywide effort to unseat a number of state legislators who he says are standing in the way of his ambitious agenda.
During two days of news conferences last week, Mr. Booker stood hand in hand with six legislative hopefuls seeking to capture two seats in the State Senate and four in the Assembly in the June 5 Democratic primary. In heavily Democratic Essex County, a victory in the primary is equivalent to victory in the general election.
“It’s time to bring in new ideas and energy, but more importantly, it’s time to bring in people who are willing to work together,” Mr. Booker said on Wednesday after introducing the 29th District ticket made up of two woman and a man, all in their 30s, who reflect the three main voting blocs in the city — African-American, Portuguese and Hispanic.
The primary will be an important barometer of Mr. Booker’s newfound political heft. But in supporting a slate of self-described reformers, some of them political neophytes, Mr. Booker is angering longtime enemies and those who have been his allies, including a family of elected officials whose power extends from Washington to the streets of the Central Ward.
Even some of his supporters are questioning the wisdom of challenging veteran incumbents for the sake of consolidating power.
Rahaman Muhammad, president of the city’s largest municipal union, said he was especially unhappy that Mr. Booker was seeking the defeat of State Senator Ronald L. Rice, a 22-year veteran who lost in a mayoral face-off against Mr. Booker last year. In Trenton, Mr. Muhammad said, seniority and experience can play an important role in helping solve some of the city’s problems.
“No one has given me a good reason why we should replace Ron Rice,” said Mr. Muhammad, who was a pivotal backer of Mr. Booker’s candidacy last year, but who said he would support Mr. Rice’s re-election in the 28th District. “Replacing someone who is your enemy sounds like old-school politics to me, and I want no part of that.”
Mr. Booker and his supporters say that Mr. Rice has been asking for trouble by refusing to cooperate on legislative matters crucial to Newark’s well-being and declining to return calls from City Hall employees. D. Bilal Beasley, the mayor’s anointed candidate, echoed the sentiments, saying that Mr. Rice was aloof and at times hostile.
“Ron Rice says he’s trying to reach out to the mayor, but at every opportunity he vilifies Cory,” said Mr. Beasley, a councilman in neighboring Irvington.
In an interview, Mr. Rice called Mr. Booker “an outright liar,” saying it was the mayor who refused to meet with him or return his calls. The mayor’s true objective, he insisted, was to become a regional power broker. “He just wants to take over other cities and governments.”
But to some political analysts , Mr. Booker, who is facing a huge budget gap and needs all the help he can get from Trenton, is being a pragmatist. David P. Rebovich, a political scientist at Rider University, said Newark’s current delegation may be adept at bringing home the bacon, but its propensity for old-school patronage has harmed Newark’s reputation in the Legislature.
“Cory Booker is saying the only way he can be a reform mayor is if the legislators from Newark are also reformers,” Mr. Rebovich said.
Backed by some of the county’s heaviest hitters — including Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. and a formidable power broker in the North Ward, Steve N. Adubato Sr. — the pro-Booker slates in the 28th and 29th Districts stand a good chance at victory. But the fight is sure to be ugly, and it is already churning up the perennial theme of race here.
The contest for the State Senate seat in the 29th District held by Sharpe James, Newark’s former mayor, is already shaping up to be the most contentious. It is widely assumed that Mr. James, who has yet to announce his intentions, will probably step aside. Federal agents have been investigating Mr. James’s use of two city-issued credit cards to cover travel expenses for himself, his bodyguards and other city officials when he was mayor.
Assemblyman William D. Payne, the older brother of United States Representative Donald M. Payne, said he had long planned to run for the job, with the backing of the county’s Democratic establishment. The seat has been occupied by an African-American since 1972, and Mr. Payne, who is black, would like to keep it that way.
But Mr. Adubato, who runs a constellation of social service organizations in the city’s largely Hispanic North Ward, had other plans. Last month he gave his nod to Teresa Ruiz, 32, the county executive’s deputy chief of staff. If elected, Ms. Ruiz would be the first Hispanic in the State Senate.
“There are more Latinos than African-Americans in New Jersey, so it’s about time,” said Mr. Adubato, an Italian-American whose ability to deliver votes on Election Day is both admired and feared. He added that Mr. Payne could have been part of the ticket if he had agreed to remain in the Assembly.
Mr. Payne, who is running for the seat, condemned that calculation, saying there were other districts in the state that would be better suited to a Hispanic candidate. “Why on earth would you want to pit a Hispanic against a sitting black?” he asked. He pointed out that the 29th District, which includes a slice of neighboring Hillside, is 40 percent African-American and 37 percent Hispanic.
In what may be a taste of the battle ahead, Mr. Payne wrote to members of the Essex County Democratic committee in February warning that “significant entities in the district” were plotting to disenfranchise Newark’s black population. In what many saw as a veiled reference to Mr. Booker, Mr. Payne ended the letter by writing, “Ironically, the same individuals who were elected by us are overtly or covertly working to end African-American representation and return us to the plantation.”
Calling the letter “patently offensive,” Mr. Booker said he feared that Mr. Payne would run a racially divisive campaign. “This is going back to the same brand of politics that we thought we were getting beyond,” he said. “It’s venal and it appeals to the lowest common denominator.”
The Paynes are considered political royalty in Newark, holding seats not only in Congress but also in the State Legislature: Donald Payne Jr., the son of Donald M. Payne, sits on Newark’s Municipal Council and a cousin, Phil Thigpen, is the Essex County Democratic chairman. Yet it remains to be seen whether they can match the get-out-the-vote prowess of Mr. Adubato and his allies in an election without any statewide races.
During last week’s news conference announcing Ms. Ruiz’s candidacy, Mr. Booker became irked when reporters asked whether his opposition to veteran black officials was an affront to those who struggled in the civil rights era.
He took a deep breath and described the state of his city: “I’m dealing with crumbling infrastructure, exploding sewers and schools that on average are 80 years old. Right now, what I need is legislators who will help me with these problems.”
At a speaking engagement last fall Newark Mayor Cory Booker was asked if, after eliminating 1,200 city-related jobs and raising city taxes by 8% in his first 90 days in office, he wasn’t stealing a page from Machiaveli’s The Prince. In response Booker is said to have smiled and replied that he would ‘rather be loved than feared.’ Judging by a story on his ongoing efforts to avail himself and his staff to constituents through what he calls “office hours,” it would seem that he’s literally killing himself to do just that: win the affection of the ordinary Newarker by proving he’s the anti-Sharpe James.
Briefly, The New York Times is running a series of articles on Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s first year in office. The fourth article in the series, Through Mayor’s Opens Doors, Many Problems, Not All Solved, assessed the success of Booker’s “office hours” project. Since last fall, the mayor and his staff have been periodically meeting with city residents in a Malcolm Shabazz high school classroom for several hours. At first, these meetings with the mayor took place every two weeks. Of late, they’ve been occurring on a monthly basis. In a nutshell, constituents arrive at the school, register, are sent to an auditorium where a movie is playing and they wait for an opportunity to meet with Booker. When their number comes up they head to a classroom and air their grievances with the mayor himself. They come looking for jobs, looking city services, looking for solutions to family problems, and the mayor, to his credit, listens. On a few occasions Booker has been able to set up job interviews for folks. Other times he’s reached into his pocket to provide bus fare back home. But while this sounds like a great idea– a means of creating transparency in a city government that has been shrouded in secrecy for at least twenty years– Booker is finding that simply holding “office hours” is not enough to satisfy the people. They want action. They want results. And for those who aren’t seeing either quickly enough, they want someone’s, namely Booker’s, head to roll. According to the quotes attributed to frustrated constituents, many who haven’t seen their desired results– a job in most cases– come to fruition have already pledged their vote in the 2010 election to Booker’s as yet unnamed opponent. So much for giving their young mayor credit for doing something hardly any big city politician would do: meet with ordinary constituents in a non-election year.
Let’s take a look at Booker’s history of radical showmanship. First there was the outdoor vigil with the elderly. Then the move into the project building. Then the run against the incumbent Overload himself, Sharpe James, in 2002. Then, immediately after the election, the run after a mugger in broad daylight and in front of cameras. But this latest story– sitting with people for hours and hours after a presumably long day at the office– is perhaps his most extreme endeavor to date. Like so much of what has come to define Booker’s tenure in Newark (as both candidate and now office-holder), the idea of making himself accessible sounds not only admirable, but desperate. Unlike the Booker critics who’ve labeled him a “Trojan Horse,” I am of the belief that Booker’s efforts to ingratiate himself with the downtrodden are genuine. But genuineness does not discount one’s yearning for acceptance and validation or the lengths one is willing to go attain them. The search for validation, to be loved in particular, is not an uncommon trait among politicians. Even Nixon’s biographers trace an incessant need to be loved by the faceless, nameless multitude through the veil of the isolated, stoic President. What makes Booker’s brand of longing unique is his exceptional background replete with awards and honors of the highest order, a background that sparked considerable animosity in the ’02 election. It is this access divide that he is constantly trying to bridge, this shadow of exceptional opportunity that he is always trying to outrun or atone for, that is fascinatingly telling. In short, his prodigious pedigree– All-Pac 10 football player at Stanford, Rhodes Scholar, Yale Law graduate– bear the marks of an ambitious overachiever seeking something other than just knowledge, but institutional affirmation.
That being said, Mayor Booker is torn between a need to continue proving that he is the anti-Sharpe on the one hand, and his need to be accepted by the very people who “loved” Sharpe James on the other. What he fails to grasp, as far as his actions are concerned, is that the reasons why people loved Sharpe are antithetical to his political agenda and philosophical beliefs. Sharpe appealed to the self-interest of Newark voters. He was incendiary and reactionary, but he understood the psychology of downtrodden people for whom symbolic gestures of strength (brazenly speaking his mind), courage (standing up to the establishment), and virtue (partying with the people) every so often go a long way. Sharpe deployed symbolism to make people feel as though he was one of them. He knew he was limited in what he could do but he did not let his people know this. Rather than level with people, he pointed to meddling outside forces who were against Newark, Booker among them. Booker, meanwhile, is killing himself to prove he actually cares and in doing so is revealing the limited power he has to change things.
Booker’s mistake so far has been underestimating the effect of Sharpe’s shrewd, skilled manipulation of the people for the past two decades. He helped (not by himself) create a climate in which people came to expect something for next to nothing, a culture in which quick fixes– petty cash pay-outs on voting day, a cushy job for a supporter, etc.– are valued over long-term reform. Moreover, Sharpe might’ve loved his people, but it was as a narcissist loves an admirer. He might dance with the people, have a drink with the people, even engage in affable banter with the people, but he was always positioned himself as the center, the head-honcho, and he never let that fact be forgotten. Mayor Booker, to his credit, wants true democracy for Newark. He wants transparency and accountability. More significantly, he believes this is what the people want.
Sharpe James found his unpopularity outside of Newark politically expedient and, like Marion Barry in D.C., exploited the “Us Against the World” attitude to the utmost extreme. Mayor Booker, on the other hand, wants to be all things to all people. He wants development downtown and hi-rises all over town. He wants to be friendly with Trenton and to stay in the good graces of New York institutions like the Manhattan Institute, Wall Street and the New York Times, which has taken an unusual interest in him for several years now. At the same time, he wants the jobless and disenfranchised people of Newark to love him as well. This, I’m afraid, is an impossible aspiration. If he’s going to truly change the existing order, he’s got to be willing to be unpopular not just to those who misunderstand and/or distrust him for personal reasons, but to those he’s spent the last several years attempting to prove his authenticity to. This list includes liberal Democrats and Republicans (George Will)as well as everyday Newarkers. At a time when he’s trimming the fat off the city payroll, meeting with hundreds of jobless, unskilled constituents to hear their grievances only leads them further down the Primrose Path.
Mayor Booker’s own defense of the criticism his “office hours” project has been receiving is two-fold. First, he insists he never makes any promises and that people hear what they want to hear. Second, he affirms their validity by saying they give him an opportunity to hear people’s grievances and stay in touch with their lives. These are both valid retorts and are both ways of saying he’s not the indifferent Sharpe James who only used people when he needed to get re-elected. The problem is James didn’t get elected five times by dumb luck. He won five times, and this is particularly true of the ‘02 campaign, because he understood the fickle nature of unsophisticated voters for whom the ballot is more often their lone resource of retribution against office holders, than it is a means of getting what they want and need. In the ideal world Booker’s efforts should roundly applauded. In our world, they needed to be quietly eliminated.
the HNIC
The HNIC Report 