Amiri Baraka

Former Newark Councilman Ras Baraka plans to announce his plans for a 2010 run at the Newark City Council tomorrow evening at the Key Club.

Principal of Central Ward High School, the South Ward-based Baraka is the son of poet/political activist Amiri Baraka. He assisted state Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Essex) in Rice's re-election bid last year, and is a political foe of the Booker Administration.

Baraka ran in opposition to the Booker Team in 2006.

The prospective council canddiate notified supporters of his Wednesday reception via email.

Mayor Cory Booker last night in the Central Ward. 

NEWARK - After his loss on Monday night, the last one of this cycle to draw his record to 0-3 in ward fights, Mayor Cory Booker walked outside in the Central Ward and was swarmed instantly by children.

"Mayor Booker!" they shouted. "Mayor Booker!"

They wanted to play in the middle of the heat wave that caused several power outages in the city on Monday, and Booker indulged them, even as his detractors seethed.

"He just got his butt kicked and he’s outside playing Simon Says," said a Newark operative.

When Simeon Hunte studied at Arts High School in his hometown of Newark, he knew he wanted to be an artist and he ended up doing that in the little free time he had during his deployment to Iraq as an Army specialist, just before he was killed.

The war has taken more than young people from Newark, who sought something beyond the gangs and the worst influences of their crime-plagued city. In a self-portrait he mailed home to his wife, Tara, and their two children shortly before he was killed, Specialist Hunte depicted himself palming the world like a basketball and slam-dunking it into the stars.

"More than anything, the people in my city crave hope," says Mayor Cory Booker.