Augusto Amador

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.

East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador feels rattled by Mayor Booker

NEWARK - It’s late afternoon in the Ironbound on Election Day. As another minivan passes with a woman hanging out of the passenger-side window on a megaphone telling people to vote for lines E-8 and E-9, the mood inside East Ward Democratic Party headquarters turns even more sour.

Sitting at a table with his Ironbound allies, including East Ward party leader Joseph Parlavecchio and Assemblyman Albert Coutinho, East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador feels slightly unceremoniously stomped on right now.

Gov. Jon Corzine in Newark today 

NEWARK - Gov. Jon Corzine stood with Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark), Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Newark) and other lawmakers in the East Ward today and promised to back legislation to pay for new urban schools construction.

"We need action before June 30th, so that we can fulfill our Constitutional obligation to provide our children with a thorough and efficient education," said the governor, moments after taking a tour of the Oliver Street Elementary School.

Coutinho, an Ironbound native who cosponsored the legislation with Spencer, described dilapidated and overcrowded conditions in the facility.

Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark) 

NEWARK - The Senate primary campaign of U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) today announced support from other Essex County politicians.

Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley), Assemblyman Albert
Coutinho (D-Newark) and Newark East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador all endorsed the South Jersey congressman, who is running against U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).

They hear it on the streets of Newark.

But on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, members of the City Council can be sure to receive a barrage of complaints from residents who are worried not only about the murders and gangs but about the cost of living and the threat of corporate interests upending local concerns.

"You're supposed to be standing up and fighting for us," the poet Amiri Baraka cried during the public comment forum of a meeting. "Until I see you fighting, then you're not a good council."

"You're giving tax abatements to developers," cried resident Frank Hertz. "You'd better justify this tax abatement."

And always there is the complaint about the scarcity of jobs.