Oscar James

Newark voters will return to the polls on Tuesday to determine whether suporters of Mayor-elect Cory Booker will win a majority of seats on the City Council. Three Booker allies won Council seats in the May election: Augusto Amador, who was re-elected in the East Ward; Dana Rone, who defeated incumbent Charles Bell in the Central Ward; and Anibal Ramos, who unseated North Ward Councilman Hector Corchado. Team Booker needs to win two of the six remaining seats for a majority.

All four incumbent At-Large City Councilmembers are in the runoff: Luis Quintana, Bessie Walker, Gayle Cheneyfield-Jenkins, and Ras Baraka. Quintana, the top vote-getter in May, is running on a Booker-backed slate that includes Freeholder Donald Payne, Jr. (the Congressman's son), former Councilwoman Mildred Crump, and Carlos Gonzalez. Walker and Cheneyfield-Jenkins, who were allies of outgoing Mayor Sharpe James, are running together, and Baraka (appointed last year after the death of longtime incumbent Donald Tucker) is running alone.

In the South Ward, where incumbent Donald Bradley did not seek re-election, the runoff features an epic contest between John Sharpe James, the son of the retiring Mayor (who is listed on the ballot as J. Sharpe James), and Oscar James, Jr., a Booker ally who managed James 2002 campaign against Booker. In the West Ward, incumbent Mamie Bridgeforth, a James ally, battles Ronald Rice, Jr., a Booker supporter and the son of Booker's opponent in the most recent mayoral race, State Senator Ronald Rice.

Fresh off a massive 72% landslide victory, Cory Booker must remain in full campaign mode for another five weeks -- the first challenge of the new Mayor-elect of Newark will be to win a majority on the City Council. Right now, Booker allies hold three of the nine seats: in the East Ward, where Augusto Amador easily won re-election, in the Central Ward, where Dana Rone, a former Newark Board of Education member, won a rematch against Councilman Charles Bell; and in the North Ward, where school board member Anibal Ramos, Jr. easily defeated incumbent Hector Corchado. Ramos backed Booker for Mayor, but ultimately his loyalties lie with Stephen Adubato, the powerful Newark political leader.

The remaining six seats will be determined in June 13 runoff elections. Eight of the twelve candidates for four At-Large seats have advanced to the runoff, including three strong Booker allies (incumbent Luis Quintana, who was the top vote-getter, former Councilwoman Mildred Crump, and Carlos Gonzalez), four allies of outgoing Mayor Sharpe James (incumbents Ras Baraka, Bessie Walker and Gayle Cheneyfield-Jenkins, who finished eighth, and Norma Gonzalez), and Freeholder Donald Payne, Jr., the son of the Congressman.

Runoffs will also be held in the South Ward, where James's son, John Sharpe James, faces Oscar James, who managed the Mayor's 2002 re-election campaign but then switched to Team Booker. In the West Ward, incumbent Mamie Bridgeforth, a James backer, faces Ronald Rice, Jr., a state Education Department official. Rice backed Booker for Mayor against his father, State Senator Ronald Rice, who held the West Ward Council seat from 1982 to 1998.

The top free agent in the race for Newark City Council is Donald Payne, Jr., a newly-elected Essex County Freeholder and the son of Congressman Donald Payne. Payne had initially agreed to run on a ticket with Mayor Sharpe James, but a week after filing his petitions, he announced that he would not slate up with James. With James out of the race, there is speculation that Payne will run on Cory Booker's ticket -- which could be interpreted as a huge wink and nod from the powerful Congressman.

Booker already has the scion of a prominent Newark political family on his ticket: Ronald Rice, Jr., the son of mayoral candidate Ronald Rice, is running for a West Ward Council seat against a James loyalist, Councilwoman Mamie Bridgeforth. Rice Jr. is supporting Booker, not his father -- as he did in 2002, when he ran a strong race for City Councilman At-Large on the Booker slate.

The third famous name in the race is John Sharpe James, the son of the outgoing Mayor, who is running for City Council in the South Ward. On the ballot as J. Sharpe James, he faces Booker Team candidate Oscar James, who is not related to the Mayor but was for many years his top advisor and campaign manager.