Friday, 02 May 2014 18:08 Local Talk News Editor

NEWARK - Both major Newark mayoral candidates traded contrasting citywide views while answering host questions here in their last live scheduled forums April 25 and 29.

Both Ras Baraka and Shavar Jeffries answered some questions pertaining to the respective North and West wards Friday and Tuesday night. Their messages were mostly familiar, however, to those who have consistently followed the forum or debate circuit since November.

The Friday forum, hosted by the Forest Hill Community Association at the Third Presbyterian Church, and the Tuesday forum, held by the Ivy Hill Neighborhood Association and the United Vailsburg Service Organization in the latter's teen center, are the last scheduled ones known by "Local Talk" prior to the May 13 mayor-council elections.

By Mark Bonamo | May 1st, 2014

NEWARK - One of Newark's more infamous political traditions, known as "midnight mail," always visibly revives in the weeks before any significant election.

It is apparent that in at least in one instance, the kind of anonymous, unattributed pamphleteering, common to Newarkers during contentious mayoral and council races, has entered the digital age.

An anonymous website that questions the qualifications and ethics of the Central Ward candidate on Newark mayoral candidate Ras Baraka's slate has appeared, the ward that often has the votes that decide Newark citywide elections.

By Mark Bonamo | April 30th, 2014

NEWARK - The May 13 Newark municipal election is not the first time that Eddie Osborne, a council-at-large candidate on Newark mayoral candidate Ras Baraka's slate, has taken a stab at running for office. 

Osborne ran for the then-vacant Central Ward council seat in 2008 against Charles Bell. At the time, Osborne served as the business manager of Laborers Local 1153, an affiliate of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), and worked for Ray Pocino, LIUNA’s vice president and Eastern Regional manager. Despite the Osborne campaign's massive get-out-the-vote operation, he lost a bitter battle with Bell. 

In 2014, LIUNA is endorsing Ras Baraka for mayor. In addition to LIUNA, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), New Jersey's largest public workers union and others are also endorsing Baraka. And Osborne, now LIUNA's director of government affairs, believes that not only will he finally win a city council spot. He believes that both he and Baraka, locked in political combat with rival Newark mayoral candidate Shavar Jeffries, will surf a tidal wave of labor union support into power. 

By Mark Bonamo | April 30th, 2014

NEWARK - The campaign of Newark mayoral candidate Shavar Jeffries criticized the endorsement on Wednesday by Hudson County Freeholder Junior Maldonado of Jeffries' mayoral race rival, Ras Baraka. 

The focus of the Jeffries campaign's critique was two-fold, centering on Maldonado's political history with Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, who endorsed Baraka in February, as well as the depth of Baraka's support in Newark's growing Latino community. 

The Jeffries team produced an April 2005 op-ed letter written by then-council candidate Fulop, who was wrestling with Maldonado for control of downtown Jersey City's Ward E council seat. 

John Mooney | May 1, 2014

NJSpotlight

It probably won’t add another penny to their budgets, but New Jersey school districts yesterday finally learned from the Christie administration exactly how much state aid they would have received if the state’s school-finance formula was fully funded.

Faced with a legal challenge, the state Department of Education released the dollar amounts school districts are entitled under the six-year-old School Funding Reform Act.

The overall gap between that figure and what the districts actually have received is vast, with districts coming up nearly $1 billion short of what they are entitled under the formula. According to the state’s analysis, districts would be entitled to more than $8.9 billion under SFRA, compared to the $7.9 billion proposed in Gov. Chris Christie’s budget for fiscal 2015.

By Max Pizarro | April 29th, 2014

Irvington School Board President Tony Vauss, candidate for mayor in the May 13th race.

IRVINGTON - The public personage of Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop has created sparks in a competitive mayoral race here that pits longtime incumbent Mayor Wayne Smith against School Board President Tony Vauss.

A Vauss mailer is circulating that lists Fulop as one of nearly a dozen elected officials who back the challenger.

But Smith says he confronted the Jersey City mayor who assured him he is not active in the local contest.

By Mark Bonamo | April 29th, 2014

NEWARK - State Senator Ronald L. Rice (D-28) has been very vocal in his support of Newark mayoral candidate Ras Baraka. He has traversed the city speaking in support of the South Ward councilman. He has stood alongside former Governor and current state Senator Richard Codey (D-27) and has railed against the perceived influence of Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo in favor of Baraka's rival, former state Assistant Attorney General Shavar Jeffries. The senator's son, West Ward Councilman Ron C. Rice, also stands with Baraka. 

But when it comes to Election Day on May 13, just 14 days away, Rice, a West Ward political war veteran, told PolitickerNJ.com that he is content to stand by while Baraka's field operation runs the ward's ground game in Newark neighborhoods such as Vailsburg and Ivy Hill. 

"When you get involved with campaigns, what you do is follow the direction of the candidate and his campaign team," said Rice, 68, who ran unsuccessfully against then mayor and now U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) in 2006. "I'm not telling other people what to do and how to do it. They will be telling us what needs to be done as relates to the West Ward. Anything else would be frustrating and confusing. I think Ras Baraka is running a smart campaign, and I think that he is very well organized." 

By Max Pizarro | April 29th, 2014

Newark First this afternoon released a polling memo in the Newark mayor's race of a poll the independent expenditure PAC says shows a trend of former Assistant attorney General Shavar Jeffries gaining on South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka.

Viewed on the ground as the favorite under a barrage of independent expenditure spending, Baraka still leads his rival by 12 points, according to the polling memo.

The new poll dated 4/28 shows Baraka leading Jeffries 42-30%.

By Mark Bonamo | April 29th, 2014

NEWARK - The war of words between rival council candidates in Newark's South Ward escalated on Tuesday when Brian Logan, the South Ward candidate on mayoral candidate Shavar Jeffries' slate, launched an attack against Jeffries' rival, South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka. 

The focus of Logan's diatribe against Baraka was the allegation that Baraka failed to deliver a promised economic stimulus plan for the South Ward after he was elected to the city council in 2010. 

Baraka's plan reportedly included initiatives to boost police patrols, clear vacant lots and abandoned houses and support small businesses throughout the South Ward. 

By Mark Bonamo | April 28th, 2014

NEWARK - The Forest Hill section of Newark's North Ward, is in the city, but somehow not of it in the minds of many. 

Long porches, blooming cherry-blossom trees and broad lawns clash with the vision that many New Jersey residents have of Newark as a barren urban wasteland. But make no mistake: in this year's mayoral campaign, just more than two weeks before the May 13 decision day, the front lines between this year's rivals - South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka and former state Assistant Attorney General Shavar Jeffries - are not fixed, but fluid and fluctuating.

The tone for the beginning of the Newark mayoral race's end game could be seen at a candidate's debate on Friday night sponsored by the Forest Hill Civic Association at the Third Presbyterian Church, located at the corner of Ridge Street and Abington Avenue in Newark.