By Max Pizarro | September 30th, 2013

NEWARK – He promised his daughter he wouldn’t cry and Luis Quintana made good on that vow in an emotional speech after taking the oath of office and making history as the city’s first Puerto Rican council president.

The ascent in a politically turbulent time puts Quintana in a position to serve as the city's acting mayor.

“There’s a separation of church and state, but no separation of us,” said Quintana, the veteran, an immigrant from San Juan who started his political life handing out leaflets for Ken Gibson, who at 25 left a job at Caldor’s to work as an aide to Newark Mayor Sharpe James.

James sat in the front row of a mobbed chamber beside his old dreaded foe, Mayor Cory Booker.

By Max Pizarro | October 1st, 2013

Democrat Cory Booker holds a 13-point lead over Republican Steve Lonegan in the race for U.S. Senate, according to this morning's Monmouth University Poll, but voters say Booker’s ambitions are focused more on the national spotlight than serving New Jersey.

Booker holds a 53% to 40% lead over Lonegan among New Jerseyans likely to vote in the Oct. 16 special election, down slightly from the 16 point edge he held in polls taken in both August and June. The differences are within the survey’s margin of error.

Booker has solid support among Democratic voters (88%), while Lonegan musters support from 83% of his Republican base.  Independent voters give a statistically insignificant 46% to 40% edge to Booker.

By Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger
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on October 01, 2013

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark is seeking community partners for its Ticket Subsidy Fund. (File Photo)

NEWARK — Community organizations interested in low-cost tickets to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center are invited to apply to this year's Ticket Subsidy Fund.

Every year, the Newark arts center has partnered with local social service organizations to distribute thousands of tickets to its upcoming performances. This year, NJPAC plans to provide 2,100 tickets worth $130,000.

NJPAC vice president of marketing Donna Walker-Kuhne called the community partnership "one of the arts center's hallmarks."

East Orange, NJ (October 1, 2013) – East Orange mayoral hopeful, Kevin Taylor, did not win the Democratic primary last June but he says he fully expects to be victorious in the general election on November 5^th. Because he was not selected to run on the Democratic Party Ticket, Taylor’s shot at becoming mayor is as a write-in candidate on Election Day. It is a shot that he says he knows he and the residents of East Orange will make.

By Max Pizarro | September 26th, 2013

NEWARK – Mayor Cory Booker blew a loving raspberry at the BuzzFeed story that implied unseemly motives in his Twitter exchange with a West Coast stripper.

“Everyone knows I pay attention to thousands of people,” said the smiling mayor, blockaded by camera crews in the well of the Hilton Hotel this morning. “She sent kindness my way. That’s really what I was responding to.

“The only profession I avoid is journalists,” he cracked.

By MICHAEL BARBARO

Published: September 26, 2013

Mayor Cory A. Booker, Democrat of Newark, after a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday. He is running for Senate.

Mayor Cory A. Booker has a high schooler’s affinity for Twitter, reveling in its ceaseless flow of affirmation and infinite space for self-promotion.

But the occasional perils of his reliance on the social media service became evident on Wednesday when a 26-year-old stripper from Oregon revealed her private online correspondence with him.

In a message to the stripper, named Lynsie Lee, Mr. Booker wrote that “the East Coast loves you, and by the East Coast, I mean me.”

Ms. Lee, whose photograph on Twitter features her splayed topless across a yellow couch, replied, “Well, now I’m blushing :)”

Mr. Booker wrote back: “It’s only fair.”

By Max Pizarro | September 25th, 2013

NEWARK – Back in New Jersey after a west coast fundraising swing, Mayor Cory Booker this morning nested in his most reliable comfort zone three weeks before his election: a no-press avail ribbon cutting ceremony complete with front row seating arrangements beside Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

“The lines that divide us are not as strong as the ties that bind us,” Booker exulted. “I want to give some guv love.”

Booker’s opponent in the U.S. Senate contest, Steve Lonegan was here in Newark two nights ago in an attempt to stir up some poetic symbolism. He’s the suburban Republican challenger who’s supposed to get the lawnmower treatment every time he sets his feet on asphalt. Instead, he’s holding red carpet events with local activist Donna Jackson in attendance and other disaffected Newarkers while Booker hobnobs with Matt Damon.

By Max Pizarro | September 25th, 2013

NEWARK - Irritation over statewide endorsements and how and why they ought to be issued spilled into the Newark mayoral contest yesterday as South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka and North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos criticized each other over lack of engagement in the gubernatorial and Senate contests.

Vying to lead an overwhelmingly Democratic city, each side critiqued the other as being less than willing to scrap on behalf of Democratic candidates, or at least of engaging in only very select theaters of political combat.

A dedicated political foe of Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s, Baraka to date has withheld his endorsement of the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.

By Darryl R. Isherwood | September 25th, 2013

A new poll released today shows that both the gubernatorial and Senate races are tightening .

Gov. Chris Christie leads Democrat Barbara Buono 52 to 34, according to the new Kean University poll.  The 18-point margin is the closest of any poll to date and well below the 34- and 28-point margins predicted yesterday by Quinnipiac and Stockton, respectively.

On the Senate side, Newark Mayor Cory Booker leads Republican Steve Lonegan by a 19-point margin, 52 percent to 33 percent.  That margin falls right in between the 12-point margin predicted yesterday by a Quinnipiac poll and the 26-point margin outlined Monday in a Stockton poll.

By Max Pizarro | September 24th, 2013

Running for mayor of Newark, North Ward Counclman Anibal Ramos upbraided South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka for being less than forthcoming in his endorsement for Cory Booker for U.S. Senate.

Baraka earlier today told PolitickerNJ.com that Booker's general election opponent, Republican Steve Lonegan, would be a disaster as a U.S. senator.

But he won't publicly back the Democratic alternative, Booker.