Newark88
Superstar
Looks like Ras is officially going to have opposition in the mayoral race with Gayle Chaneyfield running against him.
This fight between politicians could be N.J.'s nastiest of 2018
Updated Jan 9, 5:16 PM; Posted Jan 9, 2:00 PM
Newark Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield-Jenkins and Mayor Ras Baraka. (File photos)
By Karen Yi
kyi@njadvancemedia.com,
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
There are no lasting friends or permanent foes when it comes to Jersey politics and the bare-knuckle brawls that often define local elections. In the small big town that is Newark, alliances are already changing like the wind -- setting the scene for a frenetic election season that could rival the Garden State's most notorious political battles.
After months of will-she or won't-she rumors swirling around the city, Central Ward Councilwoman Gayle Cheneyfield Jenkins, who once ran alongside Mayor Ras Baraka in 2014, confirmed Tuesday she will seek to dethrone him in May's election.
That fight is only the beginning. A fired City Hall aide wants to unseat his ex-boss as councilman. A former North Ward Councilman is challenging, among others, the man who once picked him for deputy police director. And yet another spurned aide is going straight for the top -- and running for mayor.
The crisscross of former allies and opponents knits a complicated web of politics in New Jersey's largest city as it revs up for an election that's already elicited mud-slinging and personal attacks online -- months before political intentions were ever announced.
In the circus that inevitably comes to Newark during its local elections, in which all nine council seats and the mayor's term are open, little is sacred.
"In 27 years I've been in politics, I think this is going to be the most interesting election," said Nelson "Butchie" Nieves, who is running against his longtime boss, Councilman-At-Large Louis Quintana. Nieves sued Quintana last year claiming he was wrongfully fired.
Team Baraka
Baraka has rallied a slate with eight of the nine incumbent council members and a newcomer seeking the seat of the sole holdout: Chaneyfield-Jenkins.
Team Baraka 2018. (Courtesy: Team Baraka)
The day before Baraka officially solidified his slate and named his former student LaMonica McIver as his candidate for Central Ward, Chaneyfield-Jenkins carved out a 15-minute slot during a televised council meeting saying she was fed up with the administration, and promised to fight the spears she said were being cast at her and her husband, Kevin Jenkins.
"I'm not here to go along to get along, I'm here to make sure that the citizens are protected," she told NJ Advance Media Tuesday.
Chaneyfield-Jenkins said she was prompted to run by her disappointment in the administration -- she described a lack of transparency, disrespect toward her when she disagreed, and its recent scandals involving guilty pleas by two people close to Baraka for tax evasion and wire fraud. "I have the ability and obligation to try to make things better," she said.
The councilwoman, who previously served at-large from 1995-2006, has often been the lone "no" vote on Baraka-sponsored initiatives. Most markedly during his efforts to push an inclusionary zoning ordinance mandating 20 percent affordable units in new housing and the transition to the state's health insurance plan.
The tension between the two camps has reached a boiling point on social media with Baraka supporters attacking Chaneyfield-Jenkins after Kevin Jenkins lobbed allegations of widespread wrongdoing against Amiri Baraka Jr., the mayor's brother and chief of staff, in a November Facebook post.
The city and Baraka's campaign declined to comment on the social media allegations.
State Sen. Ron Rice, D-Essex, said all the Facebook battles "show a great immaturity."
"Even if the stuff is real, there's another forum for that," he said. "Negative campaigning of that magnitude doesn't get people very far today ... the mature voter wants government to come talk to them."
Chaneyfield-Jenkins said the social media attacks put her name out there first -- and now she's become the candidate they feared.
"I'm ready for it, I think we should stick to policy and issues and anyone who is promoting the crushing of a woman or the crushing of a candidate sends a different message as a leader," she said.
As of Monday, 55 people had requested petitions to run for one of the ten open offices in Newark, according to the City Clerk's Office.
That includes five challengers to Mayor Baraka.
Among them: Louis Shockley, a former aide to West Ward Councilman Joseph McCallum Jr., who was fired a day after speaking at a December City Council meeting.
Shockley, 55, is a community activist who worked as the senior aide for McCallum until he was terminated on Dec. 21, according to a letter from his boss. Aides serve at the will of their council members. McCallum did not return a call or an email seeking comment.
It's not clear whether Shockley was fired for his comments. But during a Dec. 20 meeting, Shockley railed against the gentrification he said was taking over the city -- a trend started under former Mayor Cory Booker and continued under Baraka and a complicit council, he said.
"You are losing your voters, you are losing your people," he said.
'A right to run'
Last week at the clerk's office, piles of petitions were stacked inside boxes. Ward maps were rolled and rubber-banded. A Lyft driver said he was angling to be the dark horse to fill one of four seats for Council member at-large. A jewelry-maker and political newcomer said she planned to challenge the longstanding East Ward councilman.
The Mayor was politely told to wait in line for his turn after he walked in to pick up his re-election petitions. He later waited for McIver to pull her petitions for the Central Ward.
Mayor Ras Baraka picks up his petitions for Mayor on Jan. 2 at Newark City Hall. (Karen Yi | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
"Everybody got a right to run, that's how I feel," Baraka said Tuesday. "The difference between now and then is I have a record, I got to defend it. That's part of the process."
The council as a whole has largely supported Baraka's agenda in the last year. And experts were not convinced social media infighting and broader allegations could sway voters one way or another.
"The micro-fights that you're seeing are big and important in those communities," said Matthew Hale, political science professor at Seton Hall University.
"But generally people are looking at the broader things like the control of the schools and control of finances."
Here are the people who have requested petitions as of Jan. 8.
This fight between politicians could be N.J.'s nastiest of 2018
Updated Jan 9, 5:16 PM; Posted Jan 9, 2:00 PM
Newark Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield-Jenkins and Mayor Ras Baraka. (File photos)
By Karen Yi
kyi@njadvancemedia.com,
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
There are no lasting friends or permanent foes when it comes to Jersey politics and the bare-knuckle brawls that often define local elections. In the small big town that is Newark, alliances are already changing like the wind -- setting the scene for a frenetic election season that could rival the Garden State's most notorious political battles.
After months of will-she or won't-she rumors swirling around the city, Central Ward Councilwoman Gayle Cheneyfield Jenkins, who once ran alongside Mayor Ras Baraka in 2014, confirmed Tuesday she will seek to dethrone him in May's election.
That fight is only the beginning. A fired City Hall aide wants to unseat his ex-boss as councilman. A former North Ward Councilman is challenging, among others, the man who once picked him for deputy police director. And yet another spurned aide is going straight for the top -- and running for mayor.
The crisscross of former allies and opponents knits a complicated web of politics in New Jersey's largest city as it revs up for an election that's already elicited mud-slinging and personal attacks online -- months before political intentions were ever announced.
In the circus that inevitably comes to Newark during its local elections, in which all nine council seats and the mayor's term are open, little is sacred.
"In 27 years I've been in politics, I think this is going to be the most interesting election," said Nelson "Butchie" Nieves, who is running against his longtime boss, Councilman-At-Large Louis Quintana. Nieves sued Quintana last year claiming he was wrongfully fired.
Team Baraka
Baraka has rallied a slate with eight of the nine incumbent council members and a newcomer seeking the seat of the sole holdout: Chaneyfield-Jenkins.
Team Baraka 2018. (Courtesy: Team Baraka)
The day before Baraka officially solidified his slate and named his former student LaMonica McIver as his candidate for Central Ward, Chaneyfield-Jenkins carved out a 15-minute slot during a televised council meeting saying she was fed up with the administration, and promised to fight the spears she said were being cast at her and her husband, Kevin Jenkins.
"I'm not here to go along to get along, I'm here to make sure that the citizens are protected," she told NJ Advance Media Tuesday.
Chaneyfield-Jenkins said she was prompted to run by her disappointment in the administration -- she described a lack of transparency, disrespect toward her when she disagreed, and its recent scandals involving guilty pleas by two people close to Baraka for tax evasion and wire fraud. "I have the ability and obligation to try to make things better," she said.
The councilwoman, who previously served at-large from 1995-2006, has often been the lone "no" vote on Baraka-sponsored initiatives. Most markedly during his efforts to push an inclusionary zoning ordinance mandating 20 percent affordable units in new housing and the transition to the state's health insurance plan.
The tension between the two camps has reached a boiling point on social media with Baraka supporters attacking Chaneyfield-Jenkins after Kevin Jenkins lobbed allegations of widespread wrongdoing against Amiri Baraka Jr., the mayor's brother and chief of staff, in a November Facebook post.
The city and Baraka's campaign declined to comment on the social media allegations.
State Sen. Ron Rice, D-Essex, said all the Facebook battles "show a great immaturity."
"Even if the stuff is real, there's another forum for that," he said. "Negative campaigning of that magnitude doesn't get people very far today ... the mature voter wants government to come talk to them."
Chaneyfield-Jenkins said the social media attacks put her name out there first -- and now she's become the candidate they feared.
"I'm ready for it, I think we should stick to policy and issues and anyone who is promoting the crushing of a woman or the crushing of a candidate sends a different message as a leader," she said.
As of Monday, 55 people had requested petitions to run for one of the ten open offices in Newark, according to the City Clerk's Office.
That includes five challengers to Mayor Baraka.
Among them: Louis Shockley, a former aide to West Ward Councilman Joseph McCallum Jr., who was fired a day after speaking at a December City Council meeting.
Shockley, 55, is a community activist who worked as the senior aide for McCallum until he was terminated on Dec. 21, according to a letter from his boss. Aides serve at the will of their council members. McCallum did not return a call or an email seeking comment.
It's not clear whether Shockley was fired for his comments. But during a Dec. 20 meeting, Shockley railed against the gentrification he said was taking over the city -- a trend started under former Mayor Cory Booker and continued under Baraka and a complicit council, he said.
"You are losing your voters, you are losing your people," he said.
'A right to run'
Last week at the clerk's office, piles of petitions were stacked inside boxes. Ward maps were rolled and rubber-banded. A Lyft driver said he was angling to be the dark horse to fill one of four seats for Council member at-large. A jewelry-maker and political newcomer said she planned to challenge the longstanding East Ward councilman.
The Mayor was politely told to wait in line for his turn after he walked in to pick up his re-election petitions. He later waited for McIver to pull her petitions for the Central Ward.
Mayor Ras Baraka picks up his petitions for Mayor on Jan. 2 at Newark City Hall. (Karen Yi | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
"Everybody got a right to run, that's how I feel," Baraka said Tuesday. "The difference between now and then is I have a record, I got to defend it. That's part of the process."
The council as a whole has largely supported Baraka's agenda in the last year. And experts were not convinced social media infighting and broader allegations could sway voters one way or another.
"The micro-fights that you're seeing are big and important in those communities," said Matthew Hale, political science professor at Seton Hall University.
"But generally people are looking at the broader things like the control of the schools and control of finances."
Here are the people who have requested petitions as of Jan. 8.
Terry McAuliffe
beautiful and sad at same time @aroubd 1:22 the building on the left I used to fukk this hoe out that building