{"id":589,"date":"2018-05-08T22:47:21","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T22:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newarkspeaks.com\/?p=589"},"modified":"2018-06-26T21:54:30","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T21:54:30","slug":"ras-baraka-claims-touchdown-in-newark-mayoral-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newarkspeaks.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/08\/ras-baraka-claims-touchdown-in-newark-mayoral-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Ras Baraka claims &#8216;touchdown&#8217; in Newark mayoral election"},"content":{"rendered":"<header id=\"article__header\" class=\"article__header\">\n<div id=\"byline\" class=\"byline\">\n<p id=\"byline__author\" class=\"byline__author\">By\u00a0Karen Yi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div id=\"article__story\" class=\"article__story\">\n<div id=\"entryContent\" class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>Newark Mayor Ras Baraka claimed resounding victory Tuesday night to\u00a0a second four-year term &#8212; a win that will\u00a0let him lead\u00a0the state&#8217;s largest city\u00a0at\u00a0a time when new business and development is\u00a0finally knocking at its door.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Touchdown,&#8221; Baraka said to a packed room of supporters at the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rthotel.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Robert Treat Hotel<\/a>\u00a0in Newark even before all the ballots were counted. &#8220;We won and we won big.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Despite what people try\u00a0make you believe, you can see what&#8217;s happening in Newark,&#8221; Baraka said as he donned a hat that said &#8220;touchdown.&#8221; &#8220;We never said it was perfect &#8230; we never said things couldn&#8217;t get better, all we said was that we were moving in the right direction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Preliminary results from the Essex County Clerk&#8217;s Office\u00a0show\u00a0Baraka captured about 77\u00a0percent of the vote of about 28,000 ballots cast.<\/p>\n<p>His sole opponent, Central Ward Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins, was hoping to be Newark&#8217;s first female mayor. Preliminary results showed she received about 6,000 votes.<\/p>\n<p>All nine City Council seats were also up, drawing a\u00a0crowded field of 37 candidates\u00a0and at least one write-in campaign led by longtime activist Donna Jackson.<\/p>\n<p>Early results\u00a0appeared to show\u00a0Anibal Ramos clinching his North Ward seat, South Ward Councilman John Sharpe James riding to a second term and all four incumbent at-large council members keeping their seats.\u00a0Baraka was running on a slate with nine council candidates &#8212; eight of whom were incumbents.<\/p>\n<p>Without a majority winner, the top vote getters in any race will head to a run-off next month.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Newark Mayor Ras Baraka\u2019s election night victory party\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NjjvsiiliQY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Touting touchdowns<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Baraka cast his vote at the Greater Abyssinian Baptist Church earlier on Tuesday, already predicting his win by wearing a black baseball cap that said, &#8220;victory.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This year&#8217;s\u00a0election never quite reached the\u00a0contentiousness that defined the\u00a02014 race when Baraka faced off against Shavar Jeffries\u00a0after former mayor Cory Booker vacated his seat to become a U.S. Senator. The Election Law Enforcement Commission called it the state&#8217;s\u00a0most expensive local election ever (without adjusting for inflation) at a cost of $12.6 million.<\/p>\n<p>Baraka raised about $803,000 this season, his campaign finance records show. Chaneyfield Jenkins raised about a quarter of that, her latest filing in February show.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"entryContent\" class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>But Baraka called the race &#8220;ugly&#8221; and filled with attacks on his family.<\/p>\n<p>This time around,\u00a0Baraka had the backing\u00a0of the political establishment and\u00a0even his one-time rival Sen. Booker &#8212; who all supported his opponent in 2014.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/image.nj.com\/home\/njo-media\/width600\/img\/essex_impact\/photo\/2018\/05\/08\/bara01jpg-1c0cd165163a89ee.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Surporters watch the results come in on election night. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has his election night victory party with members of his City Council slate at the Robert Treat Hotel. Tuesday May 8, 2018. Newark, NJ, USA<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This became a very ugly and dangerous election,&#8221; Baraka said. &#8220;And it never was about the issues, it got really personal &#8212; the attacks on my family, on me, on\u00a0the\u00a0people around me, the kind of ugly things that were being said, they\u00a0tried to destroy and kill us for good.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"article__story\" class=\"article__story\">\n<div id=\"entryContent\" class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>&#8220;That is a remnant of the past, that is going to be thrown in the garbage can,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We are not the reality\u00a0TV show of the state.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"entryContent\" class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>A lawsuit by residents also\u00a0alleged Baraka used\u00a0taxpayer money and violated election law when he sent out a mailer with his photo on it touting improvements in public safety.\u00a0The lawsuit was dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>Baraka\u00a0touted a series of &#8220;touchdowns&#8221; during his four years in office, claiming he helped push large development projects to the finish line,\u00a0reduced crime\u00a0and finally\u00a0wrestled control\u00a0of the schools out of the state&#8217;s hands.<\/p>\n<p>But the most\u00a0telling sign, he said, was Amazon&#8217;s\u00a0decision to name Newark\u00a0among the top 20 finalist cities to host the company&#8217;s second headquarters.<\/p>\n<p>Chaneyfield Jenkins, who led the Central Ward\u00a0that has seen a bulk of the ribbon cuttings and new development, didn&#8217;t refute the progress. But she criticized the mayor&#8217;s ability to appoint competent people to oversee basic city services like street cleaning, garbage pick-up and employee health care.<\/p>\n<p>She also said residents didn&#8217;t feel safer, despite his assurances that crime was at a 50-year low.<\/p>\n<p>Baraka\u00a0reiterated his touchdown theme Tuesday night, saying &#8220;touchdown&#8221; 14 times in a row before ending with &#8220;Because we scored all the touchdowns, the game is over!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Turnout for the election was lower than in 2014. About 29,000\u00a0votes were cast for mayor, far from the 45,000 cast in 2014.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Council races<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Baraka&#8217;s apparent sweep did not extend to all his colleagues.<\/p>\n<p>Incumbent council candidates faced fierce challenges from former aides and former Baraka allies swapping allegiances. Chaneyfield Jenkins, whose campaign was run by Pablo Fonseca, ran her own slate of mostly women, and candidates who had held prior office on the council or school board.<\/p>\n<p>Another slate of housing advocates and activists, called &#8220;A Movement\u00a0of the People,&#8221; advocated safer streets and housing for all.<\/p>\n<p>West Ward Councilman Joseph McCallum Jr. was challenged by two former aides: Marcellus Allen and Artice Norvell. Preliminary results show McCallum and another candidate, Tomecca Keyes, will head to a run-off. McCallum captured 30 percent of the vote; Keyes received 28 percent of about 3,800 votes cast.<\/p>\n<p>The Central Ward seat, which was wide open, showed LaMonica McIver leading with 41 percent of the vote but she still needs a majority to win. Rashon Hasan had 14 percent and Shawn McCray 16 percent of the 4,000 votes cast, according to preliminary results. McIver and McCray will head to a run off.<\/p>\n<p>In the East Ward, longtime councilman Augusto Amador faced former police director Anthony Campos and Fonseca&#8217;s daughter, Crystal Fonseca. Amador, who gathered 43 percent of the vote will head to a run off with Campos, who received 35 percent of the 3,500 votes.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day, cars around East Side High were peppered with campaign fliers as supporters of each candidate stood at different ends of the sidewalk.<\/p>\n<p>Rosa Chamba, 72, who became a citizen in 2016, said she voted for Baraka because he will help control crime in the city and support the immigrant population. Chamba, from Ecuador, said it&#8217;s important to vote especially to help those &#8220;who don&#8217;t have a voice,&#8221; she said in Spanish.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By\u00a0Karen Yi Newark Mayor Ras Baraka claimed resounding victory Tuesday night to\u00a0a second four-year term &#8212; a win that will\u00a0let him lead\u00a0the state&#8217;s largest city\u00a0at\u00a0a time when new business and development is\u00a0finally knocking at its door. &#8220;Touchdown,&#8221; Baraka said to a packed room of supporters at the\u00a0Robert Treat Hotel\u00a0in Newark even before all the ballots [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[2,21,17],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ras Baraka claims &#039;touchdown&#039; 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