Shavar Jeffries and Ras Baraka Cast Their Ballots


Newark mayoral candidate Shavar Jeffries walks out of a voting booth on Tuesday. AP

Voters today are picking a permanent replacement for Cory Booker, the mayor who elevated Newark and his own brand though the city still faces steep challenges on the issues of crime, education and municipal finances.

Ras Baraka, son of the late poet Amiri Baraka, is known as a radical, preaching on the street corner about revolution. But in truth, he represents the status quo in Newark, which for decades has been unable to shake itself loose from a failing school system and epidemic of violent crime.

NEWARK - Newark mayoral candidate Shavar Jeffries spoke on Friday about how to support the city's small businesses four days before the May 13 municipal election.

NEWARK — One is a municipal councilman and high school principal, son of a celebrated and controversial black poet, who negotiated a truce among this city’s gangs and urged them to fight a white conspiracy and “seize power, block by block, city by city, place by place.”

NEWARK, N.J.(CBSNewYork) — Newark is getting ready to pick its path in the post-Cory Booker era.

On May 13, voters will head to the polls for the first time since their mayor moved on the U.S. Senate, and as the election looms a battle is brewing between the two main candidates.

The all-out street brawl for mayor of Newark, which concludes with next Tuesday’s election, is over more than control of a proud, troubled city. It’s also the latest round of a long-running national clash between old and new generations of black political leaders.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Shavar (shah-VAHR') Jeffries has snagged a celebrity endorsement in his bid to become Newark's next mayor.

Voters in Newark, the largest city in New Jersey, will vote for a new mayor next Tuesday to replace Cory Booker, who rode a wave of national attention into the Senate last fall. The election comes at a moment when Newark, long one of America’s most dangerous and depressed cities, is experiencing a nascent revival. The stakes are high and the candidates offer a stark choice: Ras Baraka, a radical councilman from Newark’s South Ward is up against Shavar Jeffries, a former Assistant State Attorney General and reformer. Baraka has enjoyed a significant lead but the race is tightening and an explosive video posted to a mysterious website this weekend could shake things up in the campaign’s final week.

"I want to help Newark, because Newark has been good to me," said Shavar Jeffries, who after being born in Newark moved to Los Angeles at the age of nine to live with his mother, who was then tragically murdered by an abusive boyfriend. Only ten years old, Jeffries moved back to Newark, where he was raised by his grandparents. Under their care, Jeffries went on to Duke University and Columbia Law School, as a scholarship student. Today Jeffries lives in Newark with his wife and two children, and is a Democratic candidate for Mayor of that city.

NEWARK - The fundraiser for Newark mayoral candidate Shavar Jeffries, held at the Newark Club  downtown on Thursday night, offered the approximately 150 participants eye-widening views of the city Jeffries wants to govern, as well as New York City to the east.