A excerpt from the article
Despite crime woes, 80 percent approve of Booker
Beulah Says
My people, my people,
why do you have still have so many issues
I"m telling
Obama
The poll found that Booker is still vulnerable to the racial and class-based attacks that former Mayor Sharpe James successfully used to his advantage during the 2002 mayoral race that Booker lost. When presented with negatives such as those questioning his authenticity as a black man, his status as an outsider, his relationships with powerful people outside of the city and city hall job cuts and layoffs, Booker's approval rating slips 10 points to 70 percent.
In a predominantly black city, the mayor also has lower approval ratings among African-Americans when compared to whites and Latinos
Despite crime woes, 80 percent approve of Booker
by Jeffery C. Mays/The Star-Ledger
Sunday December 21, 2008, 6:31 AM
Newark Mayor Cory Booker is viewed favorably by 80 percent of likely voters in the next city election, while 72 percent don't know the only other declared mayoral candidate, former Essex County prosecutor Clifford Minor, according to an internal poll for Booker's campaign obtained by The Star-Ledger.
The poll provides insight into the mood of the city as Booker gets ready to kick off his 2010 re-election campaign next spring. Crime and violence remain the two largest issues facing the city, according to 35 percent of respondents. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed say Newark is headed in the right direction while 30 percent say it is on the wrong track.
Booker should also avoid politics while focusing on governing, continue to distance himself from Newark's history of corruption and "demonstrate a connection with ordinary residents" by showing how progress on issues like crime, jobs and schools affect individuals. Voters feel there has been progress but are "still aware of the challenge of corruption."
The poll also showed that Booker has some weak spots. Many polled believe that Newark is still a work in progress. Sixty-three percent of respondents said Newark has made "some progress" while 21 percent said the city has made great progress.
The poll found that Booker is still vulnerable to the racial and class-based attacks that former Mayor Sharpe James successfully used to his advantage during the 2002 mayoral race that Booker lost. When presented with negatives such as those questioning his authenticity as a black man, his status as an outsider, his relationships with powerful people outside of the city and city hall job cuts and layoffs, Booker's approval rating slips 10 points to 70 percent.
In a predominantly black city, the mayor also has lower approval ratings among African-Americans when compared to whites and Latinos. For example, only 69 percent of blacks agreed with the statement that Booker is "bringing real progress on the issues that matter most," compared with 85 percent of whites and Latinos, a difference of almost 19 percent.
African-American single mothers were also more closely split when asked if they were optimistic about the direction the city was headed in. Forty-four percent of black single mothers, who make up 8 percent of the city's electorate, said the city was headed in the wrong direction while 41 percent said it was headed in the right direction.
Booker declined to comment on the poll and Minor did not respond to calls for comment. Booker's former chief of staff and current campaign manager Pablo Fonseca called the results "phenomenal."
"The goal is not to be in an election in 2010," Fonseca said of the lead they are hoping to build. "The mayor's number one issue was public safety and the results speak for themselves."
As of Thursday there were 64 homicides in Newark compared with 96 this time last year, a 33.5 percent reduction.
The poll of 896 registered voters who voted in the 2006 election or have registered since then was conducted from Nov. 17 to Nov. 22 via telephone interviews and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.27 percent. The Benenson Strategy Group, who served as President-elect Barack Obama's pollsters, conducted the survey. Pollster Joel Benenson said the sampling shows how much Booker has achieved so far.
"His success comes from the actions he has taken. People support his agenda and he should focus on the agenda and not the politics," said Benenson. "You don't call elections this far out but there is no road map to suggest somebody in Cliff Minor's position has a path to victory."
Among the poll's other findings:
-- Fifty-five percent of those polled said Newark has serious problems but has begun to make progress, while 15 percent said the city is not addressing it's most serious problems and 26 percent said Newark has turned a corner.
-- Sixty-three percent of those polled said they would definitely vote to re-elect Booker while 25 percent said they may or may not or don't know and 13 percent said they definitely would not vote to re-elect him.
Not everyone finds the poll results credible. Rahaman Muhammad, president of SEIU Local 617, which represent hundreds of city workers, said Booker's candidates would not have lost several district leader races and his candidate would have won the special Central Ward election if his approval rating were 80 percent.
"It's far-fetched and hard to believe that Cory Booker has an 80 percent rating because I don't think his policies, aside from police director Garry McCarthy's efforts at reducing homicides, have benefited residents," said Muhammad.
The Rev. Jethro C. James Jr., pastor of Paradise Baptist Church and president of the Newark-North Jersey Committee of Black Churchmen, laughed out loud when told of the 80 percent favorability rating. That 72 percent of those polled said they were unfamiliar with Minor also makes him question the results.
"Who did he talk to? In Sharpe James' best days, 80 percent of Newarkers didn't like him," said Jethro James, who is not related to Sharpe James.
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