Newark Mayor Sharpe James beat back the toughest challenge of his political career yesterday, winning a record fifth term after a bitter campaign against an upstart Ivy Leaguer.
With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, James defeated Cory Booker, 53 percent to 46 percent.
James called for unity in his victory speech.
“We must come together to continue to rebuild our city,” he said. “This election was not about winning, but about continuing our progress.”
With James on the dais was the Rev. Al Sharpton, who called the re-election “a win for the people.”
Booker conceded before 11 p.m.
“We fought one hell of a fight,” he said. “We fought for our values, for our children and for what we believe in.”
The acrimonious battle between James and Booker energized an electorate that came out to vote in the highest numbers since 1986 – the year James was first elected.
The race had been marked by bitter accusations and incessant name-calling, prompting the feds to assign monitors.
Booker charged that James’ supporters intimidated voters by shouting obscenities at them at several polling places.
James, a four-term incumbent, said his opponent’s complaints were just whining.
Earlier, a cousin of New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey’s wife was arrested on charges of vandalizing James’ campaign signs – an accusation Booker derided as “purely political.”
Although two black candidates were competing to lead a predominantly black city, the two hopefuls could not have been more different.
James, 66, a product of the city where he has been a teacher and politician for 32 years, painted his Democratic opponent as a closet Republican who would sell out the city to conservative interests.
He ran on the campaign slogan “The Real Deal.”
Booker, 33, who grew up in suburban Harrington Park in Bergen County, accused the mayor of old-style “machine politics.”
“The opposition would begin immediately to dismantle the Democratic structure in Newark,” said James, who dismissed Booker’s charges of intimidation.
He said James called him a “white boy,” and accused him of taking campaign cash from the Ku Klux Klan. A James spokesman called the allegations “completely ludicrous.”
Despite the acrimony, Booker said he harbors no resentment.
“I honor and respect Sharpe James,” Booker said as he met voters yesterday on Clinton Street.
Daryl Tillman, who lives across the street from City Hall, said he picked James for his experience.
“He’s been there a long time, but he’s done a lot of work,” Tillman said.