The Daily Newarker

I think the biggest challenge is bringing people together to work collectively to solve their problems … The collective strength of any community is big enough to overcome any challenge if you can really get people focused on it.

—Cory Booker, in an interview for World Journalism Institute (wherein he also shares his thoughts about fellow Newarker and TDN member, Danny Iverson)

The Mayor discusses efforts to fight corruption in City Hall, after the recent indictment of his former Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, Ronald Salahuddin.

Well, that’s it. Mayor Booker was ousted handily from the race. After diligent efforts and a once-thought unstoppable campaign, it appears that the 6.1 Million Dollar Man has met his match and ought to throw in the towel and concede victory.

As the New York Times, reports, Booker was beat out by nearly 300,000 followers, Gavin Newsom, the Twitter Prince:

Samepoint, a social media search engine based in Manhattan, has named Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, “America’s Most Social Mayor.” The start-up company accorded Mr. Newsom the title after running a formula that primarily considered the number of politicians’ followers and fans on Twitter and Facebook.

Mr. Newsom, with almost 1.4 million followers on Twitter, far outstripped the mayor in the No. 2 spot, Cory Booker of Newark, who has just shy of 1.1 million followers.

Oh, wait, what? You thought I was referring to that other race? Oh, no — that other guy is still going to lose.

Max Pizarro’s pre-game analysis of last week’s State of the City address includes a great point-counter-point between State Senator (and former Booker mayoral opponent) Ron L. Rice and his son, West Ward Councilman (and Booker faithful) Ron C. Rice: Newark in gear for Booker’s election-year state of the city.

“I know the mayor is not exactly renowned for showing up at the barbershop and hanging out, jawing around with the guys,” said [Ron C.] Rice. “Fine. That’s just fine. I would rather have a mayor who’s out there shaking the trees for my city like this one is – getting us money to build Nat Turner Park, getting us grant money to increase our police force in an economic downturn and to install surveillance cameras – rather than a guy at the barber shop telling me we have no money. I would rather have a mayor landing a grant from the Gates Foundation for resources, money for crucial prisoner re-entry programs rather than a glad-hander showing up at a chicken dinner and telling me the city has no money.”

Stack-like with his cellphone, the councilman said some members of the older generation – his father’s generation – will never catch get wired with email let alone text messaging and twitter.

But, in his view, modern communication devices have turned him — and the mayor — into better and more keyed in elected officials.

“My dad, when he was a councilman, relied on letters and phone calls to deliver constituent services,” said Rice. “Now I take complaints off my website, BlackBerry, cellphone, three facebook pages, twitter, etc. People tweet me. Constituents. I do this 24-7. I don’t have another job, like my dad did. Because of the accessibility, I have three to five times the number of complaints than my dad had when he was the West Ward councilman.

“Everyone my age or younger has no problem with Cory tweeting,” added the councilman.

The relentless narrative out there that Booker has mostly shuttered Newark while hitting New York and L.A. high society doesn’t comport with reality, Rice insisted, even as his father groused, “Most of my constituents don’t tweek and do computers.”

The definition of “availability” is shifting as more of our relationships are increasingly developed online. Let’s agree that — whether because he is on the speech circuit, trying to lobby for grants from philanthropists, or meeting with tech entrepreneurs — Booker travels a fair deal more than any former Newark mayor. It’s always been an undercurrent of this administration that a globally-connected Newark is a stronger Newark, precisely because we can leverage resources that aren’t available within the confines of the city, county or state geography.

(I think there’s also an argument to be made that because Newark’s travel options make it a global city, so the Mayor’s travel itself could be a good thing for the city’s image, in a medium-as-message kind of way.)

Doesn’t it make sense, then, that we’re starting to see our globally-connected, local politicians start to use technology to communicate with constituents here in the city? Acknowledging that technology, for all its benefits, can also be alienating: is this generation of 24×7 connected politicians more or less “available” to its constituents?

Sure, you can make the argument that high illiteracy and poverty rates in the city (which this 2006 Earth Day Network survey puts at 51% (!) and 28%, respectively) prevent a large constituency from participating in this new style of availability. But Rice Sr. isn’t raising the digital divide to claim that Booker and the council are out of touch with their electorate — that would actually be a compelling criticism. Instead, he’s using it as a sort of political shorthand to paint his former opponent as elitist and technocratic.

It’s no small irony that as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace continue to glom millions more registered users that the senator’s words might later paint him as the out-of-touch career politician. It wouldn’t be the first time that the senator failed to grasp a fundamental shift in his electorate, as his refrain during his 2006 mayoral bid that Booker wasn’t “black enough” revealed he had missed an important change in the perception of race in the city and our larger national culture.

Joan Whitlow: Mayor Cory Booker still in a political street fight in Newark

The title is pure link-bait: Whitlow outlines some mild jockeying for the Central Ward seat.

NBC’s Brian Williams comes to Brick City for an interview with Mayor Booker. (Hat tip: Blue Jersey)

Star Ledger: Mayor Cory Booker in State of the City address says Newark is poised to recover, thrive

In the midst of record unemployment and a citywide foreclosure crisis, Newark Mayor Cory Booker gave his fourth state of the city address tonight, maintaining the city was poised to recover and thrive despite the worst economic crisis in a generation.

Mayor Booker didn’t disappoint with a rousing speech at last night’s State of the City. For the full audio of the speech, audio of the press conference, and the live blog, check out our coverage.

Settled in for the Mayor’s annual address. The State of the City is to Newark what the Steve Jobs keynote is to Apple. Only without the iPad an mock turtleneck.

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Recap

Full audio of the speech:

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From Mayor Booker’s YouTube channel, an original poem and video, “We Own the Night.”

I’m a guy who has no family. That gives me the ability to go at this 24-7. Most of my life is public. People know that I’m here, out on a 6 a.m. snow emergency call, conducting office hours, etc. This public perception out there that I’m not here doesn’t concern me. I’m concerned with the public perception of my voters. They’re not worried about petty problems.

Cory Booker, to PolitickerNJ, in response to criticism that he’s globetrotting with the city on autopilot

Joan Whitlow: Can laid-back Clifford Minor upset Cory Booker in Newark mayoral race?

No, he can’t.