It's great to see Cory maturing as a politician -- it makes it more likely that he'll be able to accomplish what he wants to as mayor.  Newark is so broken and corrupt -- it has one of the worst school systems in America -- that meaningful change will no doubt require tremendous courage, savvy, determination and persistence -- all of which Cory has in spades, thank goodness!

"He is more mature and more hardened as a political personality than he was four years ago when he seemed to be running on the winds of idealism," said Clement Price, a professor of history at Rutgers University who teaches a course on Newark. "He seems to be less innocent."

In interviews over the past several weeks, Mr. Booker has said that he would never govern like Mr. James, and that if he wins on May 9 in the nonpartisan election, his administration will be more transparent and free of patronage. He has pledged to cut the mayor's salary and reject campaign contributions from city workers if he is elected.

"We're not going to become what we're trying to replace," he said.

But he admits that his outlook has become more pragmatic. "The last time gave us a lot to learn from," Mr. Booker said recently in an interview at his Central Ward headquarters.

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April 2, 2006

In Newark, Candidate Takes Cues From Mayor

By DAMIEN CAVE and JOSH BENSON

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/nyregion/02newark.html?pagewanted=print

NEWARK, March 31 — Four years ago, Cory Booker was a 32-year-old idealistic insurgent, a Don Quixote from the suburbs who assailed Mayor Sharpe James as the dictatorial leader of a political machine that suppressed Newark's true potential.

The contrasts between Mr. Booker and Mr. James produced public drama, inspired national debates over black politics and drove an Oscar-nominated documentary, "Street Fight."

But this time around, even before Mr. James dropped out of the race, Mr. Booker had become a different kind of candidate — one whose political organization and style now bear more than a passing resemblance to that of his former rival, the flamboyant five-term mayor.

He has hired several of the mayor's former advisers, including some who shaped the attacks portraying Mr. Booker as an inauthentic interloper who did not deserve to lead this majority African-American city...