Ras Baraka, the current mayor of Newark, was one of those critics. But he has since reconciled with Mr. Booker, and the two have united around a message of progress sparked by Mr. Booker and brought across the finish line by Mr. Baraka (his re-election slogan last year was “Touchdown!”). “If you make your bones here, there is no place out there that can stop you in this country,” Mr. Baraka said, referring to Newark. “When this city took a chance on me as their mayor, the chief executive of this city, I didn’t wait to bring people together,” Mr. Booker said. Mr. Booker, who critics sometimes charge chased fame more than his mayoral duties, paints the whole affair as a clever bit of earned publicity for his struggling city.

Source: New York Times April 13, 2019 18:10 UTC