Could crime in Newark derail Cory Booker’s Senate campaign?

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Executing emergency measures to combat a surge in homicides under their leadership are not the kinds of details candidates wants to talk about while on the stump. But with a spate of violent killings making daily headlines, will Newark’s recurring crime waves haunt Cory Booker’s senate bid and also threaten his legacy as mayor?

“Ten days, 10 dead,” ran one headline. Another, in bold, upper case type referred to “NEWARK’S CARNAGE.” And according to ABC’s Eyewitness News website, “Community members are crying out for help in the wake of the violence,” while police say none of the incidents are connected. Motives are unknown and suspects at large, which makes targeting hotspots for the recent outbreak of violence logistically challenging.

Following the ninth homicide in as many days, and while Booker continued his campaign, an official in the mayor’s office announced the launch of “Operation Blue Zone,” the city’s law enforcement’s response to a crime surge, which sends increased patrol into parts of the city known for gun violence. The Safe Cities Task Force was also extended and Police Director Samuel DeMaio told the public “the spike in violence comes after a drop in crime” and a quiet summer.

When the season’s crime statistics suddenly shifted, Booker was on the campaign trail, confidently touting his list of credentials for a Senate seat he is sure to win. However, looming headlines and a lagging opponent, who suddenly saw an opportunity to make headlines of his own, must be unwelcome distractions for the mayor with a popular “roll-up-his-sleeves” image.

“The spate of violence that our city has seen over the last couple of weeks is unconscionable and drives me towards both anger and sadness,” Booker issued in a statement over Labor Day, which was carried by Huffington Post under the headline “Cory Booker Faces Newark Crime Wave Amid Campaign,” one of several national headlines.

The story also included a quote from Booker’s Republican opponent: “While Cory Booker is traveling the state and taking money from Hollywood celebrities, the people of Newark are besieged.” Steve Lonegan alluded to a frequent criticism by the mayor’s opponent, who accused him, as did Lonegan of “spending too much time outside Newark and working on a national profile instead of focusing on his city of more than 250,000 residents, who’ve dealt with decades of systemic crime and poverty.”

Bashir Akinyele, of the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition, founded in 2009 after a daylong shooting spree that killed three people and injured five others, voiced similar sentiments when he spoke to theGrio.

“We’re been calling for the mayor, challenging the mayor to make violence a public health issue. We’ve demanded the mayor call a massive anti-violent town call meeting where leaders can find common ground to help stop violence. This hasn’t happened because the mayor is playing politics. And while he is playing politics, African-Americans and Latino are dying in the streets,” said Akinyele.

The streets, mainly in the South Ward Akinyele refers to, are well known to Booker according to Kevin Griffis, a spokesperson for Booker’s senate campaign. He told theGrio that “the mayor lived for years in Brick Towers,” an affordable housing development, (described by the New York Times as “the ill-fated, foul-smelling public apartment complex“) “to help call attention to the issues that community is having and to create progress.”

Griffis added, “When that public housing project was torn down, Booker actually asked his police director where the most troubled crime is in the city. So he lives in the South Ward on Hawthorne Street. He lives with the urgency and toughest challenges and sees them every day. That’s what fuels his work as mayor.”