Booker grew up in the wealthy suburb of Bergen County, New Jersey. He was named Mr. Football of New Jersey in 1987 and attended Stanford University on an athletic scholarship. In 1992, he traveled to Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship. Upon his return to the U.S. he attended Yale Law School. Instead of embarking on a high paying law career Booker decided to move to Newark, New Jersey and become an activist for black residents whom he believed were being supplanted by the inadequate administration of Mayor Sharpe James. In 1999, Booker gained national attention by fasting and camping out next to a series of abject housing projects for ten days. He was attempting to draw the public's attention to the lack of police protection for the law-abiding tenants from gang members and drug dealers (Booker, 2002). Soon afterwards, Booker lived in a trailer for five months where each night he parked on street corners th

Another way Booker's team helped him further his cause was through the press. Whether it was on Fox News or on the local Newark radio station, Booker, thanks mainly to Raoul Bhavnani's planning and maneuvering, always received media coverage, which allowed Booker to repeat his messages. (Booker, 2002)

According to New Jersey Reporter Shakiti Bhatt, "Booker's team was a little like Bobby Kennedy's, Euggen McCarthy's or George McGovern's team three decades ago. The volunteers were young and earnest." As I was analyzing Booker's campaign, I realized his campaign team was as organized and intellectually equipped as a national campaign team.

Despite the ads, Booker was unable to make any progress with the older, Black voters of Newark, who were ultimately the core of the electorate. However, Booker was able to attract a large amount of young voters and Latino American immigrants, who had no union to James. These people seemed to latch on to Booker's ideas of additional health programs for children and more training and recreational programs for youths. (McLaughlin, 2002)

The Cory Booker website was in a league of its own. Thanks to Myron Atkinson people could log onto www.cory-booker.com and become aware of Booker's financial, social and political plans for Newark as well as a host of other information concerning Booker and Newark. (Booker, 2002)

This message did a great job of informing the voters what Booker meant by Renaissance for Newark and it helped build an image of him in the mind of the voters.

Regardless of the national attention Booker received for his hunger strikes and protest against drug dealers and gang bangers, his opposition portrayed him as being an unknown and an unestablished figure with an ulterior motive. Glen Ford, co publisher of blackcommentator.com took notice of Booker and began asking, "Who was Cory Booker? Was he really black? What about rumors of him being Jewish? Where did he come from? Why was he here representing Newarkers?" (Ford, 2002) Unfortunately, Booker never really explained his connection to the electorate and he did not grow up in Newark New Jersey. During the debates, his opponents maintained that besides family visits during the holidays Booker had no ties to the city. (Bynoe, 2002) Staying true to form, Sharpe along with Al Sharpton labeled Booker as an opportunist and a political pawn for the white Republicans. The Rev. Jesse Jackson tagged him as, "a sheep in wolves clothing." (Arianna, 2002) These aspersions became salient when Sharpe and Jackson claimed that the majority of Booker's contributions came from outside Newark. This information assisted Sharpe and Jackson in representing Booker as a. conduit for Whites who wanted to come into Newark and cease control of the refurbished city. (Bynoe, 2002)

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2121
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)