Cory Booker and Sharp James

Street Fight by Marshall Curry reveals insipid corruption in the city of Newark, New Jersey. In 2002, city councilman Cory Booker ran against 32-year incumbent Sharp James. From the start, Cory Booker has a few strikes against him. He is from a relatively affluent suburb, and not from Newark itself. Although he is an African-American man, the community of Newark trusts Sharp James in spite of the corruption scandals that have plagued the mayor's career. Of course, Cory Booker also suffers from being young and relatively unknown.

He is running primarily on the platform of reform, primarily from the perspective of the people on the streets. The residents of Newark do not trust Cory Booker, in part because they are unfamiliar with him, and in part because do not see him as having a vested interest in Newark. Furthermore, his campaign budget is much lower than the incumbents. Public relations setbacks like the campaign chief of staff was being indicted in the prostitution ring did not help Cory's campaign at all.

However, the most important reason why Sharp James wins is because of the stranglehold James has over local politics. Sharp James has a brand, an identity, and a level of familiarity that Booker simply cannot compete with. Yet James's main strength is his power over all elements of the Newark city government.

James is able to call the police when the documentarian filmed a rally, and allows for the rampant and illegal tactics of suppressing freedom of speech like the demotion of the police officer who supported Booker and the threat to a woman in social housing for holding a sign outside her window. The James campaign aggressively prevents the documentarian from filming. Moreover, the Booker campaign headquarters was broken into, and valuable documents stolen. James viewed Booker as a threat because Booker was engendering himself with the people of Newark.

This is because Booker had the genuine opportunity to win given his platform of ethics and change. Booker tries to set himself apart from James by firmly establishing himself as the candidate for the people, and a man of the streets. After being a Rhodes scholar, Booker moved into the housing projects in Newark to be closer to the people who voted for him as a city council member. This is one of the strongest methods of establishing himself apart from his opponent. Booker also goes door to door.

He is a clean candidate without anything sullying his reputation; he does not drink and is a reputation.

James, on the other hand, has visited strip clubs even though he shouts about the sordid nature of places of "ill repute." One of the problems that emerge later in the campaign is that Booker is accused of having skin being too light; the black community does not perceive him as being "black" enough because of both his skin color and because of the fact his parents raised him in the suburbs and he went to good schools. His living in the housing projects does not seem to.