"We are the mayor!" he proclaimed, echoing his own campaign slogan.
With 150 of 162 precincts reporting, Baraka was swept into office, capturing 54 percent of the vote in the nonpartisan election — the first since Cory Booker decamped the city and set off for Washington. His opponent, Shavar Jeffries, who grew up in Newark after his teenage mother was murdered when he was just 10, followed with 46 percent.
In the contentious, high-stakes race marked by millions in independent expenditures that poured in from special interests pushing the agendas of both candidates, turnout was high on an election day that was remarkably free of rancor after weeks of angry street confrontations, mudslinging TV ads and the torching of a campaign bus.
