Newark Mayor Cory Booker last week won a second term as mayor of New Jersey’s largest city.
Unofficial results show Booker, a Democrat, with 21,242 votes. His closest competitor and fellow Democrat, Clifford Minor, a former Newark police officer and Essex County prosecutor, captured 12,670 votes.
Since taking office in 2006, Booker’s agenda has been to reinvigorate Newark and attract business development to generate more jobs.
The mayor also seeks to wean the city from special municipal aid from the state. The fiscal 2009 budget included $12 million of special municipal aid, down from the $45 million the year before, according to the official statement for the Series 2010 general obligation notes that the city sold in January.
Total municipal aid in fiscal 2009 was $118.7 million, $34.8 million less than the $153.5 million the city received from the state in fiscal 2008.
Newark is working on a $88.4 million refunding deal to refinance outstanding debt and a $176.4 million school construction bond deal, according to the state’s Local Finance Board, which oversees municipal borrowing.
Moody’s Investors Service rates Newark A2.
