ericans, who ultimately made up the majority of the electorate. James and Rev. Jesse Jackson claimed Booker was simply too inexperienced to manage a city of 270,000 people. Rev. Jesse Jackson made it well known that directly upon graduating from Yale Law School Booker became a member of the Newark City Council. James went on to say just because Booker introduced a few laws, which benefited the community, it does not mean he has the know-how to operate a major American city. The voters seemed to buy into the notion that Booker was inexperienced and therefore did not posses the level of government experience and substantive budget proficiency needed for the New Jersey's largest city (Bynoe, 2002).
             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 whe
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