Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Newark insider regarded what he said was mayoral candidate Shavar Jeffries’ rough week and made an observation about the contest.
It’s tough to win citywide in Newark without having first run citywide at least once, the source said.
A former candidate for mayor, Baraka (endorsements this week by the Laborers and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop) has done that, and as such has a leg up on the competition, insisted the source.
Jeffries has run citywide too, but in a school board – not municipal – election, where only 7% of voters participate.
He’s going to have money to get his message out there, but he needs to move quickly with little more than two months remaining in the campaign, said the source – a worried Jeffries supporter.
The source pointed to another School Board person who had difficulty crossing over out of school politics: Carl Sharif, adviser to Jeffries.
Sharif served as school board president at a time when the board had real teeth and was not a ward of the state consigned to an advisory capacity, as it is now. The highly regarded political operative was a citywide powerhouse in the schools, but when he ran for the assembly he received little support, failing to connect to that reservoir of voters active beyond school elections, the source said.
