NEWARK, May 1 — Mayor Sharpe James picked up three key union endorsements today, as this city's rancorous mayoral race entered its final two weeks with fresh charges of political dirty tricks and negative campaigning.þþEven as Mr. James was collecting the support of the city's police, fire and teachers' unions, his opponent, Councilman Cory Booker, charged that the mayor's camp was waging a nasty campaign of intimidation and harassment of Mr. Booker's supporters.þþTo bolster his claims, Mr. Booker pointed to an incident during a town meeting on Tuesday night when members of the mayor's security detail got into a shoving match with a documentary filmmaker who was following the councilman's campaign. ÿI demand that the mayor start playing fair and stop the harassment,ÿ Mr. Booker said at a noontime news conference outside City Hall.þþMr. James's campaign workers deflected those claims, saying that the pushing incident and the hard-edged tactics of some of the mayor's supporters — which they said the mayor cannot necessarily control — were part of the rough-and-tumble ways of New Jersey politics.þþÿSome of the disruptions are being started by Booker's people,ÿ said State Senator Ronald L. Rice, a longtime friend of the mayor's and one of the coordinators of Mr. James's campaign. ÿWhere there's little shoving matches taking place, it's usually both sides.ÿþþAnd while he offered a lukewarm acknowledgment that such arguments should not be physical, Mr. Rice added that they were an unfortunate byproduct of the region's passionate and muscular brand of local politics. ÿEverywhere you go — Jersey City, Newark, East Orange — it happens,ÿ he said.þþAnd when it does, Mr. Rice said, it is not always spontaneous. ÿYou have people whose sole job is to make sure that stuff like this happens.ÿþþThat came as little comfort to Marshall Curry, the filmmaker who was hassled by Mr. James's security team. ÿThey intimidated me a lot,ÿ said Mr. Curry, of the Brooklyn-based Observer Films, which has been trailing Mr. Booker since he announced his intention to run for mayor in January.þþMr. Curry said he was exiting the meeting that both candidates attended at the Essex Plaza, a senior citizen complex in Newark, on Tuesday night, when he was approached by a handful of members of the mayor's security team.þþÿThey said, `You can't film him, you can't film him,' ÿ Mr. Curry said of the mayor's guards. ÿThey were grabbing at my camera.ÿþþMr. Curry, who was not hurt in the incident, said the microphone on his camera was damaged as the security team spirited the mayor into a waiting car.þþThe mayoral race — the toughest Mr. James has faced in his 16 years in the job — has been unusually nasty. Both sides' offices have been vandalized, and each camp has accused the other of excessively negative and personal campaigning.þþEven as Mr. Booker and his supporters were decrying what they called the mayor's unfair tactics today, Mr. James was headed to the Fraternal Order of Police headquarters across town to receive the valuable endorsement of the police and fire unions in the May 14 election.þþThe endorsement of the police union is significant because it may serve as a validation for Mr. James, who has portrayed himself as a leader of successful anticrime efforts. It is also noteworthy because it was the first time that the union had endorsed the mayor.þþIn his previous campaigns, the union has either sided with his opponent or not taken a position. Union leaders said that they were moved to do so this year because of Mr. James's record.þþÿWe're proud to endorse our mayor, Sharpe James,ÿ said Jack McEntee, president of Newark's lodge of the F.O.P., which represents about 1,300 officers. ÿWe know he's going to be here May 15 and four years after that.ÿþþMr. McEntee, who praised the mayor's crime-fighting efforts — which Mr. James said have reduced crime in the city by more than 50 percent — also criticized Mr. Booker, who has complained during the campaign about response times by the police in city neighborhoods. ÿIt's not only inaccurate,ÿ Mr. McEntee said, ÿbut it's an insult to the men and women of the Police Department.ÿþþ
Source: NY Times
