Candidate for Governor Visits Newark for 'Listening Tour'

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono visited a handful of Ironbound businesses Tuesday for a “listening tour” during which the state senator from Metutchen talked with merchants about taxes, schools, crime and future development in Newark.

“This is a very important city. It’s the largest city in the state. I was born in St. Michael’s. My mother first held me in her arms in Newark,” Buono said as she met with merchants on Wilson Avenue with a gaggle of reporters in tow.

Buono also promised she would meet directly with voters elsewhere in the state in the months leading up to the November election. Buono, who has picked up several key endorsements, including from members of the Newark Municipal Council Tuesday, is the favorite to win the Democratic primary in June.

“We’re not going to have this campaign from 30,000 feet up,” she said. “It’s going to be grassroots.”

Accompanying her was Mayor Cory Booker, who struck a careful balance between praising Buono’s challenger, Republican Gov. Chris Christie -- with whom Booker has worked closely on a number of city initiatives -- and convincing voters New Jersey needed a change.

“This is a campaign about issues, not personalities. I personally like Chris Christie,” Booker said. “But when I ask people, very clearly Barbara Buono lines up on the issues,” he added.

The two visited an immigration attorney, a Realtor and a tuxedo shop before ending with a quintessential Jersey photo-op -- a press conference at Andros, a  Wilson Avenue diner.

Joaquim “Jack” Ferreira, owner of Cornerstone Realty, told the two lawmakers that Newark, despite its challenges, was a city on the rebound and was drawing investment from New Yorkers. But he also said government help was needed to sustain that momentum.

“Just keep it coming. It’s a great city. Some of us know the story of what happened here and they left, but they never left [in spirit]. They want to come back,” said Ferreira, a Newark native.

Booker said that if Newark had state and federal help, it could hire “three or four hundred more police” and could also replace its crumbling schools, a few of which were built 150 years ago.

“Lafayette Street School was built when Lincoln was president,” Booker told Buono. “It’s just outdated.”

Booker later praised Buono as the candidate most likely to preserve and expand programs like Planned Parenthood, which aids pregnant women. About 40 percent of women in Newark don’t get prenatal care, Booker said.

Polls show Buono at a considerable disadvantage against Christie, who is popular among conservatives for his plainspoken stance on cost-cutting but who also earned the respect of moderates for his bipartisan approach. He famously defied his party by praising President Obama in the wake of last year’s Hurricane Sandy, which landed in New Jersey just a week before the presidential election.

But Buono and Booker also noted New Jersey still has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. The two also said that many average residents are anxious about the future as Republicans push for more reductions in aid programs even as the cost of college, medical care and other necessities keeps rising.

“The social safety net does not drag people down. It lifts people up,” Buono said.

Booker, who said he plans to cross the state stumping for Buono, also predicted the gubernatorial contest will be much closer than the early polling suggests.

“it’s going to be a horse race,” Booker said.