I am a former Hackensack resident who has lived in Newark since 2007.
I disdain the interference of partisan politics and especially Cory Booker in the Hackensack election. Citizens for Open Government does not need Booker to win this election, all Booker is doing is taking a bet on who will win to have some new friends and allies after the election. Citizens for Change has their issues, but they are not tea party folks.
I know Cory Booker, I had a personal meeting with him 3 times on neighborhood issues. He cares only about his own political career, and his stint as Mayor here is all about HIM, it's not about the people of Newark. He is a "star" only because the ultra-left media has picked him as someone to be elevated into higher office. He is a better speaker than Obama, I must admit, and he can fool almost anyone into voting for him. I could talk for pages and pages on how Booker has failed Newark and especially the relatively affluent Forest Hill Historic District where I live. How he took away our police resources and left us naked and exposed to the criminal element swarming in from a few blocks away, robbing homes and stealing cars. And he tried to sell off the city's precious watershed lands (32 square miles in the West Milford area) for cash to plug a one-time budget gap.
And by the way, the black folks in Newark vote against him in droves because he has light skin, blue eyes, he supports gay marriage that the black religious folks in Newark can't stand, and he doesn't act black enough to be one of them. Booker wins a clear majority of the white, asian, Latino, and Portuguese/brazilian votes, and if he can muster 25% of the black vote, that's enough to put him over the top. Newark was 52% black in the 2010 census.