Baraka gets tons of free TV air time following arrest

Who says earned media is dead?

Ras Baraka is getting the kind of free publicity that candidates in New Jersey dream of following his arrest on Friday as he attempted to enter a new immigrant detention facility in Newark.

The story has been picked up by ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, MSNBC, along with national newspaper coverage that potentially gives the three-term Newark mayor a bump in advance of the upcoming June 10 Democratic primary for governor of New Jersey.

In a field of six Democratic candidates, each promising to fight President Donald Trump, Baraka could turn the coverage of his battle with the Trump administration into actual votes.

“Ultimately, this closely-matched field is going to break for one candidate, and just as that’s happening, Baraka is national news,” said Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University.  “For better or worse, the timing of Baraka’s arrest makes it entirely possible that he may have the strongest name recognition heading into next month’s primary.”

Baraka gets the added benefit of being in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.  Interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba said he “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations.”  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security took to social media to spin their decision to arrest Baraka, raising his profile.

“The reality is we’re there exercising our rights under the law, in fact. And their opposition to it does not give them the right to arrest us, humiliate us, or degrade us because they don’t agree with us,” Baraka said on MSNBC this morning.

An operative working for another candidate admitted that Baraka’s protest – even if it was just a campaign stunt – will help him.

“All Ras needs now is for Trump to bash him on Truth Social, and it’s over,” the operative said.

Some candidates have also been able to get some network television coverage.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly) and New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller got on the air Saturday morning when ABC and CBS covered their remarks outside the detention facility on Saturday morning, prior to Baraka’s press conference.

Rasmussen said that without county lines, candidates running in the 2025 gubernatorial primary
“need other ways to become the most recognized name on the ballot.”

“A third of the state’s Democrats polled by Eagleton had yet to decide on a candidate as of last month.  Which means they still need to learn more, whether from ads, debates, or what they see on the news,” Rasmussen stated.  “It would take a lot for any story—or candidate—to get more national and local coverage than Baraka’s arrest by Trump’s officers.”

But Rasmussen suggested that while Baraka’s arrest could help him in a primary, it could have the opposite effect in the fall.

“What primary voters must quickly determine is whether general election voters in November will view the arrest differently than resistance Democrats do now,” he said.