Adubato Tribute: Mo Butler

It was February 1st, 2016. The North Ward Center was hosting it’s 30th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award Ceremony and I, along with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, were being named as the 2016 award honorees. This was a big deal. New Jersey’s political elite and royalty was in attendance. As I walked up to accept the award and begin my speech, an overflow of thoughts and memories about my time at The North Ward Center and Steve Adubato came to mind.

I first learned of Steve Adubato, Sr., when I was a graduate student at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers – New Brunswick in 1998. One of my professors, the late Alan Rosenthal – in a typical and wildly entertaining tangent – began to discuss The North Ward Center and the Adubato machine. I listened intently and mentally added Steve Adubato to my New Jersey bucket list of folks I needed to meet. Little did I know, my introduction to Steve would happen much sooner than I anticipated.

Following my graduation from Eagleton, the late Director Ruth Mandel introduced me to a young Councilman from Newark named Cory Booker. We hit it off immediately, and I knew from our conversations that I wanted to be a part of the change beginning to take shape in the City of Newark. I immediately found a job as the Executive Director of Newark Do Something – a youth development organization that provided supplemental services to promising young adults. The board was made up of equally dynamic, smart and motivated young professionals – and there wasn’t a board member that embodied those philosophies more than Phil Alagia, who now serves as the Chief of Staff to County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo. At the time, Phil was still an Aide to former Newark Mayor Sharpe James, and he was a valued leader within Steve Adubato’s North Ward political organization

In one of my board meetings, I mentioned to Phil that I needed to find a venue to host our annual Newark Do Something holiday party. Phil offered up The North Ward Center and scheduled a time for me to tour the facility with him. Following my tour, he invited me to have lunch with him in the back-parlor room. Once we arrived, I realized there were place settings laid out for three people, not two. A couple of minutes later, in walks Steve Adubato, Sr.

I have dined with Presidents and Prime Ministers of foreign nations, CEO’s of major corporations, and some of Hollywood’s biggest names — but all pales in comparison to my lunch with ‘Big Steve’. That was the start of a relationship that would last nearly two decades.

I went on to become a volunteer within his Sunday political group and partnered with him on many worthwhile projects to improve the lives of Newarkers. When things got testy between then Mayor Cory Booker and Big Steve, I along with Elnardo Webster and others, acted as diplomats in dialing down the tension and creating a working relationship that was positive, productive and most importantly, put Newarkers first.

Steve taught me lessons that I still share today:

Don’t show up on time, show up early.

Hold yourself and your colleagues up to unreasonable standards — that’s how you can transcend mere good to achieve great.

And give a shit about the people you work with.