Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins Archives

Baraka’s fourth term comes with some asterisks

May 18, 2026 6:42 pmMay 18, 2026 11:57 pm

There was good news and bad news for Newark Mayor Ras Baraka in last week’s non-partisan municipal election: he was re-elected by a wide margin, but not as impressively as his last two races; and he retains a council majority,...

Filing day coming up for May non-partisan elections

February 24, 2026 2:16 pmFebruary 24, 2026 2:44 pm

Nominating petitions for the May 12 non-partisan municipal election are due at 4 PM on Thursday, leaving candidates who waited until the last minute and then missed days as a result of the snowstorm in a last-minute scramble. Bayonne, Belleville,...

Six file to replace McIver in Newark’s Central Ward

August 21, 2025 10:37 pmAugust 22, 2025 9:05 am

Six candidates have filed to run in a non-partisan November special election to fill the Newark Central Ward city council seat left vacant last fall when Democrat LaMonica McIver resigned to take her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives....

A brief electoral history of Ras Baraka

May 10, 2025 9:41 pm

If Newark Mayor Ras Baraka is elected governor of New Jersey in this year’s election, he’d make a lot of history. He’d be the first Black person elected to lead the state; in fact, no major party in New Jersey...

Chaneyfield Jenkins will run for McIver’s council seat

March 6, 2025 3:38 pm

Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins, a former Newark councilwoman who lost a 2018 campaign for mayor, will run for the Central Ward council seat that’s been vacant since now-U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) stepped down last September, she announced today. “The Central...

A brief electoral history of Ras Baraka

April 25, 2024 1:22 pmJuly 25, 2024 2:26 pm

If Newark Mayor Ras Baraka is elected governor of New Jersey in next year’s election, he’d make a lot of history. He’d be the first Black person elected to lead the state; in fact, no major party in New Jersey...

Baraka easily re-elected as Newark mayor

May 10, 2022 10:04 pmMay 10, 2022 10:04 pm

The New Jersey Globe projects that Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has won a third term in office, defeating challenger Sheila Montague by a huge margin in the state’s largest city. With 88% of election districts reporting, Baraka led Montague 12,368...