Booker’s Victory

For thousands of idealistic voters young and old, the defeat of Cory Booker in Newark’s mayoral election will come as a disappointment. Mr. Booker’s campaign for reform attracted the support of New Yorkers — and New Jersey residents — of all colors and religions. It was also run with an openness to ideas that challenged the orthodoxy of the Democratic Party’s liberal wing. Mr. Booker was open to the idea of school vouchers, for instance, and he was not hostile to capitalism. His opponent campaigned with the lowest of racial appeals, caricaturing Mr. Booker as a “neo-black” politico spawned by right-wing foundations, as one can glimpse by the demeaning cartoon posted on the James campaign Web site and reproduced herewith.