March 8, 2009
By Nikita Stewart
The Washington Post
Call them Benty.
The hippest duo in Washington this week will be Newark Mayor Cory Booker and D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who are teaming up for a joint fundraiser -- an unusual party at a U Street restaurant that merges two young black politicians, two cities and a network of young professionals hoping to extend the wave of President Obama's election.
"They're the new hotness," said Elnardo Webster, Booker's longtime friend and political confidant. "What you're starting to see are these 30-somethings and 40-somethings motivated by Obama mobilize behind who they think is next."
The Wednesday night event at Local 16 -- hyped through Facebook, e-mails and word of mouth -- reflects the continued development of a generation of black politicians and supporters who are not limited by money, race or geography. Both mayors, who have raised more than $2 million each, are running for reelection in 2010.
The party is also another signal that the District is the place to be, thanks to the new residents in the White House. The buzz -- or, maybe more accurately, the hope -- is that Obama's caravan will head to U Street for the event.
"I have no confirmation that he is attending," said Eric Broyles, the party organizer. "This is about mayors. That's my focus."
When the circles of Washington's political elite talk about new black leadership, the focus is on mayors Booker and Fenty and newcomer Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star turned charter school reformer turned mayor of Sacramento last year. The ties among the three are real.
"We speak regularly," said Fenty (D), who added they share a focus on education reform.
They are in their late 30s to early 40s, and grew up as the country's first generation of black mayors waded through crime and poverty. Johnson, 43, is the first black mayor of Sacramento. Booker is Newark's third, and Fenty is the District's fifth.
They play on a national stage. Fenty traveled to Newark for the New Jersey primary last year to help Booker campaign for Obama. Recently, Fenty and Johnson were guests on "Larry King Live" to discuss Obama's address to Congress. And Booker and Johnson will participate in an education summit in Sacramento tomorrow.
"We all recognize for sure that we stand on the shoulders of those that were before us," said Fenty, 38. "It's our job to pick up the baton and run with it even further."
Johnson agreed: "I think what happened is our generation kind of watched our cities not reach their potential."
Booker, like Fenty and Johnson, said they reach out to other big-city mayors and leaders, regardless of race and party.
"When I became mayor two and a half years ago, I was energized by all the young mayors . . . in a larger understanding of our being in the same trench," he said. "There's something I realized . . . the middle level can make a dramatic change, more so than Congress or on a state level."
The network of black mayors who are Ivy League educated or linked is similar to that of black preachers who attended historically black colleges and led the civil rights movement, said Melissa Harris-Lacewell, an associate professor of politics and African American studies at Princeton University. "If you could map them on Facebook, they would have been friends of friends of friends," she said of the ministers.
Booker and Fenty connected in 2001 during a backyard fundraiser in Logan Circle, according to Broyles, 40, a District businessman who hosted that party.
Broyles had met Booker a few years earlier through Mark Gerson, executive chairman and a founder of Gerson Lehrman, who went to Yale University Law School with Booker. Broyles, who now works at Gerson Lehrman, decided to hold a fundraiser at his home for Booker, then a freshman council member hoping to become Newark mayor in 2002.
Fenty, also a freshman council member who would run for mayor in 2006, was among the 150 guests. Broyles was working at AOL with Erik A. Moses, Fenty's friend and fraternity brother and now chief executive of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission.
Booker, 39, has had the national stage for a decade, with his unusual tactics to draw attention to open-air drug dealing and homicides in Newark. He fasted for 10 days, and he lived in a camper on the city's most dangerous street corners. His failed 2002 mayoral bid was the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary "Street Fight." Booker won four years later.
Fenty took on the District's political veterans when he challenged then-council Chairman Linda W. Cropp. He door-knocked his way across the city, winning with an image of a young, energetic populist who saw beyond race. His campaign staff would watch "Street Fight" to get revved up.
Kevin Johnson viewed Fenty's style as a model. John Falcicchio took a leave of absence as an adviser in Fenty's administration to work on Johnson's campaign last year. And Fenty threw a fundraiser for him during the race. Booker said he and his supporters made calls to put money in Johnson's coffers.
Johnson recalled that both Fenty and Booker urged him to focus on the grass roots.
Their campaigns -- and administrations -- have also been multicultural, a reflection of the integration they knew as children.
All three are magnets for other young black professionals, a generation shaped by education and opportunity, rather than the limitations of segregation and deferred dreams. Obama's presence in the White House and mayors such as Booker, Fenty and Johnson make the air seem thicker with possibility.
"You see a group of people that are in the same space," Webster said of other young black professionals and the mayoral trio. "What you're starting to see is the emergence of the new black political class."
"The face of politics is changing," said Archie Rich, 41, and a lawyer who supported all three mayoral campaigns. "It's challenging us to walk away from the old model."
Some of the party hosts are the offspring of those who helped shape black politics a generation ago. Host Ernest Jarvis is the son of former D.C. Council member Charlene Drew Jarvis, who lost to Fenty in 2000.
"I'm a fifth-generation Washingtonian. . . . I come from a family of public sector servants," said Jarvis, 46, who heads the largest commercial real estate firm in the District. "There is a paradigm shift around the country. These will be the leaders running our country in the next decade or so."
Their operating styles, bold and brash, have earned them praise as well as criticism.
"Not everybody likes Adrian, but he's relentless," said Ben Soto, Fenty's campaign treasurer. "He makes quick decisions. He doesn't second-guess himself."
Booker and Fenty have taken heat for putting enough blacks in their administrations and leadership posts in their campaigns. Some older blacks have felt squeezed out, their wisdom and experience devalued.
Johnson described their shared mayoral experience as "not beholden to the political establishment" of any kind.
"Part of what's interesting about the mayor's network is that they are national rock stars, but they have to get elected locally . . . particularly among blacks," Harris-Lacewell said, adding that Booker's first run for mayor failed because some black voters questioned his authenticity.
Booker describes the mayoral ties as one of "interwoven destinies."
"What goes on in Oakland does affect Memphis," he said. "What goes on in Newark is important to what goes on in D.C."
