Sharp James Street Fight: Mayoral Campaign
Jason Zheng
ORGB 3201
Prof Paulette
07-21-2014
Power and Leadership Analysis on “Street Fight”
The film described two mayor candidates used different approach to run the mayoral campaign in Newark, New Jersey. Sharp James, who was the 16-year incumbent mayor, had been possessed tremendous power in the city. Whereas Cory Booker, who was the upstart challenger in the race, decided to win the race by using “influence” strategy. At the beginning of the movie, it clearly shows different campaign style of two candidates. The movie started with the scenario that Cory Booker went to one of the highest poverty level neighborhood to gain people’s support. In comparison, Sharp James easily convened many of his supporters to advertise his reelection campaign at the beginning. In the following paragraphs, I will analyze how these two candidates use different approach for their mayoral campaign. …show more content…
With 16 years at mayor position, he made many people in that community depend on. As people mentioned in the movie, James is personally popular and has raised Newark’s stature with corporate, downtown centered development, and building new baseball stadium. So, many people in Newark treat James as a really important leader who cannot be easily replace which makes his possessed both coercive power and referent power. There are some clear evidence in the movie that has proved this point. For example, he forced local merchants who display Booker sign to shut down, he asked his security to throw out the film director simply because the director support Cory Booker and asked local policeman to take off Cory Booker’s campaign advertisement on the street. He also played many dirty tricks, such as slandering Cory booker “not black enough” and “great white hope”. All of these examples reflected the abuse of power by this “political machine” in order to get supports from
ORGB 3201
Prof Paulette
07-21-2014
Power and Leadership Analysis on “Street Fight”
The film described two mayor candidates used different approach to run the mayoral campaign in Newark, New Jersey. Sharp James, who was the 16-year incumbent mayor, had been possessed tremendous power in the city. Whereas Cory Booker, who was the upstart challenger in the race, decided to win the race by using “influence” strategy. At the beginning of the movie, it clearly shows different campaign style of two candidates. The movie started with the scenario that Cory Booker went to one of the highest poverty level neighborhood to gain people’s support. In comparison, Sharp James easily convened many of his supporters to advertise his reelection campaign at the beginning. In the following paragraphs, I will analyze how these two candidates use different approach for their mayoral campaign. …show more content…
With 16 years at mayor position, he made many people in that community depend on. As people mentioned in the movie, James is personally popular and has raised Newark’s stature with corporate, downtown centered development, and building new baseball stadium. So, many people in Newark treat James as a really important leader who cannot be easily replace which makes his possessed both coercive power and referent power. There are some clear evidence in the movie that has proved this point. For example, he forced local merchants who display Booker sign to shut down, he asked his security to throw out the film director simply because the director support Cory Booker and asked local policeman to take off Cory Booker’s campaign advertisement on the street. He also played many dirty tricks, such as slandering Cory booker “not black enough” and “great white hope”. All of these examples reflected the abuse of power by this “political machine” in order to get supports from