Breaking: Now Cory Booker Can Blog Without Fear

This just in, fresh off the AP wire:

Mayor Sharpe James said Monday he will not seek a sixth term leading New Jerseys largest city, opening the door to a young rival who lost by fewer than 4,000 votes four years ago.

James, 70, who was first elected to the job in 1986, sent a letter to the city clerk asking that his name be removed from the May 9 ballot. The ballots are to be printed Tuesday.

Here are some consequences of James’s withdrawal from the race:

• Cory Booker has raised millions of dollars from a gaggle of celebrity supporters, for no apparent reason.
• The New York Times’s Newark 06 blog is plunged into a state of existential crisis.
• DVD sales prospects for the Oscar-nominated Street Fight have dimmed considerably.
• Booker can now blog his heart out at the Huffington Post, without worrying that said “blogging” will cause him to be tagged as an effete, rich white boy.

Newark Mayor James Won’t Seek Re-Election [AP]
Sharpe James Drops Out [Newark 06]

Earlier: Cory Booker Blogging at the HuffPo? “Oh No He Din’t!” “Oh Yes He Did!”
Cory Booker: Did He or Did He Not Blog?

Update: Our Gotham-based sister’s take on this development is available here.

Disclosure/special request: One of your editors just sent a $50 check in to Cory Booker’s campaign. Special message for Booker’s finance team: If you get that check, can you please refrain from cashing it? Now that Booker’s path to City Hall is clear, we poor bloggers probably need that money more than the Booker Team for Newark.

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