Hugh Addonizio

If Sharpe James is indicted today, he would become the fifth Mayor of Newark out of the last seven to face criminal charges.  Kenneth Gibson, a four-term Mayor who lost to James in 1986, pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion in 2002 as part of a plea agreement on fraud and bribery charges.  He had been indicted in 1980 on charges of giving out no-show jobs, but was acquitted by an Essex County jury.

Gibson's predecessor, Hugh Addonizio, had spent fourteen years in Congress before running for Mayor in 1962.  According to local legend, when asked why he would give up his seniority in Washington to be Mayor, Addonizio said: "Because you can make a million dollars in that job."   Despite his indictment on charges that he received over $1.4 million in kickbacks from city contractors, Addonizio ran for a third term and made it to a runoff with Gibson.  His trial began eight days before the runoff, and after an eight-week trial, he was found guilty on 64 counts of extortion and conspiracy.  He spent five years in a federal prison.

The last seven Mayors of Newark -- going back more than seventy years -- were defeated in their bids for re-election. The incumbent, Sharpe James, ousted four-term incumbent Kenneth Gibson in 1986. Gibson had unseated Mayor Hugh Addonizio in 1970. Addonizio defeated Mayor Leo Carlin 1958; Carlin won in 1953 over Mayor Ralph Villani, who had won office four years earlier after upsetting Mayor Vincent Murphy. In 1941, Murphy was elected Mayor in a close race with incumbent Meyer Ellenstein, who had defeated Mayor Jerome Congleton eight years before. Congleton had become Mayor in 1928 when the incumbent, Thomas Raymond, passed away.