POP CHAIRMAN LAWRENCE HAMM ENDORSES MAYOR RAS BARAKA FOR RE-ELECTION

A longtime civil rights activist has announced his support for the re-election of the current mayor of Newark in the city’s upcoming Municipal election on Tuesday, May 12th.

“I am endorsing Ras Baraka for mayor of Newark because I believe that at this time he is the best choice among the candidates running in the city’s upcoming general election,” Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization For Progress stated.

“He is the most qualified and he is the most experienced of those in the race. Regarding the workings of government at the local, state and federal levels he is the most knowledgeable.” Hamm said.

“During this period of instability in the country it is important for the city to have strong, steady and dependable leadership. We find those qualities in the mayor,” he said.

“This is not to say that he has not had challenges, or that he won’t have challenges to face in the future,” he said.

“However, it is to say that over the years he has accumulated a record of accomplishments and that he is prepared to handle future problems,” Hamm, a former candidate for U.S. Senate in 2020 and 2024, stated.

Hamm has been a supporter of the mayor for many years. As an activist he first became involved with the mayor’s father poet, playwright, author, educator, and activist Amiri Baraka in 1971.

He has endorsed all four of Ras Baraka’s campaigns for mayor. In the aftermath of Amiri Baraka’s passing in 2014 Hamm endorsed Ras Baraka’s first campaign for mayor that year.

Since then he endorsed the next three subsequent mayoral campaigns and last year’s gubernatorial campaign.

Hamm went on to say that he has endorsed Mayor Baraka because he is politically progressive and has been outspoken on a number of issues that are a part of the progressive agenda.

Some of these include jobs and economic justice, raising the federal minimum wage, universal basic income, police brutality, reparations to African Americans for slavery, and defending immigrant rights.

He established Newark’s first police review board and supports legislation to give police review boards subpoena powers. Having such powers would make these review boards more effective in their investigations, deliberations, and decision making.

“I am supporting the mayor is because he speaks out on issues that affect working people, poor people, and people of color even when those issue are controversial,” he said.

“Again and again I have seen him speak at rallies, marches, demonstrations, and protests of those struggling against injustice,” Hamm said.

“On Election Day, Tuesday, May 12th, I urge Newark residents to vote Ras Baraka for mayor of Newark,” he said.