The South Ward city council candidate backed by Newark's popular mayor outpolled his nearest opponent by a nearly 3-1 margin in the May 10 initial balloting, but still failed to win a majority in a field of 6 candidates
The runoff election, which will pit the two top vote-getters against each other, is unlike the ones also happening in the East and West wards which will follow a close finish between the dominant pair of candidates, with the rest of the field far behind in Brick City’s non-partisan municipal election.
Council received 1,941 votes in the May 10 race, or 45.6%, of the 4,255 cast by South Ward voters, compared to 761 votes, or 17.9%, for Bankston. But he insisted that he has built a reputation and a following all his own. He noted that he has served on the Newark Board of Education, has been active in the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition, and has been active in the local Pop Warner youth football organization and the Jackson Robinson South Ward Instructional Baseball League.
For one thing, Bankston noted that Council would not have the mayor’s coattails to ride on this time. Despite Council’s leading vote total on May 10, most people who cast ballots didn’t vote for him. And, Bankston insisted, even some voters he met during the runoff campaign who did vote for Council weren’t sure they would again.
But despite several attempts, Bankston has never been elected to office, having lost races for the Newark Board of Education in 2003 while still an undergraduate at Bloomfield College, followed by a run for Essex County freeholder in 2009, and then for Newark councilman at-large in 2014. He ran for the South Ward seat in 2018 but lost to its current occupant, Councilman John Sharpe James, who is not seeking re-election this year.
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