Sharpe James (20 February 1936-) was Mayor of Newark, New Jersey from 1 July 1986 to 1 July 2006 (succeeding Kenneth A. Gibson and preceding Cory Booker) and a State Senator from the 29th district from 21 June 1999 to 8 January 2008 (succeeding Wynona Lipman and preceding Teresa Ruiz).
Biography[]
Sharpe James was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1936, and he served in the US Army in Germany during the Cold War. In 1970, he was elected as a councilman for the South Ward of Newark, and James was elected Mayor of Newark in 1986. He ran unopposed in 1990 and again in 1994 and 1998, becoming the city's longest-serving mayor. In 1999, he was appointed to the State Senate to finish the late Wynona Lipman's unexpired term, serving concurrently as State Senator and Mayor. In 2006, he decided against seeking re-election, and, in 2008, he was convicted on five counts of fraud for conspiring to sell five city lots to his mistress. He served 18 months in prison and wrote a 17-chapter book called Political Prisoner.