Former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill once declared "All politics is local." What he left off were the bloody details about how vicious and personal local politics can get. I’ve experienced that up close the two times that I immersed myself into a local campaign--a University of Illinois student election besmirched by pre-Watergate Republican dirty tricks and a school board recall effort in a small Navajo reservation community.

Through those forays into local politics I witnessed first hand typical small time tactics of slanderous whispering campaigns, sign tampering, and headquarter break-ins to steal campaign literature and data. And when I was the media point man for the recall, I saw an elaborate criminal frame job directed against our spokesperson, gained the #1 position on an "enemies" list of teachers to be scrutinized and fired for any possible cause, and was the target of Navajo witchcraft. The old school board president even attempted to steal the election by a ballot counting fraud, but we eventually won out. As exciting as the process was--the daily engagement into a controversial cause--I soured me on getting involved in future local political battles. Life is too short to enter such a degenerate public forum regularly. It would take a cause worth dying for to put myself on the line again.

Still, politics has long fascinated me, and I'm pre-disposed towards documentaries that give the behind-the-scenes dope cinema direct style, as pioneered by Robert Drew in Primary (about JFK’s primary run in 1960) and was famously followed in the same tradition by D.A. Pennebaker in The War Room (about Bill Clinton’s successful primary run). Lately I’ve seen two compelling films that braved the New Jersey scene to document mayoral races--Kristian Fraga’s Anytown, USA about the hamlet of Bogota and Marshall Curry’s riveting Street Fight that follows the 2002 Newark contest.

Curry’s Oscar nominated feature chronicles the brutal battle between good and evil with two African American Democrats in the final fray. Crusading for positive change is 32-year old Cory Booker, a former Stanford football star, Rhodes scholar, and Yale law school graduate. Opposing him is veteran long time incumbent Sharpe James, who employs strong arm tactics to keep Newark businessmen in line.

Newark’s proximity to New York City prevents the candidates from waging pure media warfare; to win here requires pounding the pavement for direct encounters. Originally planning to document the race from both sides, Curry was forced to abandon that idea when James orders his security guards to prevent him from filming (as numerous blocking hand palm shots attest). Countering his frustrated media manager’s desires, James feels that "if you’re not for him . . . you’re against him;" thus, only campaign lackeys are allowed media access.

Thus, Curry's film evolves into a classic underdog struggle, as the young Booker attempts to unseat the entrenched mayor and his political machine. Initially we see how the youthful crusader is blocked from canvassing a Newark tenement building, and soon after learn how a number of small businessmen have been blackmailed from supporting Booker—shutdowns of their premises for obscure code violations or city contract cancellations. They are ordered to remove any Booker signs, and the camera pans a number of painted over signs from non-complicit businesses as well as capture a police crew striking down a large Booker sign. But these are nothing but preliminary minor skirmishes for what is to come.

Scandals, shakedowns, and unbelievable name calling tactics erupt from the James camp when Booker begins to narrow the gap. James throws the mud fast and furious—terming his youthful opponent as an opportunistic carpetbagger who’s trying to buy the election (claiming Booker has five times as much money as he really does), as a Republican with KKK support, and even as a Jew! (O, the horror) James escalates the race issue against his fellow African American by claiming to be more "black" than Booker--how he came up through the Newark ghetto as opposed to his privileged light-skinned opponent.

Nearing the election day, the national media has begun to pick up the Newark mayoral race, so recognizable faces appear. Give Spike Lee credit for seeing through the haze of James’ racist rhetoric and endorsing Booker, as well as former Senator Bill Bradley and the Newark newspapers. The New Jersey governor, Jesse Jackson, and Rev. Al Sharpton don’t fare so well, as they keep in step with the status quo and toss a few barbs of their own. Given what Curry’s camera has revealed, their clueless endorsements all lack substance--more like media ploys for grabbing headlines and attention or a desire to be on the side of a proven winner to gain political capital.

What Curry’s hand held camera does capture is a remarkably candid and vivid portrait of this notably nasty contest--a primer for any aspiring politician to see the worst of what he can expect. Whenever cinema direct work is involved, the finished film relies on editing to construct its narrative, and Curry and his editing team do a remarkable job selecting scenes that propel the narrative with all the intensity of a crime thriller. A few clever juxtapositions are also employed to show the mayor’s outrageous hypocrisy, but James should receive a great deal of credit for playing such a great heavy against our hero.

You’ll have to watch Street Fight to see if there's a happy ending (or Google the names for the results), but in politics you can never know for sure until sufficient time passes. I still remember what a number of Navajos told me when I was distressed about the personal cut-throat tactics of political foes locally--that it was their belief that the Truth would eventually rise to the surface and that Good would defeat Evil.