How well do smear campaigns work? Can you get away with calling your opponent, who happens to be a black Baptist Democrat, a white boy Republican Jew?

In Street Fight, Sharpe James, long-time incumbent mayor of Newark, NJ, does exactly this to his challenger Cory Booker, in an attempt to alienate black voters from supporting Booker.

And that’s just the beginning. Sharpe, long-time mayor whose career had already survived many corruption charges, seems to have the city police under his control. One cop tells director Marshall Curry that the public street’s private property and tries to get him to stop filming, breaking the microphone off the camera in the process — in broad daylight in front of other journalists. Other cops selectively remove Booker’s campaign signs, despite court orders to stop the practice. Local businesses too are bullied — and some closed down — for supporting Booker.

Street Fight captures on camera Sharpe’s continuous lying and bullying. He tells the media Booker’s rich Republican supporters have raised $10 million, when Booker’s only raised $3 mil, about the same as Sharpe. He tells the media Booker’s paying out-of-state people to canvass voters for him; the camera captures a busful of people from Philadelphia, saying they’ve been paid by Sharpe to get votes for him.

How does a politician get away with this stuff in a democracy? And more importantly, do voters see through this, or are they taken in by it?

Well, at least in 2002 — which Street Fight covers — Sharpe got away with it, albeit rather narrowly, and got 4 more years as mayor. The movie ends there, but Cory did run again in 2006 (Sharpe did not), won by a huge margin, and now serves as mayor of Newark.

I’d totally watch Street Fight the sequel, to see what sort of changes Cory made, what kind of campaigns are run in Newark now, etc. In fact, I’d love a Street Fight-type film for Los Angeles, even if our mayoral campaigns may not be so colorful.

For now, I highly recommend this movie. It’s a riveting story of local politics, race relations, and democracy as it is, with a glimpse at how it could be. Street Fight inspires you to get involved, to think, to take your role as voter with a serious excitement.

Update, 7/30/07: Sharpe James finally got indicted on 7/12 — A day after I wrote the review! — “on charges of using city credit cards for personal expenses and letting a companion buy municipal property for a fraction of its worth.” (Thnx Yumi)

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