Know Your Mayors (5 of 12)

Cory Booker is the 36th mayor of Newark, NJ.

A recent guest on "Real Time with Bill Maher," Booker was born on April 27, 1969.

He first ran for mayor in 2002 against long-time incumbent Sharpe James. The race was the subject of the highly acclaimed documentary film "Street Fight." James won the election, but Booker came close enough to be a future contender.

Booker won the 2006 mayoral election over Ronald Rice with a whopping 72 percent of the vote.

The Newark mayor is the son of civil rights activists Cary and Carolyn Booker who were among the first black executives at IBM.

Booker went to Stanford University, where he played football for the Cardinal. He later studied at Oxford University in England.

He was initially elected to Newark City Council in 1998.

Booker started the activist organization Newark Now in 2003 in the wake of his political setback. He is a personal friend of President Barack Obama and former New York Giants football player Tiki Barber.

The mayor is a vegetarian who does not drink or smoke.