Newark mayor, Republican state senator feud over fake sister city incident

Republican State Sen. Mike Testa criticized the city of Newark for being scammed into a sister city relationship with the non-existent country of Kailasa.

Matt Trapani

Apr 21, 2023, 9:28 PM

Updated 614 days ago

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There is a political feud between Newark’s Democratic mayor and a South Jersey Republican over a fake country.
Republican state Sen. Mike Testa criticized the city of Newark for being scammed into a sister city relationship with the non-existent country of Kailasa. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka fired back at the senator during his State of the City speech this week.
Testa responded to the mayor on News 12 New Jersey’s Power & Politics show.
“The fact that they couldn't even do a proper check to find out whether they were making a sister city agreement with a false nation,” Testa said. “He has much bigger problems than Mike Testa. And I think he should stop trying to punch way above his weight class.”
Baraka said in his speech that Testa’s criticism was a pile-on. He also said Testa had “disdain” for working with people of other nationalities.