POLITICOS DUKE IT OUT IN KNOCKDOWN 'STREET FIGHT'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

IT'S KIND of reassuring to see good old-fashioned dirty politics practiced with as much gusto as they are in the Oscar-nominated documentary ``Street Fight.''

Of course, the corruption, strong-arm tactics, race-baiting and appeals to voter ignorance that marked the 2002 mayoral election in Newark, N.J., were, in a lot of ways, disgusting. But it was all so vigorous - and, as the film's title indicates, committed on such a localized, personal and therefore compelling level - that it almost makes one nostalgic for this kind of contest in these days of media-consulted, super-spun and carefully choreographed national campaigns.

This election pitted two African-American Democrats who only had two things in common - they were African-American and Democrats - against one another. The challenger, Cory Booker, was a Yale-educated Rhodes scholar from out of state who'd lived in one of Newark's many housing projects. Incumbent Sharpe James came off of the city's streets, had done four terms in office, probably had a super-deluxe home (we know he owned boats and vacation properties) and ruled Newark with a velvet-gloved iron fist.

Oh, and light-skinned Booker spoke like a Kennedy while James shouted nonsensical slogans and lost his temper whenever anyone who even resembled a journalist wandered within the wide radius of his personal space. Needless to say, one of James' campaign strategies was to imply that his challenger wasn't really black.

Hizzonor's even less pleasant tactics included ordering city crews to tear down Booker signs, suddenly enforcing long-dormant statutes against pro-Booker businesses and denying promotions to civic employees who failed to contribute to his campaign fund.

For his part, idealistic reformer Booker tried to avoid negative campaigning for as long as he could, preferring to walk through every neighborhood and knock on every door with the confidence that his charismatic intelligence would win over most voters.

Filmmaker Marshall Curry is unabashedly on Booker's side. But some of that may have had to do with the fact that the challenger gave him extraordinary access to both his operation and his personal life (which wasn't really much; the guy seems like a pretty dedicated ascetic), while James sent goons to hand-cover the lens whenever he spotted Curry's camera.

Although James can't help coming off as a crooked, dangerous clown as a result, Curry at least acknowledges that Newark has improved in a number of ways during his long regime. Booker, of course, claims that this was at the expense of the city's many poor people, and that James and his cronies lined their pockets in the process. But while everything Booker says sounds right and good, he really does seem less in touch with his constituency than the machine-protected incumbent.

Much excellent detail about the nuts and bolts (and, like all politics, fundraising maneuvers) of running a shoe-leather intensive campaign is conveyed. But the real joy of ``Street Fight'' is the way in which it shows how class, race, localism and other parochial considerations are still the bare knuckles of politics. That's depressing, but thank goodness it's so laughable, too.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

STREET FIGHT - Three stars

(Not rated: language, racism)

Director: Marshall Curry.

Running time: 1 hr. 23 min.

Playing: Laemmle One Colorado, Pasadena; Laemmle Fairfax, Los Angeles.

In a nutshell: Enjoyable Oscar-nominated documentary about the gleefully dirty politics employed in the last Newark, N.J., mayoral election.

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Yale-educated Cory Booker gets the vote out in the Oscar-nominated documentary ``Street Fight.''