By Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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(City of Newark)

Cities have been chasing Amazon's HQ2 the way cities have competed to host the Olympic Games, and Newark is among the digital-age retailer's most ardent suitors.

Newark boosters of both parties and all levels of government have put aside their partisan differences in joint pursuit of up to 50,000 jobs that Amazon promises to deliver with a second headquarters to compliment its original home office in Seattle.

Republican Gov. Chris Christie, a Newark native, endorsed the Brick City in October as the state's entry in the Amazon competition, the winner of which is to be announced sometime in 2018. Christie joined Democratic U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, a former Newark mayor, and his successor, Mayor Ras Baraka, to announce an offer of $7 billion in state and local tax breaks, and to sing Newark's praises in a serenade intended to win the heart of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Baraka is hoping Bezos noticed that fintech giant Broadridge Financial Solutions had moved 1,100 employees to Newark from Jersey City in October, and that Mars Wrigley Confectionary, the maker of M&Ms and Snickers, pledged to move its headquarters back to Newark after the state awarded the company $31 million in financial incentives.

Here are 10 reasons why Bezos, a New Mexico native who went to college in New Jersey, at Princeton University, just might be paying attention.

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(Jerry McCrea | Star-Ledger file photo)

1. Newark Liberty International Airport

When Amazon packages or people absolutely, positively have to get there, Newark Liberty International Airport would come in handy, as a hub for United Airlines passenger service and for two of Amazon's air freight carriers, UPS and FedEx. Most of the airport actually lies within the city, and freight and passenger terminals are only minutes from downtown.

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(John O'Boyle | Star-Ledger file photo)

2. Port Newark

Port Newark is part of the Port of New York and New Jersey, the busiest port on the U.S. East Coast. Completion of the raising of the Bayonne Bridge roadway this year means Port Newark is accessible to the world's largest container ships.

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The New Jersey Turnpike (Larry Higg | NJ Advance Media)

3. The Turnpike, the Parkway, Routes 78 and 280

The New Jersey Turnpike (part of U.S. Route 95), and U.S. Routes 280 and 78 are interstate truck routes that cut through Newark, which would facilitate distribution of Amazon packages. Those roads and the Garden State Parkway are also commuter routes in and out of the city.

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(Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media)

4. $5 billion in proposed state subsidies

Gov. Chris Christie endorsed Newark as New Jersey's best choice for Amazon, and he has proposed $5 billion in state tax incentives spread over 50 years, an offer that would require the legislature to lift a cap on such corporate subsidies.

Christie, who will leave office in January at the end of his second term, has urged his successor, Democrat Phil Murphy, to support the offer.

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The city has dubbed its campaign to capture Amazon's second headquarters, "Yes Newark," with a logo intended to emphasize the city's new prosperity. (City of Newark)

5. $2 billion in city tax breaks

In addition to state subsidies, the City of Newark would offer $2 billion in local tax breaks, also spread over many years.

They would include a $1 billion exemption from the city's 1-percent payroll tax on Amazon's projected 50,000 employees tied to its HQ2, a levy that only Newark, the state's largest city, is authorized to impose on businesses within its borders.

The other $1 billion would be in property tax abatements on Amazon facilities.

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This photo of the lower-Manhattan skyline was taken from the 22-floor of 1 Theater Square, a apartment tower in downtown Newark. Red Bull Arena in Harrison, for professional soccer, is in the foreground, with the black Pulaski Skyway, which links Newark to the Holland Tunnel, visible beyond. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media)

6. Proximity to New York City

While New York City is a rival for Amazon's second headquarters, Newark boosters point to Brick City's proximity to Gotham as a plus. All of New York's cultural, entertainment, educational, sporting and other options are within a short drive on the Pulaski Skyway or PATH ride from Newark, where rents and other fixed costs to Amazon and its workers would still be much lower than in New York.

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(John Munson | NJ Advance Media)

7. Newark Penn Station

Newark Penn Station is a regional passenger transportation hub in downtown Newark served by NJ Transit bus and rail lines linking cities and towns throughout New Jersey to each other and to Newark, the Hudson River waterfront, and New York City.

Penn Station also provides access to lower-Manhattan and Hudson County via PATH trains, and to the entire Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington via Amtrak.

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The One Theater Square project across the street from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, rose rapidly this year after a long-awaited start of construction. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media)

8. Residential building boom

Many of the workers that HQ2 would employ will want nearby housing, generating demand that could be satisfied by and continued to drive a residential building boom that Newark is now experiencing. The city's community and economic development corporation says 2,000 housing units were under construction this year. Many of those have been completed or are close to it, with more planned.

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Audible.com founder Don Katz has remained CEO of the Newark-based digital book company since it was sold to Amazon. (Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media)

9. Newark's existing tech infrastructure

Mayor Ras Baraka has called Newark the "Silicon Valley of the East Coast." He has launched a number of tech-related initiatives including a public-private partnership known as Newark Fiber, which takes advantage of Newark's position as a trans-Atlantic fiber optic cable hub to provide high-speed, low-coast internet access to buildings, which can then offer it to individual tenants as an amenity.

Newark is also home to a growing number of tech companies, including one of Amazon's best-known acquisitions, the digital audio book pioneer Audible, founded by one of Newark's most committed supporters, Don Katz.

Katz had moved the company to Newark from Wayne in 2007 to help establish the city as a tech hub and thereby help foster economic development. Amazon acquired the company in 2008, but Katz remains Audible's CEO.

Audible is now in the midst of expanding its presence in Newark with a $100 million interior makeover of the historic but long-vacant Second Presbyterian Church on Washington Street. The project was approved for $39.3 million in state tax credits by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority in 2015.

That same year, Katz founded Newark Venture Partners, a tech incubator that relocates promising startups to the city and provides them with work space, seed money, mentoring, and help marketing themselves to investors.

City officials say Katz favors a move by Amazon to Newark, though he has kept a low-profile in the campaign to win over Audible's parent company. Audible did not respond to requests for comment.

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A member of NJIT's 101st graduating class, following commencement at the Prudential Center arena in Newark in May, 2017. (Jessica Mazzola | NJ Advance Media)

10. Rutgers-Newark and NJIT

Apart from the technology professionals already employed in Newark's tech sector, the city is home to large educational institutions that could provide a regular crop of fresh talent to fill in or replenish HQ2's massive workforce. New Jersey Institute of Technology, or NJIT, and Rutgers-Newark are two of the city's most high-profile institutions. Rutgers and Seton Hall University both have law schools in Newark, where Essex County College, a two-year institution with multiple certificate programs, is also located.

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This door-turned-table at Audible's Newark headquarters was signed by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, after Amazon bought Audible. (Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media)

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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.