Republicans absent from race

With five days left until the filing deadline for the primary election, the Princeton Republican Committee has yet to announce a candidate for mayor of the newly consolidated Princeton municipality.

Meanwhile, two Democratic officials have already announced their candidacy for the mayorship. On Sunday, Princeton Township Deputy Mayor Liz Lempert was endorsed by the Princeton Community Democratic Organization over Kevin Wilkes ’83, a current member of Princeton Borough Council. Borough Mayor Yina Moore ’79 will not be running for mayor of consolidated Princeton; instead, she chose to run for a position on the new council.

While there are multiple Democratic candidates gearing up for a primary this June, local Republican leaders have yet to find a candidate willing to enter the race.

Just last week, Chairman of the Princeton Republican Committee Dudley Sipprelle said in letters to the editors of local papers that the committee was still seeking potential candidates.

“Please join local Republicans and make your voice heard. A dose of political diversity would be an effective antidote to what ails Princeton. Silence is acquiescence and a guarantee that things will never change here,” the letters read.

Last November, Jill Jachera, the Republican candidate in the election for Borough mayor, came within 101 votes of winning the office against Moore. Jachera had approximately 48 percent of the vote.

In a statement to The Daily Princetonian, Jachera attributed the lack of success recruiting Republican candidates to the Princeton Community Democratic Organization’s foul play, citing their “bullying tactics and lies.”

“I would suggest that the real reason qualified candidates are hard to find is that the PCDO leadership, at great cost to our community, is not playing fair or doing what is right for Princeton,” she said.

Jachera explained that the PCDO forced her Democratic supporters to resign from district committee positions and told them that they would not earn PCDO support in future council elections. She noted that the PCDO called her Democratic followers “traitors” in the media.

Dan Preston, PCDO president, responded to Jachera’s statement by encouraging her to “move on.”

“Her continued allegations of 'lies and propaganda' are completely unfounded and do a great disservice to the voters of Princeton," he said in an email.

Preston said that it would not be the first time that only Democratic candidates are running for mayor, noting that Jachera won the nomination last year through a write-in campaign.

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Jachera also explained that imbalances in party registration numbers made Republican candidates’ chances difficult.

“Political diversity has been missing for the last 30 years in Princeton,” she said.

She added that she believes Republicans have difficulty winning elections because the PCDO encourages local Democrats to be a “good Democrat” rather than a “good citizen” and to “blindly support” the Democratic ticket.

Joseph LoPresti Jr. ’15, a registered Republican in Princeton, said that local Democrats shouldn’t just vote for the candidate that matches their party registration in local elections.

“How the candidate you were voting for felt about abortion really isn’t something that would have mattered to you as much as how they feel about moving the Dinky,” he explained.

Sipprelle said in an email that he expected a Republican candidate to enter the race for this year’s mayoral election before the deadline next Monday.

“To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of Princeton Republicans not fielding candidates in this year’s election are grossly exaggerated,” he added.

A Republican has not been elected to Borough Council since 1991. Linda Sipprelle, wife of Dudley Sipprelle, ran for a seat on the Council in 2009 but received less than half as many votes as either of the two Democratic candidates for the positions.

Dudley Sipprelle said that for the last decade Republicans have received between 30 and 40 percent of the total votes in municipal elections, with last year’s mayoral contest in the Borough as an exception.

If the Republicans are unable to field a candidate by the filing deadline next Monday, the Republicans can use write-ins to nominate a candidate as well, as Jachera did last year.

“Republicans have used [this option] in the past, and so if somebody doesn’t file a petition in time, they get a certain number of write-in votes in the primaries,” Preston explained.

The primary election for Princeton mayorship will take place on June 5, and the general election will be held in November.