Local congressman Holt faces tough election race

Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ), the congressman whose district includes Princeton, may face a tough campaign for re-election. Holt, who has a great deal of support in the University community, will likely run against Buster Soaries, a Republican former Secretary of State for New Jersey.

Public records show that Holt — a Ph.D. physicist who worked at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory before entering politics — has already received nearly $20,000 in personal contributions from University employees.

Soaries, an African-American pastor, leads a 6,000 person congregation located on the border of the area the two will compete to represent in Congress. Soaries trained in theology at the Princeton Theological Seminary.

Most of the Congressional seats in the U.S. House to be contested this fall belong to entrenched incumbents who face little serious opposition. But several factors suggest that the race to represent the Princeton area in Congress will be intensely competitive this year.

Holt was elected to a second term in 2000 by a razor-thin margin of just 651 votes in a district with more than 500,000 voters. Since then, he has used his position on congressional budget and education committees to help bring civic projects and research money to the area.

"Supporting research is one of my areas of focus," Holt explained, noting that education in general is a top priority for him. "When I went to Congress I sought a seat on the Committee on Education and Labor, and that has been my primary responsibility," he added.

Holt has worked to bring federal funds to the Princeton area, including a special $100,000 grant for new technology at the Princeton public library. "It's the kind of thing I do for my district," Holt said. "I like to help worthy projects or help towns meet their important needs ."

This time around, though, he will not have some of the traditional advantages of incumbency.

Congressional district lines have been changed in response to the 2000 census, so that about 25 percent of the voters this November will be newly added from other districts and will never before have seen Holt's name on a ballot.

Soaries, who served as New Jersey's Secretary of State under Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, delivered the keynote address at the University's annual tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. in January.

Local Republican officials have lined up behind him, and potential rivals have thrown support to him rather than challenge him in a primary. There is still a Republican primary scheduled for June 4. Potential opponents could enter the race as late as next week, but no other Republican appears ready or inclined to challenge Soaries.

The Soaries campaign has yet to be officially launched, but his staff sounded a note of optimism.

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"We're really going to have a unified force behind the Republican this campaign," a Soaries spokeswoman said. Without a primary battle, Soaries will be able to focus his energies and funds on the general election.