“The main problem with the current council is that there aren’t any students on it,” Fisch said, adding that “students would be encouraged to run because they know someone succeeded in the past” if he were elected.
Fisch said his campaign will focus on the Borough’s prosecution of eating clubs, alcohol amnesty policies and student voter disenfranchisement. The Mathey College sophomore said he would like to address Borough Police’s policy of pressing charges against the eating clubs without sufficient evidence.
“It’s not the eating clubs’ fault,” Fisch said. “They shouldn’t be prosecuted by the Borough. Eating clubs are different from a bar. A bar cannot let anyone in under 21. An eating club can.”
Fisch pointed to the recent case of Charter Club as evidence for needed reform. In March 2008, the Princeton Borough Municipal Court dismissed the charges brought against former Charter president Will Scharf ’08, serving alcohol to minors and maintaining a nuisance.
“[The Borough Police had] witnesses that the Borough said would testify against Charter,” Fisch said. “The actual evidence of the witnesses didn’t contain any evidence [against the club]. They thought since the other eating clubs had folded in the face of Borough pressure, Charter would do the same.”
Fisch also expressed support for an amnesty policy for Borough residents helping others who require medical attention after alcohol consumption. He noted that, currently, residents who try to help friends under these circumstances can be interviewed by police and even risk prosecution.
Another plank of Fisch’s platform deals with what he calls the “student disenfranchisement” created because dorms on campus are split between the Borough and the Township.
“When students move from dorms in the Borough to the Township, they need to re-register [to vote], but they don’t realize they need to do this,” Fisch said. “When the elections come, they cannot vote. It’s not fair to these students that they routinely get disenfranchised.”
Fisch, who has lived in the Borough for 20 years, became interested in the Borough Council when he covered it for the ‘Prince’ last year.
“Being from the town and having covered the Borough Council in the ‘Prince’ puts me at the right intersection of experiences to represent students,” Fisch said. “If I hadn’t written the articles and done research on the topics, I don’t think I’d be able to serve well. Since I did research on these topics and attended all those meetings, I think I would be able to serve well and to serve seriously.”
The Borough Council has six members who are all elected to serve three-year terms in staggered elections.
In the June primary, four candidates will fight for two positions on the Democratic ticket. Incumbent council members Margaret Karcher and Kevin Wilkes ’83 face challenges from Fisch and Jenny Crumiller, the former head of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization.
The two candidates with the most votes will advance to the general election on Nov. 3.
Students account for roughly 25 percent of the Borough’s population, Fisch said, adding that “there should be at least one student on the council” for that reason.
Turning out student voters is absolutely crucial to Fisch’s chances for success, campaign press secretary Raymond Hsu ’11 said.
“We’re hoping the townie vote will kind of get split, and if we can mobilize students to vote for Mendy, we would have a Woodrow Wilson [Class of 1879] scenario on our hands,” Hsu said, referring to former presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft’s division of the Republican Party vote in the presidential election of 1912, which helped to secure Wilson’s victory.
Fisch said he plans to mobilize students in his campaign through his website. Students can submit their netIDs on the site to receive information from the campaign about registering to vote and requesting an absentee ballot.
Students seeking the post
Student candidates have typically not fared well in Borough Council elections. In November 2001, Steven Abt ’04 ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate. Three years later, Evan Baehr ’05 ran unsuccessfully as a Republican in that year’s general election.
In November 2007, Joe Codega ’09 was also defeated in his race on the Republican ticket for a position on the Council.
Baehr said he doubts that Fisch has a shot at victory. “It’s nearly impossible for a student to win,” Baehr said in an e-mail. “The Princeton Dems will probably shut him out early; they have money and will lock up the endorsements in town.”
Baehr also said that gaining the resident vote will be a challenge. “Princeton residents distrust students running for the council; they see us as outsiders with no long-term interest in the community,” he said, adding that Mendy’s upbringing may have an impact on voters. “Mendy has a great advantage in that he grew up in town. That will play very strongly.”
Hsu said he believes Fisch has a chance of winning because there are two seats available in the current election.
Council member Roger Martindell said that he supports Fisch in his decision to run for the council.
“It’s great,” Martindell said. “The more people that are interested the better, and if it’s people from the University community who like to commit to the governance of the town, then their candidacy is more than welcome.”
Martindell noted that he was surprised Fisch was a sophomore.
“Kudos to him,” Martindell said. “He seems older than that.”
Wilkes said he does not have a problem with the idea of a student on the council “as long as the student was willing to make the commitment and do the homework involved. It sounds to me like adding another [junior paper] to your list of things to do.”
An early test of support will come this Sunday, when the four candidates will seek to secure the endorsement of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization, a local political club, in a meeting at the Suzanne Patterson Center.
“Mendy has his work cut out for him,” Democratic Municipal Chair Andrew Koontz said, adding that it will be hard for Fisch to secure the endorsement because “the other candidates who are running are very, very well known to the membership of the PCDO.”
Fisch said he will run regardless of which candidate wins the endorsement.
“I’m confident that even if I don’t get the PDCO endorsement,” he said, “students will be smart enough to find my name on the ballot, wherever it is.”
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