Sipprelle looks to unseat Holt in November election

Rep. Rush Holt — a Democrat who represents New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, which includes Princeton Borough and Princeton Township — will come up for reelection in November in what what is shaping up to be a difficult election cycle for Democrats nationwide. Though Holt won his 2008 election by 27 percentage points, the Republican Party’s likely challenger, Scott Sipprelle — who lives in Princeton Borough and set up his campaign headquarters on Alexander Road — poses a greater threat to take Holt’s seat than recent opponents, political analysts said.

Before winning an underdog campaign of his own in 1998, Holt was the assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

Sipprelle, who is a first-time political candidate, said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian that he chose to enter the race because he has the “passion of someone who has never run before.”

“That’s my impetus for running — I think I have something to offer,” Siperelle said, adding that “public office has always been at the back of my mind.”

Sipprelle’s major rival for the Republican nomination, Mike Halfacre, dropped out of the race on Tuesday, endorsing Sipprelle. In the Republican primary election on June 8, Sipprelle will be opposed by David Corsi, the president of a real estate and property management firm in Oceanport, who challenged Holt in 2008 as an independent and is considered a long-shot in the primary.

Sipprelle has lived in Princeton since 2001, in Westland Mansion, which was once the home of former president Grover Cleveland. His campaign headquarters are located at 22 Alexander Road, one block west of Mathey College.

He said that his primary focus will be the state’s economy, since New Jersey is “a microcosm of what’s going on in America: debt, high taxes, a destructive environment for job creation.” In campaign materials, he has supported government spending cuts and deficit reduction.

After spending more than a decade getting “great training” in a “large corporate environment,” Sipprelle said he had an “entrepreneurial itch” in 1998 and started an investment fund that he closed in 2007, after it had grown to be worth $1 billion.

He has spent the last few years at his Princeton-based venture capital firm, funding start-up businesses, including the Bank of Princeton.

“It’s reminded me of the great wellspring of innovation and creativity of small businesses ... people who work hard and have a dream,” he said.

Challenges for the challenger

Political analysts said that despite the poor economy, the winner of the Republican primary will face a difficult campaign against Holt. Since congressional districts were redrawn for the 2002 election to include parts of Trenton in his district, Holt has won the past four elections by an average of 25 percentage points.

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“By all expectations, [Holt] should be able to win this year too,” said John Weingart, the associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, who has previously worked with Holt.

Though he thinks Holt’s incumbency has been stable, Weingart identified two factors complicating this year’s reelection bid: Sipprelle’s personal fortune and the national political climate.

“The political mood of the country is so volatile at the moment, and so mysterious,” Weingart said, which contributes to “a feeling that anything could happen.”

Tom Byrne ’76, former chairman of the New Jersey State Democratic Committee, echoed Weingart’s sentiments. He said Holt should “take nothing for granted,” pointing to Democrat Martha Coakley’s failed bid in a special election for a Senate seat in Massachusetts earlier this year. He added that Republican Chris Christie’s successful bid for governor in 2009 showed growing Republican strength in Monmouth and Ocean counties, parts of which are included in the 12th district.

“[It’s] an incredibly gerrymandered district,” Sipprelle said. “It’s the classic salamander.” But, he added, “That doesn’t discourage me.”

Byrne noted that Sipprelle faces challenges beyond competing in a Democratic-leaning district. “[Holt has] a record and a message that resonates well with the people in this district,” Byrne said. “I have Republican friends in town that say they’re voting for Rush.”

Byrne noted that even if 10–11 percent of Holt’s supporters from 2008 voted for the Republican candidate this year — which Byrne characterized as a “tidal wave” — Holt would still win.

Halfacre withdrew from the race after campaigning for almost a year, following victories by Sipprelle at Republican conventions in Mercer, Somerset and Middlesex counties earlier in March.

Though he originally targeted Sipprelle as a “Wall Street insider” and questioned his loyalty to the Republican Party, Halfacre has since urged his supporters to back Sipprelle.

“The faster we unite in this worthy effort, the stronger we will become, and the better chance we will have to send Rush Holt packing,” Halfacre said in a statement.

Byrne said that part of Holt’s appeal is his image as “extremely bright” and as an “outsider,” since he is a physicist rather than a lawyer, businessman or career politician.

But Sipprelle maintained that after 12 years in office, Holt has become disengaged with the issues that matter. “He has not improved with age,” Sipprelle said. “He has been absent without leave with the financial security of America.”

Zach Goldberg, a spokesman for Holt, said the congressman was not available for an interview.