Rush Holt keeps seat with 7-point margin

Democrat Rush Holt won his seventh consecutive term as representative for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District in last Tuesday’s election. It was his slimmest margin of victory since 2002.

Holt defeated Republican challenger Scott Sipprelle by 13,836 votes, or about 7 percentage points. Sipprelle received 46 percent of the vote to Holt’s 53 percent. Princeton Borough and Princeton Township are in the 12th District, along with 43 other towns spanning five counties.

Chris Donnelly, a spokesman for Holt, said the campaign was confident going into the election and did not see Holt’s slim victory as a concern.

“I would argue that a 7 percent margin of victory is not a close election, especially given the amount of money our opponent spent on the race,” Donnelly, who spoke on behalf of Holt, said in an e-mail.

Sipprelle, a former Wall Street executive turned venture capitalist, spent more than $500,000 to fund his own campaign. Still, Sipprelle remained upbeat following the election.

“I don’t see it as losing,” he said. “I merely ran out of time to convince voters one on one.”

In the week before the election, both candidates focused on get-out-the-vote efforts to win the support of undecided voters.

“In the days leading up to the election, we knocked on at least 200,000 doors and made over 150,000 phone calls,” Donnelly said. “We focused on all areas of the 12th, leaving no election district, no town and no county out.”

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Sipprelle also pushed to increase his campaign’s visibility. “I spent the last several days of the campaign on a barnstorming bus tour throughout the five counties to be visible to as many voters as possible,” he explained.

Sipprelle said he had a disadvantage as a challenger in his first congressional election because he was competing against Holt’s name recognition.

“There is far too much slash-and-destroy smear marketing in political campaigns, and the press does a very poor job of refereeing the process fairly,” he said. “This gives entrenched incumbents a huge advantage.”

The election centered on the economy, the major issue facing the 12th District and most of the nation. Both candidates emphasized the importance of creating jobs and stimulating the economy, but they disagreed on the best policies to take: Holt emphasized investment in small businesses and education, while Sipprelle favored tax cuts and less government spending. Throughout the campaign, each candidate criticized his opponent on issues ranging from policy to qualifications.

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Holt entered politics in 1998 after working nine years at the University. He was the former assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. College Democrats co-president Micah Joselow ’12 said the voters with whom he interacted looked favorably upon Holt’s education background.

“Given Congressman Holt’s background in academia and as a scientist, his personal experiences are very appealing to his constituency, as it is quite clear that the issues that matter most to him are the same as those that the voters we spoke with over the course of the fall,” he said.

Joselow and other members of College Democrats volunteered throughout the campaign in phone banks and get-out-the-vote efforts. Donnelly recognized the importance of volunteers from the University in Holt’s campaign. “Volunteers provided enthusiastic support for the campaign that certainly played a role in the outcome,” he said.

Though many of Holt’s fellow Democrats lost their campaigns, Donnelly said the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives is not a concern.

“Being in the minority will not change the manner in which Rep. Holt works,” Donnelly explained. “His commitment to creating jobs, investing in small businesses and expanding educational opportunity will remain just as strong and he looks forward to working with his colleagues on these issues, regardless of what their political affiliation is.”