For Borough mayor Moore '79, an uncertain political future

After defeating Republican Jill Jachera in an extremely tight contest last November, Moore announced last month that she would not run for the mayorship of the new consolidated Princeton. Rather than continuing to serve as a mayor, she said she would instead run for a seat on the new town council. She put her hat in the ring for endorsement from the local Democratic organization.

The Princeton Community Democratic Organization endorsed or recommended eight candidates for positions on the council at its March 25 meeting, including two individuals who had not served on either the Borough or Township Councils or the Transition Task Force. Moore was not one of those eight candidates.

In fact, she received the least votes of the 10 Democratic candidates running for six available seats on the consolidated council. Out of 353 voters, only 97 of those, or 27.5 percent, voted to endorse Moore. Democratic members were required to vote for multiple candidates for the council.

To earn the endorsement of the PCDO a candidate must receive at least 60 percent of the votes. A recommendation, which allows the candidate’s name to appear in the same column as endorsed candidates on the primary election ballot, can be earned with 40 percent of the votes.

The other candidate not to receive an endorsement or recommendation, Borough councilman Roger Martindell, only missed the 40 percent cut off by 1.8 percentage points. Martindell finished only 15 votes behind political newcomer Tamara Matteo, who received 42.5 percent of the voters’ approval and was recommended by the PCDO.

Despite not receiving a recommendation or endorsement from the local Democratic committee in March, Moore could still have filed a petition to include her name on the Democratic primary ballot, but she did not file by the April 2 deadline. Moore has until June 5 to decide whether to run as an independent candidate, a decision she said she has not yet made.

It remains unclear how or why Moore, the highest-ranking Democrat in the municipality, apparently lost the support of local Democrats.

“The PCDO process has not always elevated or endorsed all candidates in a primary that may choose to run and have won an elected office,” Moore, who did not earn the PCDO endorsement in the 2011 race for mayor either but nevertheless won the primary, said in an email. “I am an example that the endorsement process is just a step.”

Moore added that the PCDO is not directly involved in actual governance, but focuses on supporting regional and national elections.

Dan Preston, chair of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization, did not respond to repeated requests for comment on why Moore did not earn the PCDO endorsement. Democratic mayoral candidate and Borough Councilman Kevin Wilkes ’83 declined to comment on a similar question.

Former Democratic Borough mayoral candidate Anne Neumann, who was defeated by Moore in 2011 but said she voted for Moore at the PCDO meeting this past March, said she was “terribly disappointed” that Moore did not receive the party endorsement.

“I voted for people that I thought would do the best jobs in the difficult transition to consolidation and in our difficult relations with the University,” she said.

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Democratic Princeton Council candidate and current Township Committeeman Lance Liverman said Moore’s mayorship has come at an “unusual time,” giving that her mayoral term only lasts one year due to the consolidation of the Borough and Township, effective next January. “This does not give you enough time to implement many policies,” Liverman said.

Moore noted that “campaigning is a distraction” from serving the Princeton community. “My 16 years of volunteer service on some of the most important issues we face as a community will remain my focus, whether or not I am an elected or appointed official,” she said.

In her campaign last year, Moore received only 19 percent of the votes cast at the PCDO endorsement meeting, behind former Borough Councilman David Goldfarb who received 43 percent. Despite the setback, she went on to earn the Democratic nomination with 82 votes more than Goldfarb in June and then defeated Jachera for the mayorship in November.