Lempert, Democrats win in local landslide

Lempert beat Republican candidate Dick Woodbridge ’65 by a three-to-two margin, part of a local Democratic Party sweep on Election Day. Every Democratic candidate who appeared on the local Princeton ballot won his or her race by a large margin.

Princeton voters overwhelmingly voted for Democratic candidates in every national and state race as well. President Barack Obama carried 76 percent of the vote among Princeton voters.

Lempert, the current deputy mayor of the Township, won 6,093 votes, giving her a 60.7-percent majority. Woodbridge, the former mayor of the Township and a former Borough councilman, received 3,939 votes.

In her acceptance speech, Lempert praised the community’s response to Hurricane Sandy as an indication that the Borough and Township would be able to work well together in the future.

“This has been a really tough week for New Jersey,” Lempert said. “There are still people in Princeton who are struggling, who are without electricity. But Princeton is strong, and we’ve pulled through this crisis together.”

Woodbridge, who visited the Democratic Party’s celebration at its Nassau Street headquarters, said he was pleased with the inroads he had made as a Republican candidate in an overwhelmingly Democratic area.

“All you can do is do the best you can, and when you’ve finished doing that, you can’t feel bad about it,” Woodbridge said.

As mayor, Lempert will preside over a six-member Borough Council. Of the seven candidates who ran for the six available Council seats, all six Democratic candidates won.

Bernie Miller, a longtime member of the Township Committee and a former Township mayor, led the pack in vote totals, receiving 7,114 votes. Following Miller in vote totals was Patrick Simon, who received 7,090 votes.

Heather Howard, a Wilson School professor and a sitting Borough councilwoman, came in third with 6,914 votes. Councilwoman Jo Butler came in just a hair behind with 6,903, and Township Committeeman Lance Liverman received 6,861 votes. Borough Councilwoman Jenny Crumiller received 6,807, rounding out the new Princeton Council.

Geoff Aton, the only Republican candidate in the running, received 3,533 votes and did not win a seat on the Council.

“I’ve worked for consolidation for about 40 years, and now we’re going to deliver it,” Miller said, adding that the first challenge of the consolidated municipality is to “deliver the promise we made” in terms of financial savings and unity of the entire town community.

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For the first time, nearly all Princeton undergraduate voters registered to vote here belonged to the same voting district and voted in a single on-campus polling place at Carl Icahn Laboratory. Results from this student-dominated district mirror the town’s strong liberal preferences.

Within District 7, which encompasses the main campus, Obama received 732 votes, or 79.7 percent of votes cast for president. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney received 153, or 16.7 percent of votes cast.

Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson received 19 votes at Carl Icahn Laboratory. Green Party candidate Jill Stein received 10.

Democrats had successes all across New Jersey. Incumbent Sen. Robert Menendez defeated Republican challenger Joe Kyrillos with 58.9 percent of the vote. Among Princeton voters, Menendez received 74.5 percent.

Princeton’s congressional district also overwhelmingly re-elected its House representative, Rush Holt — a former assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory — over Republican challenger Eric Beck. Holt received 79.4 percent of the vote.

The Democratic streak carried over to Mercer County’s election of county officials as well. New Jersey re-elected incumbent Democrats Ann Cannon, Pat Colavita and Samuel Frisby by large margins.

The election for Princeton’s seat in the New Jersey state assembly was still unsettled as of early Monday morning. No official projection was made, but several central New Jersey outlets reported that Republican incumbent Donna Simon led Democratic challenger Marie Corfield. Among Princeton voters, Corfield received 73 percent of the vote.