Candidates for first contested County Commissioner primary election in 10 years talk party diversity, U. relations

Two seats on the Mercer County Board of County Commissioners are up for election this year. Incumbents Lucylle Walter and John Cimino, both Democrats, are seeking reelection, while a third Democrat, Nakia White Barr, is also running. Two Republicans, Donald Ober and Shaolin Brown, are running and aim to claim seats on the currently all-Democrat commission.

This year is the first time the Board of County Commissioners, which was known as the Board of Chosen Freeholders prior to 2021, has had a contested primary election since 2016.

The two incumbents have both spent significant time on the Board. Walter has held the position since 1998, and Cimino has been on the Board since 2009.

Barr is a former Assistant Vice President for Institutional Affairs at the University; Ober is the owner of piano-tuning and repair company Don’s Piano; and Brown is the owner of Early Learner Christian Academy, a daycare in Trenton. Brown unsuccessfully ran as the Republican nominee for Mercer County Clerk last year.

In interviews with The Daily Princetonian, the candidates discussed what they would prioritize if elected.

A major issue candidates discussed was the transparency of county government. Commissioner meetings are open to the public in person in Trenton, but they are not livestreamed, and recordings of the meetings are not posted online. Walter and Cimino explained that the technology in the meeting room does not currently allow for livestreaming or recording, but the other candidates cast doubt on this explanation.

“Our building is very old, and the infrastructure in the building itself has been pretty poor,” Walter said. “We have brought in a new IT director and IT department that is upgrading all of the available digital services, so I think in the near future, we’re going to be able to at least stream those meetings.”

“Under our prior administrations, we did not make the proper investments on the technology side,” Cimino said. He said he would be “willing to have the conversation; understand what our best opportunity [is], whether that’s through YouTube, whether that’s through Facebook streaming.”

However, Barr questioned what level of technology would be needed to post a recording of meetings.

“People have attended the meetings and recorded it themselves and then used it and posted it for their own purposes, so there’s some way to at least record, because people have done that,” she said. “I don’t know if there are questions about the quality,” she added.

“That’s laughable,” Ober said about the idea that technology was why meetings could not be livestreamed or posted publicly. 

“Does it cost [money] to start a YouTube channel?” Brown asked.

Ober also argued that, even for people who are able to attend in person, the meetings are not sufficiently transparent. He noted that there is no overhead projector for audience members to see relevant documents as they are being discussed.

“Go to the next meeting, watch it, and see if you can understand what’s going on, because it’s intentionally vague,” he said. “You will walk away going ‘I didn’t know what they were talking about,’ and that works for the incumbents to just keep control.”

Barr described “amplifying the role, helping people understand it more” to increase knowledge about county government as one of her priorities. She said that the county’s website is “challenging to navigate” and suggested there is an “opportunity to modernize.”

“There’s a large percentage of our taxes that go to the county level. Some people don’t realize that, or even if they are aware, they still don’t have a clear understanding of what happens and how things are prioritized,” she said. She pointed to declines in civics education and local journalism as factors contributing to less awareness of county government.

However, Walter expressed a different view, arguing that the commissioners are a “pretty transparent group.”

“I say that because, when people can’t seem to get answers anywhere else, they come to us very often, even when the issue is not one of county government, because I think they believe that we honestly want to help and can help,” Walter said. “I know people feel that our government is responsive and transparent.”

Cimino and Brown both said that the commissioners could do more to be present in different communities. Cimino suggested bringing back the practice of having commissioner meetings take place occasionally in different municipalities around the county, which occurred prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is part of the individual’s job to see who your commissioner is and to know what they do, but it’s also part of whoever takes public oath in office to be in the community and make people aware,” Brown said.

The candidates also pointed to different reasons why they should be on the board. Walter and Cimino both argued that having extensive experience is a benefit. 

“I think the county is incredibly vast. People have little knowledge sometimes of all of the programs of the county,” Walter said. “I know all the partners, I know where the pots of money are, and I know how to leverage them for the full advantage of Mercer County taxpayers.”

“Having new ideas and new perspectives is always something that people run on, but I think having experience and understanding why we make the investments that we make, why we support certain programs that we have, does give you an advantage,” Cimino said.

Ober and Brown, meanwhile, argued that having a board that is not all-Democratic would be beneficial.

When talking to voters about the board being all-Democratic, Ober said that “almost everybody, universally, says that’s not right, because it’s ripe for abuse. I’m not accusing them of abusing it. I’m saying it doesn’t give the public confidence that all views are considered.” 

He also suggested that, if commissioners of both parties vote for a change such as a tax increase, voters would have greater confidence that it was warranted.

Rapidly rising electricity prices in New Jersey, in part driven by an expansion of data centers in the state, have also been a major political issue. The candidates expressed differing views on whether they would support data center construction in Mercer County. New data centers are being built around the country, largely to power increased usage of artificial intelligence.

“As a county commissioner, you have to take in mind the interest of the residents, and from what I’m hearing and what I’m seeing, sentiment in the community where this has come up in different municipalities, it seems like there is pretty strong opposition to data centers,” Barr said, explaining why she would oppose data centers in the county. Cimino also said that he “would be a little cautious” about data center construction, but said he doesn’t “understand the whole picture at the moment.”

“I actually would be more comfortable with data centers going into some of our old industrial areas that already had the capability to provide water and electricity,” Walter noted. However, she and Barr both emphasized that the county has limited power over whether data centers are built, which would largely be decided at the municipal planning level.

“I’m for the data centers,” Ober said, expressing greater optimism than the other candidates. “It’s the new future, and I don’t view it as a bad thing. It’s just people are concerned about the energy involved.”

When discussing how they envisioned collaboration with Princeton at the county level, Walter said there is already “very open communication.” Barr expressed enthusiasm about having more frequent communication between leading companies and institutions in the county, including the University, to foster “investment in the regional ecosystem.”

Cimino stressed the University’s importance in the local economy and said the University must do its “part in making sure that the dollars that they’re investing are continuously putting local people to work.”

Primary elections in New Jersey, which include the commissioner’s race, will be on June 2. The general election is scheduled for Nov. 3.

Oliver Wu is the assistant News editor for the ‘Prince’ leading town coverage, focused on the Municipality of Princeton and beyond. He is from Stony Brook, N.Y., and can be reached at oliver.wu[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

Teresa Chen is a staff News writer from Shanghai. She can be reached at tc7069[at]princeton.edu.

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to include the fact that this is the first contested election since 2016.