Endorsements from both parties
Pari Stave is a rare candidate.
In a field of respectable candidates, Ms. Stave stands head and shoulders above the rest.
She has shown, in her six years on the Township Committee, that she is knowledgeable, committed to the community and possesses the kind of creativity needed to ensure to protect Cranbury’s small-town atmosphere without bankrupting its taxpayers.
Ms. Stave, a Democrat, has had a hand in identifying, purchasing and then finding ways to pay for open space and farmland. She along with her committee colleagues has adopted responsible budgets that have minimized tax increases while providing quality municipal services to the community.
Endorsing her is one of the easiest decisions we have had the opportunity to make in several years.
We also are endorsing Diane Stasi, a Republican.
Ms. Stasi has good ideas and is not afraid to share them. We believe she will bring another strong, critical voice to the committee (joining lone Republican Wayne Wittman), giving it better political balance.
We were impressed with Ms. Stasi’s knowledge of the issues and agree with her contention that the committee relies to too great a degree on outside consultants and can sometimes get bogged down in studies. She has shown that she knows the value residents place on the township’s history and on historic preservation, has served on the Historic Preservation Commission and with several community groups and, if elected, should be ready to hit the ground running.
Our only reservation is her willingness, along with her running mate Robert Smithers, to engage in the kind of blatant political campaigning that might seem normal for some communities but that has been out of character in Cranbury. The two hosted a supposedly apolitical public forum on safety last week, just three weeks before the election. We were disappointed with the timing of the event and Ms. Stasi’s participation (Mr. Smithers is a major in the Army Reserves, serving in the civil affairs division, the military police and the engineer corps).
In addition, the two publicly and wrongly criticized the committee for not doing enough to combat speeders, or to deal with traffic safety issues more generally, after a minor traffic accident occurred on Old Trenton Road. The accident, which police said was caused when the driver blacked out at the wheel, looked worse than it was (the car turned over, though there were no injuries) and made for nothing more than good campaign fodder.
Ms. Stasi’s knowledge and commitment, however, were enough to offset any misgivings and earn our endorsement.
The same cannot be said for her running mate, however. Mr. Smithers has not demonstrated that he knows the community the way we believe a member of the committee should. And his comments about affordable housing (he opposes low-income housing and is concerned that it will bring "users and abusers" of the system to Cranbury) were insensitive and uncalled for.
As for Tom Panconi, an incumbent Democrat, he is a good candidate who has done a solid job in his three years on the committee. He knows the community and has shown a commitment to making it better. In almost any other year, he would have won our endorsement.
While there are two Borough Council seats on the ballot in Jamesburg, there is no race. Both candidates incumbent Joe Jennings and Brian Grimes, both Democrats are running unopposed. Therefore, we will not be making an endorsement.

