PACKET EDITORIAL, June 1
While we prefer not to make endorsements in primary elections, one aspect of the race between borough Mayor Mildred Trotman and her Democratic challenger, Kim Pimley, clearly calls for comment.
Ms. Pimley, like any candidate challenging an incumbent, has naturally sought to advance her own cause by seeking a debate with Mayor Trotman. Nonetheless, a debate would also have served the public’s interest, which is why the League of Women Voters, among others, sought to sponsor one.
Mayor Trotman’s avoidance of a debate has not only been a disservice to the borough’s voters but also to her own well-earned image as a confident and able leader.
Anyone observing the mayor during a gathering in a Gordon Way living room Wednesday night could see that she is perfectly capable of holding her own in a public forum. So her insistent and, frankly, lame explanation that she could find no time to debate Ms. Pimley could hardly be grounded in fear.
Unfortunately, the more likely motives are no more salutary. The first is the political calculation that there was no point helping a challenger draw an audience. The second is that the opportunity to engage a wider circle of Princeton voters in a full discussion of the borough’s future was not worth Mayor Trotman’s time.
The latter explanation is ironic, given the Princeton Community Democratic Organization’s attempt to dismiss Ms. Pimley as some sort of elitist special-interest candidate. Their evidence for this argument is that most of her campaign funding has come from neighbors who, like Ms. Pimley, oppose the limitations of a proposed historic designation for their homes. One Democratic leader, confronting Ms. Pimley in her town forum at the YWCA Wednesday night, noted that her campaign contributors include eight "unaffiliated" voters, four Republicans and a Democrat who is married to a Republican.
The implied alarm at such suspect individuals participating in a mayoral election stands the logic of democracy on its head. Unaffiliated voters are eligible to vote in New Jersey primary elections and it’s hardly surprising, much less nefarious, when citizens are drawn into electoral politics by issues affecting their own neighborhoods.
As for the presumably terrifying spectacle of Republican homeowners in Princeton contributing money to a Democrat running for mayor, we can only observe that the borough’s Democratic administration seems to have no qualms about taking their money in the form of property taxes and fees. Casting aspersions on their contributions to a mayoral campaign seems a bit tasteless, though not surprising in a place where one party views re-election as an entitlement.
In any case, Democrats and independents will choose the governing party’s candidate Tuesday. The borough’s Republican leadership will apparently let that person become or remain mayor by default.
Regardless of the outcome, the PCDO’s treatment of Ms. Pimley who is, after all, one of its own and the mayor’s aversion to debate have cast an unflattering light on the party and its preferred candidate.

