HIGHTSTOWN: 2 for Tuesday: Council seats top local choices

By Vic Monaco and Matt Chiappardi, Staff Writers
   On an Election Day when a presidential race is expected to bring out a record number of voters, Hightstown residents will be choosing from four candidates Tuesday to fill two seats on the Borough Council.
   Seeking positions being vacated by Ryan Rosenberg and Constance Harinxma on the all-Democratic council are Republicans Ashley Hutchinson and Mike Theokas and Democrats Janice Mastriano and Isabel McGinty.
   Ms. Hutchinson, 36, of Hagemount Avenue, is a member of the local Planning Board and serves as the chairwoman of the borough Republican Committee and first vice chairperson of the Mercer County Republican Committee. An attorney, she works as the municipal prosecutor for Ewing Township and assistant prosecutor for Trenton.
   She is a nine-year resident of the borough.
   Mr. Theokas, 35, of Mill Run East, is the former owner of Theo’s Lakeside Tavern in the borough and a member of the borough’s Economic Development Committee. Seeking a council seat for a second year in a row, he is the only candidate who supports consolidation of Hightstown with East Windsor because of the borough’s financial woes.
   He has lived in the borough four years.
   Ms. Mastriano, 72, of Leshin Lane, is a former member of the regional school board, having served for nine years in the 1990s and early 2000s. A 40-year borough resident, she is a former employee of McGraw Hill and Merrill Lynch.
   While a member of the school board in 2000, the self-described “conservative Christian Democrat” outraged some members of the community with comments linking gays and pedophiles. For that reason, local Democratic Club President Chris Moraitis supported an unsuccessful 11th-hour write-in candidate as an alternative.
   Ms. Mastriano was the only candidate who did not take part in a recent candidates forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters, notifying the League that she had undergone eye surgery that day.
   Ms. McGinty, 53, of Broad Street, is a 29-year borough resident and a first-time political candidate. She is running as an “independent Democrat,” stating that partisan politics have hurt the borough.
   A criminal defense attorney with her own practice, she previously worked for the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate and the state Office of the Public Defender and served as a staff attorney for the U.S. Senate Iran-Contra Committee.
   Voters in Hightstown and East Windsor are also helping to choose a congressman, senator and a county sheriff and some freeholders.
   Longtime U.S. Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg is being challenged by Republican Dick Zimmer.
   Sen. Lautenberg has served four terms in the Senate, the first from 1981 to 2001, and the second beginning in 2003. He serves on the Appropriations; Environment and Public Works; and Commerce, Science, and Transportation committees.
   Mr. Zimmer is a former congressman in the state’s 12th District, having served between 1991 and 1997. He previously served in both houses of the state Legislature from 1981 to 1991.
   Mr. Zimmer works for the Washington-based law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
   In the lower house, 4th District Republican Chris Smith is having his longstanding seat challenged by Democrat Joshua Zeitz of Bordentown.
   Mr. Smith has served in the House of Representatives since 1981 and is the ranking member of the Congressional Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Africa and Global Health Subcommittee.
   Mr. Zeitz has been a history instructor at Cambridge, Harvard, and Rutgers universities.
   Mercer County Sheriff Kevin Larkin, a Democrat, is having his position challenged by James McSorley, a Republican.
   Mr. Larkin, of Hamilton, has been county sheriff since 2003 and has worked in the county sheriff’s department since 1987.
   Mr. McSorley is a retired State Police captain from Hamilton, who was a member of that force for 25 years. He also was the director of public policy for Mr. Smith until accepting the Republican nomination for sheriff earlier this year.
   As for the county freeholders, there are three seats up for grabs.
   Democrats Daniel Benson and Lucy Walter, the current chairwoman, are having their seats challenged by Republicans Cindy Randazzo and Thomas White, and Democrat John Cimino, who defeated Democratic incumbent Tony Mack in the primary.
   Mr. Benson, a private consultant on energy and telecommunications policy from Hamilton, replaced Elizabeth Muoio, who recently resigned to take a county administrative position.
   Ms. Walter, of Ewing, has been a freeholder for nine years and is a former schoolteacher.
   The other Democrat, Mr. Cimino, of Hamilton, has been chairman of the county Planning Board since 2007 and is a sales and marketing consultant.
   On the Republican side, Ms. Randazzo, of Princeton, works for a financial services company. Mr. White, of Hamilton, is a services manager at a Best Buy store, according to published reports.
   In addition, there are two statewide ballot questions being posed to voters, both for amendments to the state constitution.
   The first would require voter approval before the could borrow money by floating bonds through any state agency or independent authority backed by a pledge of annual appropriation to pay the principal and interest on the bonds.
   The state carries about $37 billion in debt.
   The second, if approved, would change how municipal judges are selected. Currently the state constitution determines the method for how judges get to the bench. The question asks voters if that ought to be changed to being determined by statute.