By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
LAMBERTVILLE — Mayor David Del Vecchio said Monday night he will not run for the state Assembly, after giving it consideration when Lambertville was placed in a new legislative district Sunday in a statewide redistricting process.
The redistricting removed Lambertville, West Amwell and East Amwell from the 23rd District and placed them in the 15th District, traditionally a stronger Democratic area.
The change also removed Princeton Borough and Princeton Township from the 15th District and placed them in the 16th District.
A Democratic assemblyman who represents the 15th District, Reed Gusciora, has said he plans to move from his hometown of Princeton Township to allow him to remain in the district he governs.
But his statement raised a question: Should he be considered an incumbent if he is newly arrived in the district, following the change of residence?
If he were not considered an incumbent, that would give Mayor Del Vecchio a window of opportunity to run for the Assembly.
”It looked like there was an open seat, so I considered my options,” the mayor said.
If Assemblyman Gusciora were ruled to be an incumbent, he would have party support, Mayor Del Vecchio said. “It means I would have to run without the line,” meaning party backing, the mayor added.
The Mercer County Democratic Party decided Assemblyman Gusciora would remain an incumbent, even with a change of residence, according to Mayor Del Vecchio.
As a result, the mayor said he chose not to run for the higher office.
That doesn’t rule out a future run for the Assembly for the city’s 20-year mayor.
”Under the right circumstances, I would still be interested,” Mayor Del Vecchio said. “Whether it’s me or somebody else, I would hope that we would be given representation and we would be full participants in the 15th Legislative District. I hope the Hunterdon County portion of the district would be a real partner in the legislative district, whether that’s me or whoever.”
Mayor Del Vecchio was sworn in as president of the New Jersey Conference of Mayors in January. In the mid-1990s, he made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Congress.
Hunterdon County Democratic Committee member Pat Masterson, of West Amwell, a predominantly Republican municipality, said the redistricting might make a difference in getting Democrats elected at the county level, but not so much locally.
”It may help with the county,” she said. “One doesn’t know until we see what the voters do.”

