By Charles W. Kim and Nicole Cosentino, Packet Media Group
For Flemington’s Marie Corfield, it will be déjà vu all over again.
Ms. Corfield, an elementary art teacher, defeated Princeton Township Committeewoman Sue Nemeth for that party’s nomination Tuesday night.
Although results from each of the four counties in the reconfigured 16th district were not yet available, Ms. Nemeth called Ms. Corfield shortly after 11 p.m. to concede the race.
”I am very happy about tonight. I was cautiously optimistic,” Ms. Corfield said, flanked by supporters’ late Tuesday evening at Mannion’s Irish Pub in Somerville. “My opponent was a good candidate and ran a tough race.”
Ms. Corfield will now face GOP incumbent Donna Simon in the November general election to fill the un-expired term of the late Peter Biondi of Hillsborugh.
The 16th District covers Branchburg Township, Hillsborough Township, Manville Borough, Millstone Borough, Montgomery Township, Rocky Hill Borough and Somerville Borough in Somerset County; Delaware Township, Flemington Borough, Raritan Township, Readington Township and Stockton Borough in Hunterdon County; Princeton Borough and Princeton Township in Mercer County; and South Brunswick Township in Middlesex County.
Mr. Biondi won re-election last November, but died just two days later after a long bout with cancer.
Republicans appointed Ms. Simon to fill the seat for the remainder of this year and until an election could be held in November.
Ms. Corfield and South Brunswick Township Councilman Joe Camarota ran in last year’s race unsuccessfully for the Democrats, coming just 2,000 votes shy of newcomer, and now Assemblyman Jack Ciatarelli.
Mr. Camarota also won a Democratic challenge Tuesday night in his bid to be re-elected to the council.
With the death of Mr. Biondi and Ms. Simon’s appointment earlier this year, Ms. Corfield decided to run again for the seat, only to face a challenge from within her own party.
Even though Ms. Nemeth had three times the support of Ms. Corfield in her hometown of Princeton with 2,175 votes to Ms. Corfield’s 729, she lost in South Brunswick and Hillsborough by wide margins, according to the results from those communities.
Of the 9,213 total democrats registered, 3,240 voted in Princeton, and only about 2,300 voted in South Brunswick.
”I’m going to lose, it’s alright, I campaigned hard,” Ms. Nemeth said as she gathered with supporters at Conti’s in Princeton Tuesday night. “I did what I could, I feel bad, but what am I going to do?”
Ms. Nemeth said she needed to garner about 3,000 votes in Princeton to be able to make up losses elsewhere in the district, a number she couldn’t reach Tuesday.
”I campaigned hard and I don’t have any regrets,” Ms. Nemeth said. “I’m glad I did it, I would do it again.”
Ms. Nemeth also said that the support of the New Jersey Education Association teachers’ union, obtained by Ms. Corfield, brought too much money into the race for her to be able to compete successfully.
”It wasn’t a fair fight, they had a tremendous amount of money they poured into her race. They funded a tremendous number of mailings and phone calls, it went on and on,” Ms. Nemeth said. “Every day there was another mailing and there’s no way an individual can campaign (like that). I waged a ground war and I did my best.”
On the other end of the battle, Ms. Corfield is now looking ahead to the campaign against Ms. Simon five months from now.
”This is a winnable seat (for Democrats),” Ms. Corfield said.
Packet Media Group reporter Victoria Hurley-Shubert contributed to this report.