By Lea Kahn and Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writers
Republican mayoral candidate Richard Woodbridge raised $81,000 and spent most of it in his attempt to beat Democrat challenger Liz Lempert, campaign finance reports showed.
By comparison, Ms. Lempert raised $8,319 on her own plus $26,411 in a joint campaign fund with the six Democrats running for council. Combined, they spent around $26,688 to Mr. Woodbridge’s $61,466, an analysis of those reports showed.
Despite being outraised and outspent, Mr. Lempert won the Nov.6 contest to become the first ever mayor of the consolidated Princeton.Ms. Lempert said Thursday that Democrats had planned how much they intended to spend, despite some unknowns on whether it would cost more to run for office in two towns as opposed to one. Democrats had some other advantages in their favor, including an edge in registered voters and that the presidential contest would help increase voter turnout.
Mr. Woodbridge, in a phone interview, said he did better raising money than he had expected. He said he did not have to work particularly hard raising the money, but felt he had tapped into people who wanted change.
He had the more extensive donor list. He received $36,495 in contributions in excess of $300. Big donors giving $1,000 or more included Charles Rose, Greg Olsen, William R. Robins, Arve Hanstveit, Judith Scheide, William Scheide, Betty Wold Johnson, Helmut Weymar, Donald Pickering, Scott Sipprelle, Norman Harvey, William Ryan, Nelson Obus, John Clearwater, Paul Breitman and David Tierno.
His remaining $39,137 came from donors giving less than $300, the reports showed.
Ms. Lempert got $1,000 from her parents, Art and Sue Lempert and $1,000 from her father-in law, Frank Norman. She also transferred $1,394 in funds from a prior campaign.
The Democrats’ joint campaign fund got $7,000 from the Princeton Community Democratic Organization, $1,000 from the Mercer County Democratic Committee, $1,000 from Grace Won and $500 from the Committee to re-elect Bernie Miller and $500 from David Jacobus.
Geoff Aton, the lone Republican council candidate, filed with the state saying his campaign would spend less than $4,000 and therefore no campaign finance report was needed. During the contest, the Woodbridge campaign spent on web advertisement, literature distribution and phone calls, mailing, printing and design of campaign literature and on headquarters/campaign management. Democrats spent most of their money on newspaper advertisements and printing and mailing campaign literature.As of Nov.26, the Woodbridge campaign fund had $16,266 left over. Though there are some final campaign bills left to be paid, Mr. Woodbridge said he has not decided how to spend what remains. He did not rule out using it for a future run for political office for himself or for an effort to have a nonpartisan form of government in town.
Ms. Lempert and the joint campaign fund had $8,042 left as of Nov. 25.
Campaign finance reports are available online through the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, www.elec.state.nj.us.

