PRINCETON: Mayor headed to Washington for inauguration

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert plans to be in Washington, D.C., Monday for the inauguration of President Barack Obama, the second time she will have seen him take the oath of office.
   ”It’s going to be exciting,” she said Wednesday.
   Ms. Lempert recalled going to his first inaugural four years ago, amid a throng of people who were there for the historic occasion. She said the experience of being in the nation’s capital that day was memorable. She said she is hoping for a good crowd this time but not quite so many people.
   She said she “barely saw” the president take the oath of office in 2009.
   Though not going as part of an official delegation from the state, Ms. Lempert will travel with her oldest daughter, Madi, and some of her daughter’s friends from Princeton High School.
   ”She’s really excited to go,” the mayor said.
   Technically, Mr. Obama already will be sworn in come Monday.
   Per the 20th Amendment, his term and that of Vice President Joe Biden end at noon Sunday, Jan.20. Both men will take their official oaths of office during a small swearing-in ceremony that day in the White House, according to the Obama administration.
   That has happened before, most recently with former President Ronald Reagan in 1985. By tradition, when Inauguration Day falls on a Sunday presidents have not had their grand swearing in ceremonies at the Capitol.
   The Lemperts and company will travel by train for the long day trip. Though schools are closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the mayor’s daughter has to be back in classes the next day.
   Ms. Lempert, a Democrat, helped Mr. Obama get elected in 2008 by overseeing campaign operations in Mercer County. She managed to enlist thousands of volunteers in an ultimately winning effort, even though when she first got involved, most of the state’s political class was not supporting him at the time.