By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Republican Peter Marks said this week that he would run for mayor against incumbent Democrat Liz Lempert in a long-shot candidacy highlighting sharp contrasts between them on issues involving Princeton University and making the town affordable to live in.
In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Marks said he thought a contested mayoral race would allow for a “much broader discussion” in the community about zoning, taxes and affordability. He said he had decided last week to enter the race, a step he took at the invitation of the local Republican Party.
In contrasting himself with his opponent, he focused on the conflict of interest Mayor Lempert has with the university, the largest landowner in the community, given that her husband is a professor there. He said that creates problems, both real and perceived, for the town.
“That conflict is not a good thing,” he said.
For instance, he said he supports rezoning the Springdale Golf Club to prevent Nassau Hall from ever developing the land for future expansion, development that is permitted under current zoning regulations. But he said those kinds of changes would require negotiating with the university, something Mayor Lempert would not be allowed to participate in.
Mr. Marks said he has no conflicts of interest with the university, where his late father, John, used to be a professor.
He said Mayor Lempert’s “focus” on making Princeton affordable is to create more subsidized housing units — as opposed to making the town affordable for the entire community. He worries about residents being “priced out” of Princeton, and said he has seen firsthand, within his neighborhood, that phenomenon.
Mr. Marks, a resident of the former borough, said Mayor Lempert tends to side against the former Borough Council members who want to keep the downtown neighborhoods predominately single-family houses.
He took a critical view of consolidation, something that Mayor Lempert championed and calls a “success.” He said government services in the former borough are not what they used to be before the merger. He said leaf and brush pickup is less frequent and snow removal is “much worse.”
“I think it’s good for the town to have an election,” Mayor Lempert said Tuesday of Mr. Marks’ candidacy. “I don’t take anything for granted, and I don’t think I should.”
For her part, she disputed that government services are worse in the old borough and said she did not think it was a handicap for the town to have a mayor who cannot be involved in land use issues affecting the university.
Mr. Marks, 61, grew up in Princeton. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College and his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He worked in the financial industry, and is a real estate developer with properties in Ohio and Florida.
“He’s a marvelous candidate, and I think he will be able to articulate the issues that afflict our local governance quite well,” said Princeton Republican chairman Dudley Sipprelle on Tuesday.
Mr. Sipprelle said Mayor Lempert and the council “explain away” property tax increases, and faulted her lack of leadership. This week, the town announced taxes were going up again, by around $110, at the average home assessment of $810,191.
“We’re a sort of a backwater of local government,” Mr. Sipprelle continued. “What we have is a leadership, epitomized by the mayor, that wants to talk about national issues. So we get ordinances protecting illegal immigrants and sanctuary cities, but we’re not addressing the real issues affecting local taxpayers.”
Yet Mr. Marks faces long odds, given how, in Princeton, there are more registered Democrats, 8,881, than Republicans, 2,024. Overall, the town has 18,304 registered voters.
“If I were to win,” he said, “that would surprise me.”
Mr. Marks will be the standard bearer for the Princeton GOP this year. Mr. Sipprelle said the party would not field council candidates for the two open seats, to focus on the mayoral race.
