By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
David Cohen and Leticia Fraga are going about their business as political candidates would this time of year, even though other contests are getting more attention than their race for Princeton Council.
The race for Princeton school board has six candidates vying for three seats, the contest for the 16th Legislative District is brewing and Phil Murphy and Kim Guadagno are seeing which one of them will become the next governor.
But Cohen and Fraga, Democrats running for two seats, have a much different race on their hands, since they have no opposition on Nov. 7. In fact, they have not faced any opponents, at any stage, not even in the Democratic Primary. That means they have known for the better part of the year that they will be sitting on the governing body come January. In effect, they have had an extended transition period to prepare for the challenges that await them in replacing Councilman Bernard P. Miller and Councilwoman Jo S. Butler.
“The way that we’ve been trying to run the campaign, since it is uncontested, is as a listening campaign, basically trying to hear from members of the public about what issues they’re concerned about,” Cohen said Tuesday. “That’s part of our effort to educate ourselves in preparation for being on council, just to make sure that we’re aware of issues that are out there that we might not already be aware of.”
Fraga said Tuesday that they are “behaving as if we were running a normal, contested campaign.”
“We’re getting out and talking to folks,” said Fraga, poised to become the first Latina ever to serve in Princeton municipal government. “Just about every week, our supporters are hosting get-togethers for us, to give us an opportunity to really get out and listen.”
Cohen is a first-time candidate, while Fraga lost her first bid for council in the Democratic primary last year. Both have served on municipal boards before; Cohen is on the Planning Board, and Fraga is the chairwoman of the Civil Rights Commission.
“I think we’ve been doing a fair amount of outreach,” Cohen said. “And I do hear from folks in the community that are grateful for how available we’ve made ourselves to hear the concerns of the community.”
Fraga said she sees campaigning as a way to not only hear the concerns voters have but also to hear their ideas “of how to resolve some of the issues.” She spoke of preparing herself “to hit the ground running.”
“Until it’s official, I’m not treating it as if I’m already on council,” she said. “But I am preparing myself for it.”
Cohen touched on ways he is giving himself a head start. As part of his council work next year, he will be the liaison to Princeton Community Television. He’s been invited to start attending the station’s governing board, to get familiar with issues that might come up.
Cohen and Fraga will join a six-member council, in which Democrats hold all the seats. For his part, Cohen said he thinks an uncontested election is not good for the town, and said he “wished that we had some opposition.”
“Then nobody could, sort of, use the fact that we were unopposed as a way to undermine, somehow, the legitimacy of our being on council,” he said.
