Republican challenger Nancy Witt has dropped out of the Cranbury Township Committee race in a move that leaves fellow Republican Wayne Wittman, a former township committeeman, to face two Democrats in November.
Witt announced at the Township Committee meeting on June 25 that she was quitting the race, effective that day. During a public comment portion of the meeting, she mostly read verbatim from a notarized statement which said Witt did not want to “split the ticket.”
Witt’s announcement came less than a month after she and Wittman won an uncontested primary to challenge Democratic township committeemen Jay Taylor and Michael J. Ferrante in the general election. This was to have been Witt’s second attempt at public office, having lost the first time, in 2017, to Democratic Township Committeeman Matthew A. Scott.
“I would sincerely thank the voters who supported me last year and encouraged me to run this year,” she said, adding that she plans to support Wittman.
After the meeting, Witt refused to explain why she had entered the race in the first place or to elaborate beyond her prepared remarks.
“I’ve said what I’ve had to say,” said Witt, who is vice president of Sweetwater Construction Corp., a local construction company.
“You know, this was totally her decision,” Wittman said after the meeting. “I can’t add much more than what she said, other than she’s a great lady and she has the town’s interest at heart.”
Cranbury GOP Chairwoman Phylissanne Stehn, who sat in the meeting room next to Witt, said there would not be a replacement candidate to fill the now empty slot.
“She is withdrawing her candidacy, so we can focus on Wayne,” Stehn said. “We’re focusing on one. We don’t want to split it.”
Asked why Witt ran in the primary if that was the strategy, Stehn said Witt’s statement “explains it all.”
“I think you’ll see between now and Election Day why we did it,” she said.
For Democrats, Witt’s decision means they are assured of winning at least one of the seats up for grabs and keeping their majority on the governing body next year, regardless of the outcome in November. At the moment, Democrats hold a 4-1 edge.
Ferrante and Taylor, reacting to Witt’s decision, find themselves with one less challenger.
“It’s a shame she decided not to go through with the process,” Ferrante said. “It’s sad to think she chose not to pursue it.”
“It’s going to sound weird, but I’m actually sad she’s dropping out,” Taylor said. “The more candidates we have to chose from, the better off the residents’ decisions are, so I’m sad to see Nancy leave.”
Witt was the only woman in the race at a time when the governing body has faced questions about diversity in municipal government.
Witt’s departure came the same month as Cranbury politics got a jolt with a write-in candidate trying to defeat Taylor in the Democratic primary. Andrew Huang received more than 100 votes in the June 5 primary, but that was not enough votes to secure a place on the November ballot.