By Philip Sean Curran
Staff Writer
Democrats Eve Niedergang and Dwaine Williamson were elected in a landslide result on Nov. 6 to the Princeton Council.
It was the first bid for public office for each candidate.
Niedergang was the top vote-getter with 6,828 votes and Williamson finished just behind with 6,565 votes, according to unofficial results at the Mercer County Clerk’s Office.
Republican challenger Lisa Wu, who did not have a running mate, finished with 2,074 votes.
“It feels really good,” Niedergang said on Election Day of winning. “It’s been a long year, with a lot of work. I’ve learned an incredible amount about the town and the people in it.”
“I’m looking forward to working with Eve,” Williamson said after the results came in.
Once they take office in January, Niedergang and Williamson will replace Heather H. Howard and Lance Liverman, who declined to seek re-election to the council.
In their first roles as candidates, the emerged from a contested Democratic primary earlier in the year to advance to the general election.
In both their cases, Princeton was their adopted home.
In Niedergang’s case, the native New Yorker was a candidate in the community she moved to for graduate school in the 1980s, at Princeton University. She moved away for a time but came back to establish roots in a town she will help to lead.
“I feel like I’ve been here in Princeton for a long time,” she said. “And the opportunity to make a contribution to a place that I love and I’ve lived in for a long time, it’s humbling and exciting.”
Williamson grew up in Trenton, having spent the first few years of his life in Jamaica. He recalled how his mother had worked as a housekeeper for Princeton families.
“So Princeton was always like a distant dream for me,” said Williamson, who had yet to call his mom to tell her he had won. “So now, thank God that things turned out where I was able to move here 20 years ago and raise my children here. It is certainly a dream come true for me.”
As for Wu, she joined a long list of Republicans to run for office in Princeton, only to lose in a landslide. Democrats have a large edge in registered voters.
In a phone interview on Nov.7, she thanked her supporters and her Democratic opponents for a race without personal attacks. Yet she suggested she would run for office again.
“I’ll be back, I’m not a quitter,” she said.
Tuesday’s victory means Democrats will continue to hold all six Council seats on a governing body going through turnover.
In 2019, Council President Jenny Crumiller will be the last member of the governing body from the original Council that began leading the merged community in 2013, the first year of consolidation.
Crummiler has not disclosed whether she intends to run for re-election next year. She could not be reached for comment.