The Princeton Party and Citizens Fusion Party to run a total of three candidates.
By: Jennifer Potash
Two new political parties filed Tuesday to enter candidates in the Princeton Borough Council race.
The Princeton Party will run the slate of Alan Hegedus of Armour Road and Mark Alexandridis of Princeton Avenue.
The Citizens Fusion Party will run a single candidate Jim Firestone of Vandeventer Avenue.
The independent candidates will challenge Democratic incumbents Wendy Benchley and Peggy Karcher. Ms. Benchley and Ms. Karcher won their uncontested primary Tuesday with 621 votes and 605 votes, respectively.
Mr. Hegedus, a Republican who lost a 1999 Borough Council race and now serves on the Princeton Regional Board of Education, quipped he was running again because "some people never learn."
The Princeton Party bills itself as including residents of all political backgrounds. Mr. Alexandridis, in fact, is not affiliated with any party. The aim is to take the partisanship out of local policies, Mr. Hegedus said.
"The Princeton Party is a nonpartisan alliance that wants to bring some fresh ideas to our government," Mr. Hegedus said.
Mayor Marvin Reed, a Democrat, saw other motives behind the Princeton Party.
"I call them the ‘stealth party’ because they came in under the radar not wanting to run as Republicans," he said Tuesday.
The party seems to have grown out of the effort last year to halt the garage and a petition drive in January seeking a referendum, the mayor said,
"I always felt the whole effort of the petitions had a touch of politics to them and this indicates that was the case," Mayor Reed said. "Some of the people who carried petitions around were very sincere in their concerns and anxieties but I know potentially Republican households were targeted and as I read through the signatures there was that aura."
One individual associated with the Princeton Party, who did not wish to be identified, said the Republicans had run on the same issues raised by the Princeton Party in the past and lost because they were unable to lure Democrats to cross over and vote for a Republican.
Mr. Alexandridis, an engineer by training who has worked in the banking and financial industries for the past 15 years, said his "somewhat limited experience with the political process in Princeton" disappointed him.
"The reason I want to get involved is I think I’d like to have an objective, merit-based analysis of the issues and projects that confront the borough," he said, "Right now I think there’s the perception the Borough Council has a strongly partisan-shaped prism though which it views the issues, as it’s all Democrats."
Mr. Alexandridis had spoken out against the garage during council meetings last year.
He also said he thought the council was "arrogant" by not focusing on local issues, pointing out a council discussion over a resolution opposing the war in Iraq earlier this year.
Mr. Hegedus said other issues in the campaign will include the municipal debt and the garage development. If elected to the council, Mr. Hegedus said he would call for an audit of the project’s finances to date and construction schedule.
Mr. Firestone, one of the co-founders of the grassroots organization Concerned Citizens of Princeton that opposed the downtown garage development, said the garage would be one issue in his Citizens Fusion Party campaign.
Another key part of his platform is seeking "practical solutions to the town’s problems, not theoretical solutions," Mr. Firestone said.
Instead of going ahead with the garage, the municipality should have worked with the institutions adding to the parking burden Princeton University, Princeton Theological Seminary and The Medical Center at Princeton to contribute to the downtown parking, he said.
Mr. Firestone added he has experience working with those institutions, noting he pushed for and got the university to stop its construction workers from parking on residential streets and to open up the surface lots off William Street to the public during off hours.
The Citizens Fusion Party grew out of conversations he had during the effort to put the garage development to a referendum last year, Mr. Firestone said.
Ms. Benchley said she welcomed the third parties into the race.
"I’m so pleased and thrilled we will have other parties in the race," she said. "I’m looking forward to a very good discussion of the issues."
The primary also had several write-in candidates Catherine Hammond, Mr. Firestone, Joel Mills, Pat Strazza, Mr. Hegedus, Mr. Alexandridis and Nancy Ford all received one vote each.