Clinton mayor on verge of entering Congressional race as a Democrat
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Clinton Town Mayor Janice Kovach is seriously considering a run for Congress as a Democrat in the district represented by Leonard Lance since 2009.
The 7th Congressional District includes Hillsborough, Montgomery and Rocky Hill in Somerset, as well as all of Hunterdon County.
She will speak to the Hillsborough Democratic Alliance at its meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 5, at 7 p.m. at Avalon Assisted Living, 393 Amwell Road.
Ms. Kovach has served as mayor of Clinton since 2012, and was a councilwoman from 2004 to 2006.
If she and Mr. Lance both win their parties’ primaries, it would pit two graduates of the same high school (North Hunterdon) who now live within five miles of each other.
It would create an interesting philosophical race. Ms. Kovach will likely lean on women’s groups for support and money. From 2006 to 2010, Ms. Kovach served as the director of the Division on Women within the Department of Community Affairs. She’s connected to the state Democratic organization and is currently serving her third term as the elected secretary of the Democratic State Committee.
Mr. Lance, who lives in Clinton Township, has represented Hunterdon and other parts of the district since the 1990s when he was first an Assemblyman and then a state Senator. He prides himself for being the author of a state constitutional amendment that bars state government from borrowing to pay for operating expenses.
He faces his third primary challenge from the right in the person of David Larsen, a businessman who announced at a “Rally in Defense of the Second Amendment” in November. He criticized Lance’s “profligate spending” and “refusing to join the fight to defund Obamacare,” although Mr. Lance has voted against the health care act more than 40 times in his time in Congress.
Ms. Kovach, now 48, ran for the state General Assembly in 2005, but finished third behind Michael Doherty and Marcia Karrow in a decidedly Republican district.
In the 2012 Congressional race, the Democrats fielded 10-year state Assemblyman Upendra Chivikula of Franklin Township, although he didn’t live within the district. (By law, it isn’t required.)
The district also covers part of Warren County, southern Morris County and east to Millburn, Union and Clark.
The Hillsborough Democratic Alliance is a club that holds monthly meetings for “fellow Democrats and progressives” and focusing on “transparency and accountability in local government.” Membership is not required to attend meetings.
For information, contact [email protected].