Yaede, Gore, Kenny, Pone and Schimer
Republicans shake off Bencivengo scandal, score Election Day sweep
A week after Republicans swept all five municipal seats up for grabs Nov. 5, many of the winners hadn’t recovered still from an extended—and heated—campaign season in Hamilton.
“It’s a difficult thing to go through an election like that,” Hamilton councilman Dennis Pone said. “Dave Kenny and I particularly were attacked. Our voters in Hamilton, we have great voters. They’re astute. They tend to see things the way they really are. This election, they tried to lump us in with the John Bencivengo thing, which wasn’t true. And they didn’t offer anything on top of it.”
Election Day 2013 came into sharp focus a year ago, following the trial and subsequent resignation of then-mayor John Bencivengo. A U.S. district court jury found Bencivengo guilty of five corruption charges Nov. 20, 2012, triggering a chain of events that ended last month with the mayor’s office and four of five council seats on the ballot.
The trial itself centered around $12,400 Bencivengo accepted from the Hamilton school district’s insurance broker, Marliese Ljuba, and included extensive testimony from Ljuba. The broker claimed she provided cash, gifts or both to a Who’s Who of Hamilton, including contributions to the campaigns of Kenny and Pone.
The councilmen dispute the allegations, and no charges have been filed against anyone other than Bencivengo and former township community planning director Rob Warney. Bencivengo and Warney each are serving prison terms currently.
Democratic mayoral candidate Barbara Plumeri attempted to use the trial as an opportunity to break the Republican stranglehold in Hamilton. Throughout the campaign, she tried to link Hamilton Mayor Kelly Yaede—a two-term councilwoman who ascended to the executive position last Nov. 30—and the all-Republican council to their partymates now in jail. Plumeri referred to the “Bencivengo-Yaede administration” frequently. In Plumeri’s responses to a pre-election questionnaire in the Hamilton Post, the Democrat mentioned Bencivengo just one fewer time than she did Yaede, her opponent.
Yet, the Republicans said they experienced a much different reality than the one Plumeri painted, and the results from Election Day suggested so did voters in the township. Yaede defeated Plumeri by 21 percentage points. Republican council candidates Kenny, Pone and Ed Gore all outpaced the next highest vote-getter, Democrat Joe Santo, by more than 2 percentage points, or 1,600 votes. Councilwoman Ileana Schrimer also won big in her race, defeating Democrat Tennille McCoy by nearly 1,500 votes for the right to the remaining two years on Yaede’s unexpired council term.
“Everywhere we went, everyone was so positive,” Schirmer said. “The Bencivengo issue was not an issue. It was almost the opposite. Residents said they would vote for him if he was running because he did such a good job as mayor. They just felt bad about what happened.”
Yaede, though, credited her victory to the administration’s ability to put the past—namely Bencivengo’s—behind it. She pointed to her open-door policy and the institution of a set of ethics guidelines and annual training programs as measures taken to remove the pall of corruption in town hall. Yaede said she strove to be a visible and approachable mayor, and took pride in establishing a “comfort level” with residents.
At the same time, she called her win “a mandate to continue good government in Hamilton Township,” and said she plans to use the remaining two years on Bencivengo’s unexpired term as mayor to follow the same path township Republicans have for the past seven years.
Yaede wants to streamline government code, keep taxes stable and maintain investment in infrastructure, like roads and sewers—all things her counterparts on council have pledged to do, as well.She said the challenge of her term will be finding ways to streamline government and make it cost efficient, while not affecting services, particularly with the state government holding $5 million in energy tax receipts Yaede and past administrations have contended belong to the township.
To combat that, Yaede said she wants to attract ratables to Hamilton, and has made economic development her top priority. Interstates 195 and 295, the New Jersey Turnpike and U.S. 130 all run through Hamilton Township, and the administration has explored taking advantage of Hamilton’s geography by adding warehouse space in the township, Yaede said. If nothing else, the township can promote itself as easily accessible.
“I want businesses to know that Hamilton is open for business,” she said. “We have a population of almost 90,000 here in Hamilton Township, which is very attractive to businesses. And we want to make sure businesses know that we have a population base that can support businesses.”
The opposition, though, contends the municipal government hasn’t done enough to lure businesses to Hamilton. Two-time Democratic council candidate Dan Keelan, who finished sixth in last month’s election, promised to keep the issues raised during the campaign alive.
Among his main points: Hamilton has lost ground—and revenue—to municipalities that offer businesses Payment In Lieu of Taxes programs. Keelan predicted council would scoff at PILOT programs as corporate welfare, and Keelan said he would agree—if only Hamilton wasn’t one of the last holdouts in the area.
“We’re not on a level playing field,” Keelan said. “Robbinsville’s using them. Ewing’s using them. Even Trenton’s using them. You’re not going to stop Robbinsville or Ewing from using PILOT. We’ve got to start using them. You can use them to attract the type of employer you want.”
Keelan said he also wants the township to reveal the math used to determine its 5-year plan for road improvements, as well as the full list of which roads will be repaired and when. The township website has a list for all repairs in 2013 currently.
He has several other issues he would like council to tackle, but realizes it may be a hard sell, particularly in light of November’s results. Keelan pledged to go neighborhood-by-neighborhood in seek of support, if he must.
“They call it a mandate,” Keelan said. “There is a constituency of 10,000-plus people who did not vote for them. They have to consider that seriously as they govern. If me or another Democrat goes to speak to them, we have a constituency of 10,000 we represent.”
But councilman Pone, like Yaede in the executive’s office, said the majority of people are happy with the town’s direction, and the results are “a mandate to keep doing the same thing.”
In this case, the same thing is the same things Yaede has promised to do. Council will seek to improve infrastructure, monitor crime statistics, streamline policies to entice business to the township and keep taxes stable.
“I don’t have any grandiose plans for Hamilton Township,” Pone said. “I’ll leave that up to Mayor Yaede and her administration. I’m that basic government guy.”
Pone said he will continue to be a “fiscal hawk,” ensuring the township spends within its budget. Schirmer said this will also be her top priority on council.
It’s of little surprise council’s priorities align with Yaede’s exactly, considering Yaede spent six years on council. But it’s a benefit to the township, Pone said, that council and the mayor work together well.
“[The federal government in] Washington is a good example of how things go when you don’t work together,” Pone said. “Kelly and I don’t agree on everything, but we do work together well. I’m not sure how it would have gone if things had gone the other way.”
Pone also said he was pleased with Schirmer’s election. Schirmer, 46, is nine years younger than the next junior member of council, and is the body’s only female member. That allows Schirmer to give valuable input from a perspective the rest of council can’t, Pone said.
Schirmer won’t shy away from offering her perspective, but her priorities and outlook are similar to the rest of council’s.
“I’m a very simple person, and I just want to do a good job,” Schirmer said.
Perhaps the largest difference is Schirmer’s involvement with the Latino community in the area. Born in Cuba, Schirmer legally immigrated to the United States at 3, and has made an effort to use her experiences to relate with the growing Latino demographic in the township. The population of Hamilton Township is about 10 percent Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s FactFinder data.
Schirmer said she recruited several Latinos to work on her campaign, hoping to encourage them to become involved in their community.
“It was the first time many of them had done anything like this,” Schirmer said. “I was so honored to have them excited and working with me. That gives me the energy to keep going.”
The most striking thing, Schirmer said, was the Latinos she worked with did not have preconceived notions of either political party, nor really cared about affiliation. During a heated campaign that thrived on partisanship, it perhaps was a signal of less acrimonious times to come.
“They never asked me if I was a Republican or a Democrat,” Schirmer said. “It was, ‘Who are you? What do you stand for?’ That’s the way it should be.”
,
