Two seats on the Princeton Town Council are being contested by four Democratic Party candidates in the June 7 primary election. The Republicans have no candidates on the ballot.
Questions for the candidates:
Background: Please tell us where you are from originally, your academic and professional background, your age, and when and why you moved to Princeton.
Family: Please identify your spouse or significant other, their occupation or employer, and ages of your children and where they are now.
Personal interests: Please list any hobbies or avocations that are important to you. If you are affiliated with a religious institution, please tell us here if you choose.
Political history: What other positions have you held? What caused you to first get involved? (Please be brief.)
The issues: In no more than 200 words, please identify the issues that are of particular concern to you, or that you feel are of greatest importance to the community. Feel free to list your website here or cite other sources where readers may be able to find out more about your views and positions.
For Council:
Background: I’m 56. I was born in Owosso, Michigan, grew up in Newark, Delaware, and I moved to Springfield, Ohio, in high school. After high school I worked as a grocery store cashier, a waiter, and in a printing factory. I also attended the University of Delaware, but I did not graduate. My husband Jon, also from Delaware, joined a childhood friend who started a business in Princeton and in 1982 we moved to Jersey. We lived in Hightstown and Lawrenceville before moving to Princeton in 1991. After I got married and had children, I matriculated at Rutgers and earned my degree in English, with induction into Phi Beta Kappa.
Family: My husband, Jon, is co-founder of Princeton Consultants Inc., which is at the Forrestal Center in Plainsboro. We have three children. Our daughter is 34 and is a tenants’ rights and employment lawyer living in Brooklyn with her husband Arastu Chaudhury, who is an Assistant U.S. Attorney; and their two little daughters. My older son, 32, who recently earned his PhD in neuroscience, is a research software engineer at Barron Associates in Charlottesville, Virginia. Our younger son Evan, 29, lives in Ewing and works at the County of Mercer Elections office as an election specialist. My mother also lives in Princeton, having moved here from Delaware after my father died in 1999.
Personal interests: I am a website developer for my family and friends and enjoy learning new skills in that area. I also enjoy reading, cooking, Sudoku, and babysitting for my granddaughters. I am atheist although my husband is Christian. We support Nassau Presbyterian Church.
Political history. I started out my public life as a neighborhood organizer in the early 1990s. I worked on the Bill Bradley presidential campaign and I actively supported Howard Dean before organizing the local presidential headquarters for John Kerry in 2004. I was elected president of the Princeton Democratic Organization in 2006. I was elected to Borough Council and took office in 2010 and I was elected to Town Council in the consolidated municipality in 2013.
The issues: I would like to preserve Princeton’s small town character and to do what I can to fight the trends that are making it less and less affordable and less diverse. I am working with a Council and Planning Board committee to put new zoning regulations in place to respond to the tear-down epidemic that is replacing modest, more affordable houses with out-of-scale ones. The first step will be a community dialog process where the defining characteristics of neighborhoods are identified and prioritized. We may use some aspects of form-based zoning, which includes design guidelines, as well as traditional zoning that prescribes setbacks, heights, and puts limits on overall size.
Princeton has been a leader in providing affordable housing, even before it was required by state law. I believe we should provide for a greater percentage of our non-market housing to be earmarked for the lowest income residents where the need is greatest. I will press for 100 percent non-market housing for low-income residents that can be provided by non-profit developers.
For further information, readers can visit my website at jennycrumiller.com.
Background: As one of eight children originally from Mexico I am delighted to be a participant in my own American Dream. My family immigrated to the U.S. when I was 12. As a family we worked side by side picking crops like asparagus and apples in the fields and orchards of Washington State. I trace many of my core values, like family, hard work, and the importance of a fair chance for everyone back to these formative experiences.
My work experience has focused on enhancing productivity and inclusion. For example, I worked for the U.S. Department of Energy to assure that women and minority-owned businesses won their fair share of government contracts. Under President George H.W. Bush, I lived in Germany, working for the Army’s Department of Morale and Welfare to ensure that the needs of soldiers’ families were met during their deployments.
Back in the U.S. I enjoyed a successful career with the King County Office of Civil Rights Enforcement in Seattle, Washington. As a Civil Rights Specialist, I fielded complaints of discrimination and then mediated between parties. The great satisfaction of that work came through the successful resolution of the majority of my cases through mediation. I was tapped to train other investigators at both the state and federal levels.
I helped landlords and members of the Washington Real Estate Association understand their rights and obligations under the law. Seattle’s Mayor Norm Rice appointed me to serve on the Seattle Human Rights Commission. I learned so much in that capacity and when I served on that City’s Police and Community Relations Committee.
I met my husband, Steven Nadler, in Seattle in 1993. Together we moved to Princeton in 1999 and I resumed my formal education, graduating from Rider University with an associate’s degree.
At 57, I am fortunate to be strong and healthy (knock wood!), with an active family and a full slate of community obligations that keep me on my toes.
For the past 11 years I have stayed true to the vision of those early years: dedicating myself to the task of enhancing social justice in and around Princeton. It has been a privilege to work with so many talented and committed individuals. My current leadership positions include Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF), Vice Chair of Princeton Human Services Commission, and Chair of the Princeton Civil Rights Committee. Additionally, I support the work of colleagues as a board member of the Princeton YWCA, Princeton Community Housing, and Send Hunger Packing.
Family: For many things, including the impetus to move to New Jersey and for expanding my insight into the role of business in a community, I am grateful to my husband, Steven. Steven is a scientist and an executive at Bristol-Myers Squibb as well as a proud native of the Garden State. Sofia and Benjamin, our 12-year-old twins, are sixth-graders at John Witherspoon Middle School. Sara, Antonio and Sandra, my three adult children, are 39, 38 and 31. Sara and Antonio live and work in Washington State where they reside with their beautiful children. My daughter, Sandra, graduated from Princeton High School, and now lives nearby. As the proud mother of five, grandma of seven, I know that connecting across generations makes our communities stronger and enriches us all.
Personal interests: When I am not issuing Community IDs at the Princeton Library, painting faces at the Wheels Rodeo, or doing outreach with unaccompanied refugee minors at Princeton High School, I can be found spending time with my own brood. I am an enthusiastic reader, especially of historical novels. Most recently I enjoyed “The Book of Unknown Americans” by Christina Henriquez. I love to clear my head by gardening and running. I have finished the Princeton Half Marathon for each of the past three years and am proud of my ribbons!
I was baptized as a child and raised as a Catholic. My parents were religious people who always encouraged my siblings and me to be open minded about other religions. Growing up they brought us to various religious services that our friends attended in order to instill in us an appreciation of all traditions.
My husband is Jewish and we are raising our twins in the Jewish faith. Like my parents, I also want my children to be open minded about people of all faiths, so I share with them the traditions that I was raised with.
Political history: As noted above, I have spent many years employed in federal and county government. I have also held appointed positions in government, both in Seattle (for the Human Rights Commission), and here in Princeton (for the Human Services Commission). It was then Township Mayor Chad Goerner who initially tapped me to serve on the Human Services Commission. After consolidation I was honored to be reappointed by Mayor Liz Lempert.
My interest in running for office comes from my strong desire to reflect and expand the good opportunity that was offered to me.
The issues: Everyday through this campaign I meet new and exciting members of our amazing community. Through these conversation, and listening to people, the issues that strike me as most urgent are affordability, inclusiveness, and safety. Quality of life is a common thread that concerns us all.
The affordability crisis is real. We need a workable plan to boost local options for affordable housing, targeting rent levels to meet the needs of our residents who are living paycheck-to-paycheck. We also need to create new paths to home ownership for our working families and to support the ability of those living on limited or fixed incomes, struggling to care for relatives or to send children to college, to stay in place.
Princetonians want to live in a prosperous and dynamic community while maintaining our small-town feel. We also want to ensure that our neighborhoods stay safe and crime-free. Police can not accomplish this alone. We need to build bridges — of words and action — that enable residents and law enforcement to communicate and collaborate to build safer, more caring and sustainable communities.
I firmly believe that Princeton’s success grows out of our diversity just as it depends upon our shared prosperity. This vision can only be fulfilled by electing a Council that reflects our various traditions, perspectives, and experiences; people dedicated to working together for the well being of individuals and our community. As I contemplate a historic first, as the first Latinx ever elected to office in Princeton, New Jersey, I look forward to using my voice to speak for all who share this vision.
To learn more about me and my campaign, please visit https://leticiafraga.com
Background: I grew up in Princeton. My parents continued to live here until my father’s death in 1991, when my mother came to live with me and my family. My husband and I returned to Princeton in 2000, and our daughter attended high school here. I hold the following degrees: a B.Sc. in mathematics from Columbia, an M.Ed. in mathematics education from Rutgers, and a Ph.D. in English literature from Johns Hopkins. I taught English at several universities, beginning with the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and ending with the University of Melbourne in Australia. I currently teach creative writing to adults and am finishing a book, “Reading and Writing with Jane Austen.”
Family: I am married to Walter Neumann, professor of Mathematics at Columbia University. Our daughter, Hannah, works as a psychologist at a VA hospital in Detroit.
Personal interests: My literary interests began with the moral novel in English — especially Jane Austen, her predecessors, and successors. But I soon became equally interested in explicitly political literature, and I developed and taught courses in South African anti-Apartheid writing. In Australia I began to write political essays and opinion pieces myself and have continued to do so since returning to Princeton in 2000.
Political history: My municipal experience in Princeton has been both broad and deep.
I served for seven years on Princeton’s Site Plan Review Advisory Board, which advises our Planning Board on applications for development. I evaluated every aspect of development plans, and I studied Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (or LEED) green-building standards.
On Princeton’s Environmental Commission for six years, I co-founded Sustainable Princeton, and I organized and ran two award-winning green home and garden tours. Properties on the tours exemplified LEED’s five areas of green building: environment-ally responsible site development, water conservation, energy reduction or production, healthful indoor environments, and, finally, recycled construction materials and waste.
I have been on the executive board of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization for a decade. I also helped found a subcommittee, Princeton Citizens for Tax Fairness, that studied Princeton University’s relation to our town, particularly its payment in lieu of taxes. I currently chair the PCDO’s Local Issues Committee, which has researched property-tax relief, form-based zoning, cooperative solar arrays, affordable housing, accessory dwelling units, and microhousing.
For four years, Princeton Future’s Neighborhood Retail Initiative brought townspeople and merchants together to foster local businesses, especially those that serve residents. I researched various kinds of business associations and ordinances that help local businesses compete with chain stores.
I also chaired Princeton Borough’s Affordable Housing Commission in the last year before consolidation, and I currently meet with a Witherspoon-Jackson Neighborhood subcommittee to discuss affordable housing. I’m committed to increasing affordable housing in Princeton.
The issues: Having grown up in Princeton, I feel passionate about preserving our diverse neighborhoods. The high cost of living here means we are rapidly losing diversity in income, age, and ethnicity. I am running for Council because I know policies that can help make Princeton more affordable.
Property taxes first: having recently seen Princeton Council struggle to cut $150,000 from a $62 million budget, I believe greater vision and courage are necessary to cut municipal spending significantly. Council should also lobby our school board and county to lower their spending. To increase tax revenue, a volunteer economic development commission could help us retain existing businesses and attract new ones.
House prices and property taxes both rise in neighborhoods where modest houses are replaced by McMansions. The Borough’s 2006 McMansion law must be toughened and applied also to denser parts of the former township. New homes should reflect each neighborhood’s existing averages.
Finally, Princeton University’s employees drive up house prices with subsidized mortgages. And the university doesn’t pay for its share of municipal services. To ensure the best settlement in a lawsuit questioning the university’s exemption from property taxes, Council must consult with the plaintiff’s lawyer in the suit.
For more information, please see www.anneneumannforcouncil.weebly.com.
Background: I’m 58. I was born in Croydon, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Levittown. I graduated from Trenton State College in 1981 with a degree in English and a minor in journalism. My mentor was the late Dr. Robert Cole, who was something of a legend to New Jersey journalists of a certain age. I worked in daily newspapers in New Jersey for 18 years before working for a year and a half as a stay-at-home dad (my favorite job). I’ve been marketing and communications director of Princeton Public Library since 2000.
I moved to Princeton as a single man in 1990 because I wanted to live in a place with a walkable downtown where learning and civic engagement were priorities. At the time, I had friends who had grown up in Princeton and I’d had the pleasure of having dinner with the late Mayor Barbara Sigmund at a New Jersey Press Association Conference. After that, there was little doubt where I’d move.
Family: My wife, Mary Chemris, and I met in Princeton (she was visiting a neighbor) and we were married in the Nassau Inn. Mary teaches math at Montgomery Upper Middle School. Our son, George Quinn, attended Princeton Public Schools and the American Boychoir School. He is a composer and is studying music at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Personal interests: I’m a cycling enthusiast and a former racer. In July I will attempt to complete my 24th Anchor House Ride for Runaways, an annual weeklong 500-mile bike ride to benefit homeless and abused kids. (I say “attempt” because running for office and working full time has left me zero time to train.) I love music of all kinds and can be found at McCarter Theater seeing acts in their classical and jazz series. As is the case with anyone who works in libraries, I love to read (mostly nonfiction right now). And I have a wholly irrational and illogical love for the Philadelphia Eagles; I’ve been a season ticket holder for 36 years. (I realize this might cost me votes in Princeton, which is a solid Giants town.)
Political history: While not political, I’ve been involved with Anchor House, a Trenton-based social services agency for homeless, abused and runaway youth, for 25 years. I’m co-chair of the annual Anchor House Ride for Runaways and treasurer of the Anchor House Foundation. My involvement in Princeton began with the Riverside School PTO. I was a member of the executive for five years and served as co-president for two years. I was a member of the Princeton PTO Council and was Riverside’s liaison to the Princeton Education Foundation.
I was elected to two, three-year terms on the Princeton Board of Education and served two years as vice president and two years and eight months as president. I served on all board committees and chaired the Student Achievement Committee. After consolidation, I was the board of education’s first representative to the Princeton Planning Board and I stayed on the Planning Board after my BOE term ended. From my first involvement with Anchor House straight through all of my service to Princeton, equality of opportunity and equity of outcome have been main motivations.
The issues: Princeton is at a crucial time in its history. As our town has become more popular — largely due to great schools and top-rate municipal services such as our library — it has become less affordable, particularly for middle class families like mine, with two parents working full-time to pay college tuition. We need to follow smart growth practices, be careful stewards of our municipal resources and grow revenue so we remain a diverse, welcoming and vibrant community.
Like many, I’ve watched with dismay as neighborhoods continue to be threatened by the construction of out-of-character houses. On the Planning Board, I’m working to harmonize zoning ordinances and adopt codes that will allow the community to articulate its values and have them reflected in what is built in place of houses that are torn down. We need to be sensitive to the needs of our less-advantaged neighbors, providing services that will help families realize their dreams and help seniors to be able to stay in their homes and enjoy all Princeton has to offer. And we need to have strong, symbiotic relationships with our nonprofits, working together to ensure that the Municipality of Princeton has a bright future.
For Mayor:
The candidates from both political parties are running unopposed in the June 7 primary. They will face each other in the November general election.
Liz Lempert
Background: I was born and raised in San Mateo, California. I graduated with a BA in history and BS in symbolic systems from Stanford University, and an MA in science journalism from Boston University. I spent a year working for the New York Times as a news clerk in their Washington, D.C., bureau and then as an engineer in Silicon Valley and Boston, before returning to journalism as a writer, producer, and editor for the National Public Radio program Living On Earth.
I moved to Princeton with my family in 2002 when my husband was hired as a professor by Princeton University. I’ve had the opportunity to live in many amazing college towns (Palo Alto, CA; Oxford, England; Cambridge, MA; Boulder, CO), but Princeton is by far my favorite for its diversity, natural beauty, intellectualism, and neighborliness.
Family. Husband: Ken Norman, Princeton University professor of neuroscience. Two daughters: Senior at Princeton High School and 8th grader at John Witherspoon Middle School.
Personal interests: I enjoy spending time with family, friends, and our new puppy, and I love being outdoors, biking around town, walking Princeton’s beautiful trails, and cross country skiing in the winter.
Political history: I first became involved in local politics in 2007 as co-chair of the Mercer4Obama campaign. Our local grassroots organization grew from a dozen volunteers to more than 3,000 members. Soon afterward, I was recruited to run for an open seat on Township Committee, which I held from 2008 to 2011. In 2011 I served as deputy mayor of Princeton Township and was elected as the first mayor of the newly consolidated municipality of Princeton in 2012.
The issues: Among many challenges facing Princeton are retaining our unique sense of place and high level of services in the face of economic pressures, environmental change, and rampant development:
Preserving Neighborhood Character: We recently designated the Witherspoon Jackson neighborhood as Princeton’s 20th historic district, established rules for tour buses, and set limits on where 24-hour businesses can operate in order to protect existing quality of life. The Planning Board has embarked on a major, neighborhood-oriented review of residential zoning.
Fiscal Responsibility: Consolidation has enabled us to do more with less, and to focus on more efficient delivery of services. The Council adopted policies to stabilize debt and maintain fund balance. We continue to develop and build upon partnerships with local institutions, neighboring towns, and Mercer County, to leverage dollars spent.
Inclusiveness, Transparency, and Engagement: We make better decisions when more residents engage in, and are kept fully informed about, the political process. I hold regular Meet the Mayor hours at the public library. We’ve created a Youth Advisory Committee and have expanded outreach to the Latino community. Municipal meeting videos and background materials are now posted online, and we’ve increased the use of social media to keep residents involved.
Twitter @lizlempwww.lizlempert.com
Background: I am a native Princetonian — born at Princeton Hospital in 1954 and educated in our public school system (Nassau Street School, Quarry Street School, John Witherspoon, Community Park, and Princeton High School).
Degrees: B.A. in Latin from Hamilton College (1976); MBA in finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School (1981).
Employment: Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York; Bankers Trust Company (credit training; commercial and municipal lending); Dillon, Read & Company (public finance; real estate finance); Trammell Crow Residential (multi-family development); Aoki Corporation (global real estate advisor); Westin Hotels & Resorts (development committee); real estate investor/consultant/developer (various projects).
I enjoy problem solving, land use, and design. I am drawn to people who need help, to neglected buildings with “good bones,” and to troubled businesses.
I spent 10 years in New York City, three years in Philadelphia, and five years in Florida. I returned to Princeton in 2001, but my work continues to be exclusively out of state.
Family: I have never married. Nor do I have any children.
Personal interests: Extracurricular interests include reading, puzzles, and music. Though not a gifted musician, I enjoy playing the piano and the French horn — especially so when accompanying or playing with others. My current project is “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, Gibbon’s seven-volume masterpiece on human nature.
Political history: My interest in politics is chiefly that of a spectator. The exercise of power offends me, the more so when it is exercised corruptly or clumsily. I don’t like giving orders. Nor do I like being told what to do. Though I have run twice before for Borough Council — each time unsuccessfully — I am happiest minding my own business.
My instinct is always to reduce the power of government, with the goal of freeing people to live the lives they prefer. I never know which I find more astonishing: our widespread enthusiasm for overseers, or our willingness to accept as insoluble the problems that our overseers create as a means of perpetuating the voting blocks on which their careers depend.
Issues: Were I to be elected Mayor, the issues on which I would focus my attention are zoning (smaller is better) and spending (less is better).
We are blessed with a community that has well defined borders, broad green spaces, a historic but still functioning downtown, and a still predominately single family residential core. We have so far largely avoided the rapacious development that has ringed many communities with strip centers or blighted their downtowns with multi-story buildings.
I do not agree that transformative growth is inevitable. Nor do I think it desirable. Princeton has been a lovely oasis — one that functions not as a tourist attraction, but as a tight little community. I would strongly prefer that we keep it that way.
Preserving the town I love requires regaining control of our costs; staffing our various boards with people who understand the forces that motivate and enable developers; and electing representatives who like the town as it exists, have the wit to recognize flim flam, and are indifferent to the blandishments of the powerful.
Leticia Fraga – 15 HOUGHTON ROAD
Timothy Quinn – 50 WILTON STREET
Liz Lempert – 60 MEADOWBROOK DR
Anne Neumann – 22 ALEXANDER STREET
Peter Marks – 107 MOORE STREET
Jenny-Crumiller,
Tim-Quinn,
