In a pre-Thanksgiving press release, former West Windsor Council member Kamal Khanna announced his candidacy for state assembly in the 15th District, but in a post-Thanksgiving release Khanna announced his withdrawal due to personal reasons.
“Right now is not the best time because of family business,” Khanna said. “In the future I will continue to look for openings at the county and state level.”
Khanna was the first to seek the assembly seat that will be vacated once Bonnie Watson Coleman assumes Representative Rush Holt’s 12th district seat in the House of Representatives. After Coleman resigns from her assembly seat, the Mercer and Hunterdon County Democratic committees will name a replacement. Khanna will support Elizabeth Maher Muoio, chair of the Mercer County Democratic Committee. Khanna is the committee’s vice-chair.
He served on Council from June, 2009, to December, 2013, including two years as Council president, and he has been a member of the West Windsor Planning Board, Affordable Housing Committee, and the Environmental Commission.
Khanna has remained politically active since failing to win re-election in 2013, serving as the chair of the West Windsor Democratic Committee and as a director of the New Jersey Democratic South Asian Caucus. He considers himself “a doer” and he takes pride in his time on Council.
“Sometimes there is a logjam and nothing happens. That’s when you need people who think analytically and work with other members of the assembly, and see if you can persuade them to work for the people,” said Khanna before his withdrawal announcement. He points to the resolution of Intercap Holdings’ litigation against over the train station redevelopment area when he was Council president, as well as passing an ordinance prohibiting smoking in proximity to public space.
“In the Council, it’s never a one person achievement. It’s a mayor-council government. You act on the mayor’s proposals. I didn’t want to be an obstructionist. I was a doer, and did not obstruct anything the mayor puts in front of us. Basically, everything moved. There was no hold up of anything. Anything that was going to benefit the township, we moved on it.”
Asked of online comments on the WW-P News website portraying Khanna as a rubber stamp for the mayor, Khanna said: “Keep in mind I’m an engineer by profession, we look at the facts and make a decision based on the facts. If the project presented in front of you is justified, I have no reason not to support the project. All I could do was take the facts, explain it to the public, and if there are three or more votes for it, it gets passed.”
Khanna came to the U.S. in 1965 and has lived in New Jersey for more than 35 years, working for DuPont for 10 years as a business analyst, planner, and efficiency engineer before founding his own business, Sante Classics, an international clothing manufacturing and distribution company. He commutes daily to New York, though he says in five years of public service he has never missed a Council or board meeting. His wife, Veena, is a physician, and his daughter and three grandchildren all live in West Windsor. Khanna also has a son who lives in New York.
Campaign finance reform and the high cost of higher education are two issues Khanna feels strongly about.
“Why should it cost so much money to run campaigns? It’s ridiculous. People who don’t have the money cannot campaign,” says Khanna, who supports public campaign financing. “If you are making $100,000, how are you going to put two kids through college? After taxes, mortgage, you are left with half. How do you do that?”
Though this opportunity did not pan out, Khanna’s political ambition and his patience remain, as he has expressed interest in future openings at the state and county level.
