4 committee hopefuls competing in Plainsboro

Sunday, November 02, 2003

By DARRYL R. ISHERWOOD
 

PLAINSBORO - Four candidates will vie for two open spots in the upcoming election for township committee.

Democratic incumbents Neil Lewis and Ginger Gold will face Republican Richard Nicoletti and Green Party candidate Patrick D. Goldsmith in the election for the three-year terms on the committee.

The committee, which has been traditionally controlled by Democrats, is made up of five Democratic members, including Peter Cantu, who is serving his 23rd one-year term as mayor and his 10th term on the committee.

This is the first contested election since 2000, when Gold and Lewis defeated two Republican challengers.

Lewis said he and Gold have been going door to door since the summer, trying to meet as many residents as possible before the Nov. 4 election.

"I'm having fun with it," Lewis said. "And the people we are talking to seem to be very happy with the direction we are going."

Lewis, who has been on the committee since 1995 and has been Cantu's deputy since 1998 is a vice president of the pharmaceutical division at XenoBiotic Laboratories in Plainsboro. He said he is proud of the committee's accomplishments during his tenure and thinks the main goal during the next term will be to continue to improve quality of life in the growing township.

Gold has been on the committee since March 2000, when she replaced Linda Greenstein, who left when she was elected to the state Assembly.

Later that year, Gold won her first three-year term in the November election.

Gold estimates that she and Lewis have knocked on nearly 2,000 doors since their campaign began.

"The things we learned while walking during our campaign three years ago translated into what we did over the next three years and I imagine it will be the same this time around."

Gold said her finest accomplishments as part of the township committee were the opening of the Plainsboro Environmental Education Center last May and the agreement to nearly double the size of the library.

Goldsmith said he is running for the committee spot in order to gain a forum for tenants rights. He has had a longstanding battle with a Denver-based apartment management company and said he thinks the township and the current committee have not done enough to stand up for the thousands of Plainsboro residents who live in apartments.

The Green Party was a natural choice, said Goldsmith, a local art dealer who describes himself as "further left than the Democratic party." He has been a member of several environmental action groups including the Sierra Club and said if elected he would try to halt development of the town's farmland.

Nicoletti is currently in the hospital and was unavailable for comment, said his brother and campaign manager David Nicoletti.

"Due to health reasons, Richard is taking a brief pause from his campaign," said David Nicoletti. "He is looking forward to getting back on the campaign trail soon. We still have plenty of time left before the election and I'm sure he'll have plenty of time left to convey his vision to the voters of Plainsboro."

Nicoletti has been a teacher at Perth Amboy High School since 1994 and has been president of the district's education association since 2002. According to his resume, in 2002 Nicoletti was nominated for the Princeton University Distinguished Secondary School Teacher award.

He holds a degree in history from Rider University and a master's degree in social studies education from Rutgers University.