Republican stranglehold is still firm in 16th

Sunday, November 02, 2003

By JOSEPH DEE
 

The Republican stranglehold on the 16th Legislative District is so firm that the Democrats could convince only one person to run against the GOP incumbents.

And that person, Hillsborough resident Robert Mack, isn't even mounting anything close to an actual campaign.

The district, which includes most of affluent Somerset county, including Montgomery Township and Rocky Hill, and Mendham Borough in Morris County, is represented in the Assembly by Christopher "Kip" Bateman, R-Branchburg, and Peter Biondi, R-Hillsborough.

Perhaps more so than any other candidate in any legislative race in the state, Mack cannot be accused of being beholden to special interests.

"I haven't raised any money and I haven't spent anything on my campaign," said the 62-year-old high school history teacher for the Bridgewater-Raritan district.

"The Democrats wanted the place on the ballot filled out, so I was just trying to help out the party," Mack said. He was expecting a replacement candidate to be announced, but that hadn't materialized as of Oct. 13.

"I guess I'll be on the ballot. Who knows, maybe somebody will vote for me."

The top two vote-getters win two-year terms.

Bateman, 46, was elected to the Assembly in 1993 and has been re-elected four times. Biondi, 61, is seeking his fourth term in the Assembly. He has sponsored farmland preservation legislation. Neither returned phone calls for this article.

The Republican incumbents' most serious challenger is Green Party candidate Jane Hunter, 56, of Bound Brook. She has never held elective office.

"It's a heavily Republican district," Hunter conceded. "The first thing I want everyone to know about Greens is that Greens do not take campaign donations from corporations and political action committees. Not even from guys who we think are on the side of the angels.

"I think that's really important, because when we hold office we will not be beholden to any special interest of any sort," Hunter said.

She favors a Maine-style campaign finance reform act. "If you go out and get sufficient $5 contributions, you turn the money over to the state, and the state will fund your campaign at the average spending level for that office in the previous campaign cycle."

Hunter said she supports same-sex marriages for homosexuals. "In my district, I don't know how it would go over. It's Republican, but not NASCAR dads. We're talking about civil marriages - the government has no business in people's bedrooms or affectional lives."