Three parties vying for Plainsboro seats

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

BY IRINA SLUTSKY
Star-Ledger Staff

In Plainsboro, candidates from three parties are running for seats on the township committee.

Democratic incumbents Neil Lewis, Plainsboro's deputy mayor, and Ginger Gold are vying with Republican Richard Nicoletti and Green Party candidate Patrick Goldsmith.

Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 2 in Plainsboro, according to voter registration figures.

Lewis said that since the beginning of August, he and Gold have knocked on more than 1,500 doors and described the campaign as an opportunity to have a talk with residents.

"Plainsboro's greatest challenge will be keeping up the quality of life," Lewis said. "To keep increasing the open space and farmland preservation and control our stable taxes, since our record is for the lowest municipal tax rate in Middlesex County."

More than half of Plainsboro Township is now permanently preserved from further development.

Green candidate Goldsmith said that, if elected, he planned to tackle corruption in government, campaign finance reform, sprawl and the environment.

Goldsmith, an art dealer, said the Plainsboro administration must be more open.

"I would like more transparency in the government," Goldsmith said. "I would let people know what's going on."

Goldsmith also hopes to establish a right for referendum in Plainsboro.

"I think it's a basic right that people can get petitions and get signatures and ask the government to change laws they don't agree with," Goldsmith said.

"The current mayor has been in office for more than two decades," Goldsmith said. "I just think it's time for a change."

At press time, Nicoletti was unavailable for comment because he was in the hospital, said his wife, Mary.

Lewis has served on the Plainsboro Township Committee since 1995 and has been deputy mayor since 1998. He is a vice president of a pharmaceutical research and development service company in Plainsboro.

Gold, who was elected to the township committee in 2000, graduated from Villanova Law School. She also holds a master's degree in government administration from the University of Pennsylvania. Lewis and Gold said they plan to continue their door-to-door campaign until election day.

Nicoletti is a teacher at Perth Amboy High School, where he has worked since 1994. He has been president of the Perth Amboy Education Association since 2001, the same year he received the Joan Keats Social Justice Teacher Grant from the Holocaust Genocide Resource Center at Rider University.

He received a degree in history at Rider as well as a master's degree is social studies education from Rutgers University.

Kip Luther, chairman of the Plainsboro Republican organization, said the GOP ran only one candidate this election because "Nicoletti is the only one who is qualified. He is knowledgeable in government workings and has been active in a leadership role in the education association."