For some politically minded Princetonians, this week began not Monday, February 16, but rather on Sunday evening, February 15, when the Princeton Community Democratic Organization hosted an informational candidate forum for the 17 declared candidates for the 12th District Congressional seat being vacated by Bonnie Watson Coleman.
All 17 candidates showed up for the forum. The room – the Suzanne Patterson Center on Stockton Street – was packed. One estimate put the crowd at 400 people.
The forum consisted of several rounds of questions for which each candidate was given one minute to respond. That was followed by a lightning round during which the moderator, veteran political reporter Charlie Stile of the Bergen Record, asked a yes-no question and the candidates either raised a hand if their answer was yes, or did nothing to indicate a no.
Members of the PCDO in the room were then invited to vote – and rank choice their views of all candidates. Given the number of voters and number of candidates, that was a chore. But at the end of the night, this is how it sorted out.
Sue Altman, currently the state director for U.S. Senator Andy Kim, won the PCDO endorsement with 65 percent of the votes – at least 60 percent was needed, according to the PCDO bylaws. Of the 400 or so people crowded into the room, only registered PCDO members were allowed to vote. In all, 154 votes were cast.
Longtime Princeton resident Sam Wang, who is professor of neuroscience at Princeton University and director of the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, ranked third among the 17 candidates, topped by Altman and then Adam Hamaway, a physician and army veteran with a medical practice at Princeton Forrestal Village.
Stile deftly handled the challenges of moderating a forum with 17 passionate and knowledgeable New Jerseyans, all of whom embraced answering controversial topics on immigration/ICE, genocide/aid to Israel, healthcare, ICE, housing and energy affordability, lawlessness of the executive branch of government, and climate change. The three women and 14 men represented a group that was very diverse racially and ethnically.
Candidate Rick Morales, a doctor and army veteran, summed up the positive vibe in the room by saying that he would be honored to be represented in Congress by any one of the candidates at the forum.
Technically, the PCDO endorsement has no impact, but from a public exposure point of view, it has a major impact. Elections and ballet reform advocate Julia Sass Rubin, associate dean of Academic Programs at the Bloustein School, Rutgers University, noted that “tonight’s forum in terms of the health of democracy was very exciting. It is incredible that we have 17 candidates. We do not know yet if each candidate will get the number of petition signers to qualify for a position on the ballot, but still the interest is awesome,”