Bernards Township Committee Election 2024: Elizabeth Graner

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Bernards Township's general election on Nov. 5 has four candidates running for two open seats for the Township Committee.

Democrat Elizabeth Graner is running along with Adam N. Subervi against incumbent Republicans Jennifer Asay and Andrew McNally.

Are you running for office in Basking Ridge? Contact Alexis Tarrazi at alexis.tarrazi@patch.com for information on being featured in a candidate's profile and submitting campaign announcements to Basking Ridge Patch.

Elizabeth Graner

• Age: 54
• Town of residence: Bernards Township
• Position sought: Township Committee
• Party Affiliation: Democrat
• Family: My son Patrick, a 2021 Ridge High School honors graduate and alumnus of the choir and theater programs, is a senior political science major and German minor at Union College in Schenectady, New York. My fiancé Mike James, who works in media, and I have recently merged households. Mike and his daughter Annelise, a junior at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, are newcomers to Central New Jersey from Ridgewood in Bergen County. I am the eldest of five siblings in an Irish American family from Mt. Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh, and am the first American-born grandchild on my mother's side.
• Education: I have a bachelor of arts in English literature with a minor in anthropology from Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana. I received my master of arts in teaching from Marygrove College in Detroit. I am a 2020 graduate of Leadership Somerset and a 2022 graduate of Building One America leadership training.
• Occupation: I have been a teacher since 1998, first in the Newark Archdiocesan schools and then in the Rahway Public Schools, where I started as an early childhood basic skills teacher and then became a high school English teacher. I have taught at nearly every grade level as well as a handful of elective courses, but my heart belongs in senior English, where I have spent most of my career. I also am very passionate about the future of education and the people who choose teaching as a career path, which is why I lead the Tomorrow's Teachers program at Rahway High School. I am also the Second Vice President of the Rahway Education Association.
• Previous elected/appointed office: I previously served as a district representative for the Union County Democratic Committee and was a commissioner on the Rahway Housing Authority and the Rahway Library Board. I have been a district representative for the Somerset County Democratic Committee since 2018, and was Chair of the Bernards Township Democratic Committee from 2020 to 2023. I served as a commissioner on the Somerset County Commission on the Status of Women from 2020 to 2023 and have been a Governor-appointed commissioner on the Somerset County Board of Taxation since 2022. I previously ran for the New Jersey General Assembly in the 21st Legislative District in 2021 and 2023.
• Campaign website: btdems.org/granersubervi

Why are you seeking election for Township Committee?

I have a longtime interest in community and civic service, having been tapped to work for the Allegheny County Treasurer's office when I was 16 years old growing up in Mt. Lebanon and volunteering for several campaigns as a young adult. These experiences motivated me to seek opportunities to serve, including running for the NJ State Assembly, serving as Chair of the local Democratic Municipal Committee, and being appointed to the Somerset County Board of Taxation. I am running for Township Committee to make a difference in our town, particularly when it comes to fair representation of our community. Adam and I are running as Democrats in a town that is roughly evenly split among Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated voters. We vow to hold fast to our campaign slogan “Connecting our Community” in order to affect true, positive change in Bernards Township so that everyone, regardless of the neighborhood we live in, can have access to all our municipality has to offer. We are focusing on connecting our community both literally and figuratively by focusing on traffic and pedestrian infrastructure as well as community programming.

There has been an increase in home and vehicle burglaries in the township, do you think enough has been done to combat this? What else would you propose to address this issue?

We applaud the efforts of the Bernards Township Police Department and will support them by understanding and budgeting for the resources and staffing they need in order to continue to do an excellent job of serving and protecting our community. In order to address the increase in household burglaries and car thefts, we believe in an approach that focuses on community policing, increased patrol presence, and the use of new technology.

Manufacturing and/or warehouse applications are still cropping up. How do you feel about these applications and their impact on the township?

I am fully supportive of any solution that would remediate the effects of warehouse sprawl across our state and local community. Warehouses bring traffic congestion and increased air pollution. They take away farmland and open spaces and unjustly impact already overburdened communities. A pressing issue facing our town right now is the potential approval of a light manufacturing project by the Bernards Township Zoning Board of Adjustment, which will replace an office building with two light manufacturing buildings of vague determination. This will create added traffic, will adversely affect pedestrian and bicyclist safety on our residential roadways, and will cause pollution, the loss of trees, and negative impacts on local wildlife. We are in strong opposition to this project.

Affordable housing. How do you feel about this state mandate and its impact on Bernards Township?

We will strive to oversee Bernards Township’s affordable housing obligation responsibly and with an eye toward avoiding potential lawsuits while understanding that everyone should have the opportunity to live in town – affordable housing is an option that allows people new to public sector jobs to live where they work. I support the Mount Laurel decision in terms of the need to eliminate exclusionary zoning and ensure that affordable housing is available across the state. I believe that governing bodies need to do everything they can to fulfill this obligation without negatively impacting our way of life. We need to get creative. Can we consider areas in town for redevelopment and or rehabilitation, for example, some long-vacant office buildings in town to use toward meeting our affordable housing obligations? Adaptive reuse can revitalize unused properties as well as provide a cost-effective way for us to meet our housing obligation. What about mixed-use developments? Can we revitalize vacant office buildings to include affordable housing, commercial space, and open/recreation spaces?

What other issues do you feel need to be tackled in the township?

Our campaign is focused on bringing our community together, both literally and figuratively. Literally with the improvement of bike paths, sidewalks, and pedestrian and cyclist safety, and figuratively in terms of helping all residents feel like they truly belong in our community. We would like to see increased representation of Democrats and independent voters on local committees and boards, where there are few, in order to fairly represent our community. Bernards has excellent open space areas, but has done little to quell the effects of overdevelopment. Where development is already on the horizon, builders should do more to help the community and contribute to the infrastructure in order to alleviate some of the costs shouldered by taxpayers.

What sets you apart from the challenging candidates?

I would like to emphasize how proud I am to be running with Adam Subervi for the Township Committee. Adam’s background as an attorney, his military career and active service, and strong roots in the community, makes him a unique and compelling running mate, and distinguishes us from the incumbents seeking reelection.

I have garnered support from various organizations focused on missions I support, from gender equality to safety and security to the environment. I am proud to have been endorsed by Elect Women, the Somerset County Federation of Democratic Women, and the New Jersey Young Democrats. I also received designation as a Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate, and both Adam and I have been endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters. Personally, I am an avid hiker and camper. Environmental causes are important to me, and I have led my students in several local cleanups with the Rahway River Watershed Association. I am an outspoken ally for the LGBTQ+ community and have served as faculty advisor for my school’s chapter of the Gay/Straight Alliance. Like Adam, I am a career public servant. As such, we believe that the township's leadership must reflect the needs and values of the community.

Is there anything else you would like to share about yourself or your campaign?

I moved to Bernards Township for its excellent public schools. I was singularly motivated at first by my desire to have my son attend Ridge, and then soon found Bernards Township to be an amazing place to live. It is a physically beautiful community — there were bird-watchers photographing and filming newly-hatched Red-Shouldered Hawk eyasses (baby hawks) just outside my front door late this summer. More importantly, the people who live in Bernards Township are simply wonderful. This past month, my family found itself displaced as the result of a fire in an adjoining townhome. When I arrived at the scene, it felt like the entire community was asking what they could do to help. One neighbor took my dog for a walk to calm her nerves, while others have reached out with offers of everything from clothes to meals to a place to stay. The Bernards Township Police, under the leadership of Chief Jon Burger, and firefighters from both Liberty Corner and Basking Ridge (as well as from neighboring communities) responded quickly, professionally, and with compassion and care. Our platform includes pursuing initiatives to reduce speeding in our town, to make our streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists, to improve communications and transparency by holding regular office hours with residents, to establish a more vibrant and prosperous downtown by attracting and supporting new businesses, to improve senior services, and to create more community engagement. We are committed to Bernards Township and we want to make it better — for the people we know and love, our neighbors, and all Bernards Township residents.