Vote “NO’ to Outside Political Money in West Windsor

By Corey Safran, Pankaj Patel, and Amber Henrie

West Windsor, NJ has had “non-partisan” elections for over 30 years. We have avoided the divisive party politics and outside political and money influences that occur on the national level and in many partisan towns. Our current NonPartisan government works! We have had diverse candidates for Mayor and Township Council running on mixed party slates and independently during the past thirty years. We don’t have primary elections, and thus avoid the party influence and exclusion of unaffiliated or “Independent” voters who cannot vote in a primary, unless they affiliate with a party (44% of West Windsor voters are Independents). Our leaders have focused on local issues and responsiveness to all our residents.

Importantly, we have competitive elections. In our neighboring Mercer County towns that have partisan elections, virtually all the elections have no competition. In 12 of 13 Mercer County partisan municipal elections, there is a single candidate who ran unopposed in the primary election and is now running unopposed in the general election. The elections in those towns are meaningless. There is absolutely no incentive for voters to turn out and vote, unless they are coming out to vote for national/state candidates higher up on the ballot.Political scholars say that no-contest elections depress voter turnout and one-sided elections also lead to one-sided policies untempered by political opposition.

A group, “West Windsor Voters for Transparency and Representation” (the “yes” or “pro-partisan” group) collected enough signatures to put a Yes/No question on the ballot. Voting “yes” changes our elections to a partisan system. Voting “NO” keeps the current non-partisan system. They obtained these signatures in a misleading way, by telling people it was only a simple matter of disclosing whether a candidate is a “D” or “R” on the ballot. They did not explain how it was a major change in the elections process. We know this because we’ve talked to people who say they were duped into signing the petition (and they have now decided to vote “NO”).
Based on a required NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission public filing on October 25, over 85% of the pro-partisan “yes” group’s $31K in funding comes from outside sources, not actual people who live in West Windsor. Their top funders include:

• $5,000 from the Ironworkers Local 399 in Hammonton, NJ. The former president of the union is Steve Sweeney (and the current president is his brother Richard Sweeney), who is running for governor in 2025. In exchange for this contribution, what political support is he expecting in return form the local political leadership?

• $11,000 in total from 5 Mercer County politicians, four are county commissioners - John Cimino, Kristen McLaughlin, Samuel Frisby, and Terrance Stokes, and the other is the county sheriff John Kemler. All five contributions were received on the exact same day, 10/9/24, obviously not a mere coincidence. Who from the county party leadership, which will gain major political influence over West Windsor if the “yes” vote succeeds and we have primary elections, coordinated this?

• $7,000 in total from various out-of-town companies and lobbying entities, including Solar Landscape Origination (Asbury Park), SJS Strategies (Monroe), Fairview Insurance (Verona), Forward Leadership (Lawrenceville), and Trilon (Denver, CO).

The “yes” group, which claims to promote “transparency,” does not disclose any of this information on their website, where they claim to be a “grass roots” organization. The only reason that West Windsor residents are hearing about it is because of ordinary people like us, who are working to inform our voters.

The “yes” team refuses to explain their outside funding, and the politics behind it. When specifically asked about outside money by a TV reporter on a recent NJSpotlight News interview that aired on October 29th, the “yes” team representative’s response was to dodge the question, and simply say “campaigns are expensive.” https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwY2xjawGQgIRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHdb503JRjb4eqwhXYm2wy86UQCfT0tDfllxK03YQXeVrqXXU0BbbMSYqNw_aem_bUDAzOfxXaixn-JCRvejrA&v=63zWO-bQ_LQ&t=730

A true grass-roots group was formed to resist this “yes” campaign, Keep West Windsor NonPartisan (www.keepwwnonpartisan.com), known as the “Vote NO” team. In complete contrast to the “yes” team’s funding, the “Vote NO” team's funding of only $13K all comes from local people who are West Windsor taxpayers. The “yes” team has falsely claimed on social media that the Vote NO movement is funded by just a few “wealthy” West Windsor individuals. Given all their outside funding, this hypocritical assertion is simply laughable. The Vote NO campaign nearly double the support of $200 or less donations than the “yes” campaign - $5,984 vs. $3,202 - a clear indicator of true grass-roots support via many smaller donations.

A comparison of the two groups funding, is shown side by side in the infographic below. The difference couldn’t be more plain to see.

We urge all West Windsor residents to reject all this outside influence and “Vote NO” on the ballot question.

Thank you!

Corey Safran, Pankaj Patel, and Amber Henrie (concerned West Windsor residents)