In Soviet Mercer County, Democrats control the single party machine
It’s like a Yakov Smirnoff bit: “In America, you vote for political party. In Soviet Mercer County, political party vote for you.”
Yes, welcome fellow comrades to Mercer County, New Jersey, where the old-style political machine is healthy and running on all cylinders.
Don’t believe me? Check out this whopper of a quote from Sheriff Jack Kemler, who we heard was toying with the idea of running for county executive.
“At this time, no,” Kemler told our reporter last week. “I say this, Brian Hughes is our county executive. I support Brian Hughes until the Mercer country chair Janice Mironov and other leaders decide who’s going to be the [next] county executive.”
I mean, not even trying to put a Democracy-like spin on this one, eh Jack?
Alas, this is the state of countywide politics here in Mercer: The Democrats are all-powerful, so powerful that even a top elected Dem like Kemler doesn’t even think twice about how the ol’ “it’s up to the party bosses to see who we run” will look to the publicat-large. And there’s a reason this didn’t cross his mind: Because it doesn’t matter. He’s right. This has nothing to do with who the best candidate might be. There’s no discussion of that. It’s just whichever potential candidate has done the most by way of political ass-kissing. They’d get the nod.
In the end, for now, it’s a moot point, as Hughes announced he will seek a 5th term as county executive and there’s about a zero percent chance any prominent county Democrat would dare challenge the king in a primary.
And as a result, we suffer with a small cadre of too-powerful pols pulling the strings, leaving us residents with what amounts to a oneparty system here in the county.
For the record, this is not a Republican/Democrat thing. I’m not sitting here and saying we’d be better off with a member of the GOP as county exec. Fact is, it’s another moot point, as the Republicans don’t have a prayer countywide. The Democrats have a 2-to-1 advantage in every election. The Republicans can’t win. Period. (Which is stupid, by the way. The designations of “Republican” and “Democrat” on the local level are effectively meaningless. A Republican county executive, for example, wouldn’t/couldn’t be banning abortion or changing immigration laws. There’s no big-picture difference.)
So … the Republicans can’t win, which leads to quotes like Kemler’s from last week, which … which really, I still can’t get over. I mean, this was some straight talk that should tick off every voter in the county. He said, in black and white, the decision on who runs for county executive on the Democrats side is held by the party chair and a few select people. Add in the fact the Republicans — say it with me now — have no chance, and what we’re left with is the old-fashioned smoke-filled room choosing our county leader.
What a crappy way to do things, especially because I think this county can be so much more than it currently is.
I’ve brought this up countless times, but I’ll bring it up again: It’s not in the county Democrats best interests to help Trenton, and until Trenton “comes back,” the county as a whole — and specifically Trenton and the surrounding towns of Lawrence, Hamilton, and Ewing — will never be all it can be.
Fact is, the Dems know they have the city vote no matter what. And if they start throwing money and resources at the city in an effort to get it to “come back,” they run the risk of losing some suburban votes. It’s simple political math.
I’ve had this conversation, off the record, with some big-shot Democrats (and plenty of Republicans). And no one (outside of the county Democrat machine) has disagreed with my take. No one.
If you need further proof of the ignoring of Trenton as a whole by the county, ask 100 city residents if their quality of life has improved demonstrably in the last decade or so, and I bet you’d get 99.5 of them shaking their head “no.”
So is there an answer here, a way to break the one-party stranglehold? Well, no, not really. The Republicans have no chance, remember?
But …
But I’d love to see a real primary challenge for Hughes’s position. Not because I think Hughes is bad at his job, but only to have the control of the party taken away from the insiders and potentially given back to the voters. Let the Democrat voters decide who they think should be the county executive, instead of — like Kemler noted — having the party bosses decide for them. Let the Democrat voters demand answers to tough questions, like “Why is Trenton still struggling so mightily when other New Jersey urban centers are doing better?”
In short: Let the Democrat voters actually have a say.
Doesn’t seem like so much to ask, democracy-wise.
So OK, county Dems: Who’s it gonna be? Primary is June. Ticktock.
Jeff Edelstein is a columnist for The Trentonian. He can be reached at jedelstein@trentonian.com, facebook.com/jeffreyedelstein and @jeffedelstein on Twitter.