Justifying Need

Over the years, Yaede, who became the township’s first female mayor in 2012, has justified the need for her security detail by pointing to the time she was aggressively stalked by Jeff Federico while she was a councilwoman.

She even enlisted Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri and ex-Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer to go to bat for her after the press

previously raised questions about her need for bodyguards.

Onofri and former Hamilton Police Chief James Collins said in 2015 that their offices had gathered independent intelligence that Yaede needed protection from potential aggressors.

Mayors across New Jersey face the same real or perceived threats but have chosen to employ their security details differently.

In Trenton, for example, Mayor Reed Gusciora said he has two Trenton detectives assigned to his security detail.

They have offices at City Hall and accompany him on “official business” in and around the city.

But, unlike Yaede, they do not travel with Gusciora on business trips, he said.

The capital city’s first

openly gay mayor said he believes having bodyguards tag along on those trips or whenever he makes stops at the “CVS in Ewing or to visit friends in Princeton” is an “unnecessary expense” for Trenton, which has been plagued over the years by gunplay and other violence.

“I don’t think anyone knows who I am in Washington,” Gusciora said.

Officials point out that Trenton’s suburban counterpart does not experience the same levels of violence as the capital city.

So some question whether Yaede exaggerated threats she has allegedly encountered over the years.

“I doubt it’s a real threat,” said Schirmer, who just last week was publicly banished from running with Yaede and Republican councilman Ralph Mastrangelo on the

Republican ticket in the upcoming municipal election.

Yaede’s press secretary, in a patented Friday news dump, sent out a release directing potential candidates to email resumes to the Hamilton Township Republican Committee.

“I would never want to run with those two anyway,” Schirmer said, calling the township Republican Committee a “communist club” that tells members “what to think, what to say and how to behave. It’s Kelly’s way or the highway.”

The Republican councilwoman said the controversy over Yaede’s security detail is only part of the reason she may run against Yaede in a primary.

She could also run for reelection as a councilwoman.

“I’m not ruling anything out,” Schirmer said. “Everything is on the table.”