PRIMARY CHALLENGE
Hamilton political gadfly, vocal critic of Mayor Yaede announces mayoral primary run >>
HAMILTON >> Mayor Kelly Yaede is facing a challenge from within her own party.
Township resident David Henderson on Thursday announced he will run against Yaede in Hamilton’s June 4 Republican primary election, boosting his status from colorful gadfly to political office seeker.
“I simply cannot sit by any longer and watch the town that I grew up in run into the ground by the mismanagement and corruption of the current administration,” Henderson said. “I want Hamiltonians to have a viable, conservative choice to manage the affairs of their government moving forward.”
Standing in front of the Hamilton Township Municipal Building and joined by about three dozen well-wishers, Henderson touted his qualifications for office, saying he has prior executive experience from serving as a corporate vice president and prior public sector bona fides.
Henderson performed hazardous site remediation for much of his career with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection before retiring in 2007, pension records show. He gained notoriety from becoming one of Yaede’s fiercest critics over the last 15 months, but he is by no means new to the political world.
Hamilton school board member Anthony Celentano and Henderson teamed up several years ago and supported a failed effort to build a new charter school in Hamilton Township.
Former Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s administration shot down the proposal that would have built Theresa M. Fredericks STEAM Academy Charter School at 1722 Whitehorse-Mercerville Road in time for the 2017-18 schoolyear.
Henderson also worked on the failed 2017 gubernatorial campaign of former Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who lost to Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy.
As a gadfly, Henderson since January 2018 has consistently criticized the Yaede administration over a number of issues ranging from the embattled Hamilton Township Animal Shelter to the township’s costly failures to respond to Open Public Records Act requests in a timely fashion.
At his mayoral campaign kickoff, Henderson on Thursday blasted Yaede over her record on economic development and redevelopment, saying “we need to do better” than bringing in warehouses and Wawa convenience stores. The township should be pushing for new manufacturing opportunities, he said, mentioning the wind turbine industry as an example.
Henderson also blasted Yaede on the issue of taxes and spending, saying the mayor has skyrocketed the township’s outstanding debt and “that has to be put to a stop.”
With Hamilton Township having a big government fire service, Henderson said the township’s nine autonomous fire districts should be consolidated into a single district, which is what the FMBA firefighter unions originally advocated for when they began their consolidation campaign movement in 2015.
Yaede in the past has blasted Henderson for being a leading member of Republicans for a Better Hamilton, an alternative GOP organization that is highly critical of the mayor. But the mayor on Thursday welcomed her new opponent to the race.
“He’s free to run, it’s the democratic process,” Yaede said of Henderson. “Hamiltonians are aware of his actions and reputation. The energy in the room at my announcement for re-election showed me that Hamiltonians realize the positive things we are doing; crime rates down close to 10 percent, spending less than 1.08 percent per year, and an economic development boon as demonstrated by five hotels, three entertainment centers and solid new ratables coming into the township.”
Dennis Pone, chairman of the Hamilton Township Republican Committee, questions whether Henderson’s campaign is being buoyed by well-connected Democrats.
“I wouldn’t doubt if this was the Murphy ‘machine’ at work trying to help Kelly’s Democrat opponent, who has close ties to the governor,” Pone, a former councilman, said Thursday about Henderson’s GOP campaign kickoff for mayor.
Hamilton Council President Jeff Martin is the Democratic candidate running for Hamilton Township mayor this year. His wife Scarlett Rajski is a state worker with deep political connections to Murphy’s administration. Martin did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
“In any event, Mayor Yaede’s campaign is well underway,” Pone said in his statement. “We have the energy and the energy and support of the vast majority of the party as witnessed at her announcement Tuesday night.”
Surrounded by scores of supporters, Yaede officially launched her re-election campaign Tuesday evening with an announcement at Hamilton Lanes and Entertainment Center.
Michael Chianese, former chairman of the Hamilton Republican Committee, attended Henderson’s campaign kickoff event. “This administration must go,” he said of Mayor Yaede. He described Henderson as being “a very well-qualified candidate” who “would do a fantastic job as mayor.”
GOP Hamilton Councilwoman Ileana Schirmer, who is not seeking re-election, also attended Henderson’s announcement, saying she did so out of respect for Henderson, who had invited her.
“I am not supporting anyone at this time,” Schirmer said. “I’m certainly not supporting the current mayor.”
Frank Lay, a former Hamilton Republican Party heavyweight, attended Henderson’s announcement event, too. “It’s time for a change,” he said. “We just don’t like what we see.”
Former Republican councilman Ed Gore stood alongside Henderson during Thursday’s announcement. He said he can “guarantee” that Henderson had a more diverse turnout than the turnout Yaede had received at her reelection campaign kickoff.
Henderson is a Mercer County Republican strategist. Last year he served as a campaign manager for various candidates, including unsuccessful GOP freeholder candidate Michael Silvestri and unsuccessful Hamilton school board candidates Richard C. Crockett III, Sherry Morency and Cynthia Simon.
These former candidates are best known for their connections to controversy.
Silvestri has been in the news lately for accusing former GOP operative Caitlin Koether of revenge porn. Koether, in turn, accuses Silvestri of sexual assault. She supplied New Jersey 101.5 with a series of text messages and a penis pic from Silvestri. She also spoke poorly of Henderson. As previously reported by The Trentonian, a computer screenshot appears to show Crockett engaging in racist commentary several years ago, but he denies making the N-word comments. Morency has a history of sharing inflammatory content on Facebook, too. Simon caught flak for publicly questioning the integrity of the Rev. Joseph E. Woods, the African-American pastor who hosted a school board forum that Morency, Crockett and Simon all boycotted last October. Henderson himself has been hammered for prior social media commentary. Marty Flynn, who serves as Yaede’s chief of staff, last year disavowed Henderson and Republicans for a Better Hamilton for engaging in what he called “their racially insensitive and misogynistic comments as well as their publicly displayed bigotry.” He was alluding to a 1990s-era image on Facebook that appears to show Henderson touching former Gov. Christie Todd Whitman on the buttocks and affiliated commentary of Henderson making jokes about that old photo, and a comment Henderson directed toward an African-American colleague using a variation of the Nword, among other controversial social media postings over the years. Robbinsville’s Republican Mayor Dave Fried told The Trentonian he doesn’t plan to endorse Yaede. “I just don’t feel they’ve earned it at this point,” he said of the Yaede administration. Perhaps Fried’s stance has something to do with the Yaede administration’s sudden decision against loaning Robbinsville a parade float for its St. Patrick’s Day parade, something Fried said Hamilton has done without a fuss for years. Fried openly shared the snub job on Facebook. Two sources with knowledge of the situation suggested that Hamilton was
willing to loan the float to
Robbinsville on the condition that Fried directly phoned Yaede and asked her permission.
Those people believed it was a ploy to get the two
Republican leaders on the phone so Yaede could try to coerce an endorsement out of Fried.
Fried said he’s sitting this one out altogether, and he won’t back Yaede’s primary opponent, either. But he did have some nice things to say about him.
“I think Dave is a good guy, and I’ve worked with him on a number of issues. “He always seem to have the facts. And he’s typically always prepared.”
Fried says he disagrees with the catalogue of cutdowns Yaede has leveled at Henderson over the years.
“I’ve never him seen him be any of those things,” the Robbinsville mayor said. “He’s always been very kind to me. I’ve never known him to be petty, which is more than I can say for the current administration of Hamilton.”
Asked whether he believes Henderson poses a real threat to Yaede in a primary, Fried responded, “Elections are like prize fights. On any given Sunday, anyone can win.”
Lisa Richford, the Mercer County GOP chairwoman, suggested it is a good thing for Yaede to be facing a primary election opponent.
“I think it is great,” she said in an emailed statement. “Primaries are good and necessary. Isn’t democracy great and that we live in a democratic country. We have the primary system set up here in New Jersey that gives voters a chance and right to vote. That is the way our democracy works.”
“People, in this case the residents of Hamilton Township get to vote and be part of our democracy,” she added. “Of course the establishment, incumbents don’t like primaries. That is just too bad. Not having primaries is fundamentally antidemocratic and Incumbents must stand in the primaries every so many years, so the voters can give them the nod or not.”