Councilman Bert Steinmann got the backing of the Ewing Democratic organization, but – as this edition of the Observer went to press – it remained to be seen whether he’ll go unchallenged for his party’s nomination to oppose Republican Mayor Jack Ball in the November election.

Looming as his potential challenger was fellow Councilman Les Summiel, loser of the endorsement vote at the Feb. 3 convention of Ewing’s Democratic Mercer County committee members and other party regulars from the township.

A veteran councilman who narrowly lost to Ball four years ago, Steinmann won the endorsement by an undisclosed margin. A breakdown of the votes cast by the 54 delegates was not made public, in keeping with party organization rules, according to Ewing Democratic leader Bob Dorio.

Summiel, the current council vice president, said afterwards that he may still seek his party’s mayoral nomination in the June 8 primary election.

Summiel also mentioned the possibility of some other Democrat challenging Steinmann in the primary.

In addressing the convention delegates, Summiel asked for an “open primary” in which both councilmen would be treated the same in the June primary election without one being endorsed over the other.

In an earlier interview, Steinmann said it was in the interest of his party to select a mayoral candidate as soon as possible to give that candidate sufficient time to campaign against the Republican incumbent.

“For the Democratic Party to be successful, we can’t wait [until June] to get our message out,” he said.

In contrast, Summiel would abandon the convention process in favor of an “open primary” system of selecting party candidates.

While calling the party’s convention process “most open and democratic,” party leader Dorio would have “no problem with anybody running in the primary” against the organization endorsed candidate.

After endorsing Steinmann for the party’s mayoral nomination, the Ewing Democratic delegates endorsed 13-year-veteran Councilwoman Kathy Wollert and newcomer Hilary Hyser, a State Farm sales representative and member of the Ewing Redevelopment Authority, as candidates for two council seats on the line this year.

However, because of a snafu by convention officials in failing to recognize the candidacy of another interested Ewing resident in the audience, a second convention was scheduled to reconsider the endorsement of Hyser. The second session gave a second political newcomer, Ewing resident Joseph Bedford, a chance to speak to the delegates. While he properly applied for endorsement consideration, Bedford was somehow overlooked by the convention chairman when he showed up to address the delegates at the Feb. 3 meeting, Dorio said.

The second convention, held Feb. 24, produced the same result with the delegates again endorsing Hyser, this time over Bedford, the holder of a doctorate degree in history from Rutgers University, to join Wollert on an all-female Democratic ticket for the two council seats.

Another interested resident, Carl Benedetti, a freshman at Mercer County Community College who previously served three years as his class president at Ewing High School, was unsuccessful in seeking the council endorsement at the Feb. 3 convention. He – along with another Feb. 3 losing Democratic council aspirant, former township acting clerk Charles Green -- decided not to go through the process a second time at the Feb. 24 session.

Green wrote in an e-mail to party delegates that he would continue the fight in the primary. He said his withdrawal from the convention was because of negative phone calls by party Vice Chair Angela Tolleris before the first convention.
“When the vice chair is involved in a smear campaign beforehand, basically it wasn’t a fair convention. So why would a person become involved in the second one?” Green said.

Meanwhile, Ewing Republicans are slated to meet some time later this month to formally endorse Ball for mayor and lone GOP Councilman Donald Cox for a second four-year term, along with another council candidate to team up with Cox, according to the party’s acting municipal chairman, Jeffrey Prunetti.