Sheree McGowan

It hasn’t been an easy year for Robbinsville-based state assembly candidates.

Soon after redistricting moved Robbinsville into the 14th District—where it joins Mercer County municipalities Hamilton, East Windsor and Hightstown—Mayor David Fried announced he’d be running for one of the district’s two up-for-grabs state assembly seats.

Fried dropped out of the race in August, citing an illness, but the Republican Party didn’t even have to leave town to find a replacement. Councilwoman Sheree McGowan quickly announced her candidacy, with it scheduled to become official at a Republican convention in late August. The death of a prominent Middlesex County Republican pushed that gathering back to Sept. 6.

McGowan believed the Republicans confirmed her candidacy at the rescheduled meeting, but issues at the Sept. 6 meeting forced the party to hold yet another convention in an attempt to achieve quorum and prevent any legal challenges to McGowan’s place on the ballot.

The Republicans finally confirmed her Sept. 14, just eight weeks before Election Day, Nov. 8.

Through it all, McGowan continued to campaign, dropping off literature around the district, touring businesses and just trying to get traction in a race even she admitted she had no expectations of being in two months ago. McGowan said she doesn’t think the change of candidates and challenges validating her ballot spot will adversely affect her campaign.

“I don’t think it’s that difficult because over the summer the general public really doesn’t take notice of the fact that there’s an election in November, let alone who’s running,” she said. “It’s not till Labor Day they begin to pay attention anyway.”

McGowan has framed her campaign around the fact that she’s relatively new to elected office, or in her words, “not from the political machine.” She’s been a councilwoman—her first elected office—since 2009 but has been involved in the community for longer. She worked on the committee to get Robbinsville High School built before joining the planning board, the mayor’s transition committee and the zoning board.

During the campaign, McGowan also has promoted herself as a small business owner, based on her experience renovating dilapidated properties around the state, then selling them, including two projects on Long Beach Island which turned run-down properties into condominiums.

McGowan said the fusion of her business experience, her municipal government experience and her status as a relative newcomer to elected office will help her bring new ideas to the state government.

“Having worked in the township on the planning board, the mayor’s transition committee and planning and zoning, it really got me to see how government and business interact and what stands in their way, what helps them,” McGowan said. “Being on the planning board actually opened up my eyes a lot. Then going onto the council and seeing the budgeting issues and where the state mandate helps or hurts the township and just how government works in general, the combination of those things are going to help when I get to the assembly because my platform is basically economic development, job growth and fair funding.”

She also thinks the rest of the state can learn from Robbinsville. McGowan said people have asked her on the campaign trail to try to bring the kind of growth Robbinsville has experienced to their towns.

“They like what we’ve done in Robbinsville,” she said. “Businesses have actually grown in Robbinsville. Employment has grown even while the economy was shrinking. We’ve cut down on the red tape. We’ve made development, expansion easier on developers. They’re excited that I may able to bring those same thoughts and ideas to their towns.”

It’s not an accident if McGowan sounds like she may be echoing ideas Robbinsville’s mayor has been championing for the past few years. She’s received plenty of advice from the man she replaced.

“I talk to Mayor Fried quite often,” McGowan said. “He’s been super helpful. He’s going to help with my fundraising. He’s made a lot of phone calls for me. He’s been great.”

And Fried thinks just as highly of McGowan.

“Sheree’s doing great,” Fried said. “I’m obviously disappointed, but I’m thankful I could have one of my council people pick it up.”

For his part, Fried said his health won’t preclude him from continuing as mayor or as chairman of the Mercer County Republican Committee.

“I will be [remaining in my current positions],” Fried said. “My challenges were going to make campaigning very, very hard.”

So, McGowan has picked up where Fried left off. While she’s only been a candidate for a few weeks, McGowan said she’s enjoyed the experience and can’t help but to feel optimism heading toward Election Day.

“I think it’s going great,” McGowan said. “We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback. People are willing to help; the volunteers have been fantastic. We’ve been door-knocking already. We’ve been out to community events. It’s all been positive so far.”