Princeton-Area Legislators Tote Their Local Ideologies to the National Arena

Matthew Hersh

While the Gallup Organization has a polling office here at the Carnegie Center on Route 1, the only thing an amateur pollster has to do to appreciate the spectrum of political opinions running rampant throughout New Jersey is take a look at the array of bumper sticker messages attached to cars on Route 1.

"I'm not Fonda Kerry in 2004," reads the rear of one car.

"No C.A.R.B. Diet: No Cheney, No Ashcroft, No Rummy, No Bush," reads another.

But some area representatives have taken their political ideologies to national platforms where they are more than simply fender catchphrases, first to the Democratic National Convention at the Fleet Center in Boston in early August, and now to the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden, which got underway Monday.

National conventions used to pit candidates against one another to determine the favorite within the party. In 1952, Robert Taft, an Ohio senator and son of President William Howard Taft, was widely expected to receive the Republican nomination over then General Dwight D. Eisenhower. After contentious battles and numerous roll-calls on the convention floor, however, Gen. Eisenhower garnered enough delegate votes to secure the nomination, thus paving a route to the Oval Office.

Now it's pretty much cut and dried.

"The conventions have changed so dramatically over the years that the decision has already been made as to who the candidate is going to be," said Kristin Appelget, Republican Councilwoman in West Windsor Township and an alternate delegate in the New Jersey delegation at the RNC. "A lot of the issues have already been decided upon and the campaign is already running full speed ahead."

Today, she implied, there are no upsets.

Instead, national conventions have been redefined as an occasion for the party faithful to align themselves with their political brethren for, most literally, a political party.

"The conventions give us the ability to get together and talk," she said, adding that in their most official capacity, the conventions are "more of a formality than they used to be in the past."

As an alternate delegate, Ms. Appelget has full access to the convention and all of the hoopla that goes along with being in Manhattan this week, and will cast her vote as a delegate only if another delegate cannot physically do so on the night President George Bush is declared the Republican nominee.

Even so, being a "delegate-in-waiting" has its perks for Ms. Appelget, as she immerses herself in the big party.

"From what I understand, the space is so limited in Madison Square Garden that really the only people who are guaranteed seats when the evening presentations are going on are delegates and alternate delegates, so I'm sure it's a hot ticket," she said, grinning.

Having been a spectator at the RNC in Philadelphia in 2000, Ms. Appelget was struck by the intensity of the security for this convention. While national news broadcasts have been consumed with the increased security levels and vast protests in the days leading up to the convention, she feels that Manhattan, at this moment, is relatively safe.

"My mother is a little nervous about me going up there," Ms. Appelget said, "but my father thinks it's the safest place to be right now."

Protest numbers in Manhattan over the weekend have been estimated to be anywhere from 150,000 to 300,000, including those representing Princeton's anti-war organization, Coalition for Peace Action, but Ms. Appelget said protest efforts have not deterred anyone who has assembled for the convention.

"It seems every single police officer in the country is here," she said yesterday morning, still reeling from seeing presentations by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain. "I've never seen Madison Square Garden so secure. It's absolutely unbelievable."

She continued to describe scenes of wire barricades and concrete barriers as "beyond my expectations."

Since the start of the convention most of the organized protesting has been moved over to the West Side Highway, well away from the the Garden's location at 7th Avenue and West 32nd Street. And, despite a few convention attendees having been stopped on the street by protestors, Ms. Appelget said that she has not seen any major disruptions.

As far as protests were concerned, the scene at the Fleet Center in early August was comparatively calm as the DNC descended on Boston, where Democratic pols were essentially preaching to the political choir in largely politically liberal Massachusetts. Princeton resident and Democratic organizer Beth Healey expressed similar sentiments regarding her experience in Boston.

"It was a party from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m.," she quipped. Ms. Healey, whose brother Phil Johnston is the chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Committee, was able to bring her husband Jim, son Chris and his girlfriend Patrice Lee, Princeton Democratic organizer Jenny Crumiller, and Princeton Borough Councilwoman Wendy Benchley, a Democrat.

National Ideals at Home

By sending local delegates to national conventions, what sorts of issues can transcend political climates at national conventions and be boiled down to the "nuts and bolts" of local politics?

Ms. Benchley who attended the DNC as a spectator. said while not all national issues can be applicable on a local level, some things can be learned at the national conventions and translated into tools for local governance.

"I think the Democratic national party represents the values and ideals that I have on a local level also. To be at that convention was an overwhelming experience and what I loved was that it was a cross-section of America," she said, echoing the common idea that national party conventions represent a wide array of beliefs under one political umbrella. "To sit there and be surrounded by people of different nationalities, different income groups, and different ethnic groups and all cheering when we talk about public policy issues, the environment, or healthcare."

She said that many of the issues discussed at the DNC reflected what communities are attempting to do throughout the country.

"We're trying to keep our taxes down, yet keep our services going and keep our neighborhoods strong, but of course the issues are a little different because we can't control every move of the federal government," she said.

She added that national concerns regarding the environment could also be applied to local politics, referring to the recent state-wide mandate that imposes strict regulations on the cleanliness of stormwater runoff.

"National issues can affect how streets are cleaned and help us do better in getting more organizations to look at their chemical usage, like pesticides."

Ms. Appelget, one of two Republicans on West Windsor's five-seat council agreed, saying that while one's political affiliation can bring certain values to the table, much of what is heard at the conventions has more to do with "rhetoric" and less to do with what actually happens in the local spectrum.

"I've enjoyed being a representative on a local level because the things we do are so tangible for people. We fix roads, build sewer systems, make sure that there are soccer fields and Little League fields for the kids.

"I'm a registered Republican, and the convention conveys some of the ideologies that I choose to believe in, but truly and honestly, party affiliation on a local level is not about choosing a [national] candidate and making sure that the national message gets out, but about filling potholes and fixing parks: there's nothing Democratic or Republican about it."