This strongly Democratic district includes Trenton, the fiscally distressed state capital, along with the affluent suburbs of Princeton Borough and Township, Hopewell Borough and Township, Lawrence Township and Pennington Borough. Ewing Township, a predominantly middle-income community located just north of Trenton, was formerly an important manufacturing center, but much of this industrial activity has given way to service companies, retail establishments and government and non-profit activities. In addition to the state government, other major employers include Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merrill Lynch, Dow Jones, Covance, Capital Health System, and the Princeton Healthcare System. Other large employers include leading higher educational institutions, with the most prominent Princeton University, with its core campus in Princeton Borough, but satellite facilities and many of its staff residing in other nearby municipalities. Other institutions include The College of New Jersey (Ewing); Rider University (Lawrenceville); Thomas Edison State College (Trenton); and Mercer County Community College (Trenton). The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton Township is the world-famous center originally established in 1930 with financial support from retailer Felix Bamberger as a refuge for scholars fleeing Nazi persecution, including Albert Einstein; the Institute continues today to attract some of the world's leading thinkers to its faculty to pursue their research without the distractions of students, classes or other academic commitments. In addition to these institutions, the nonprofit Educational Testing Service is headquartered in Lawrence Township, the world's largest private educational testing, measurement and research organization that develops the SAT (former Scholastic Aptitude Test), the leading college admissions test taken by over two million students annually, and many other tests for higher education and career training.
Senator Shirley Turner of Trenton has served in the Senate since 1998 after two terms in the Assembly and is employed as Associate Director of the Office of Career Placement at Rider University. She has held the position of President Pro Tempore since 2004, serving as Senate President when Senate President Richard Codey is not presiding, and is also chair of the Senate Education Committee and a member of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. Assemblyman Reed Gusciora has been an Assemblyman since 1996 and is vice chair of the Environment and Solid Waste Committe and a member of the Appropriations and Judiciary Committees. He is an attorney who unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Princeton Borough in 2003 and for Congress in the Fourth District in 2000. Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, who is the former chair of the Democratic State Committee, has been a member of the Assembly since 1998. She is Assembly Majority Leader, the second-highest leadership position.
Issues affecting the district include the impact of the State government's workforce levels and spending, particularly on Trenton, Hamilton and Ewing, all of which have large numbers of residents who are State employees or who are indirectly affected by State government spending. The district delegation also has been active in lobbying for special state economic development assistance for Trenton, such as in the renovation of the Trenton War Memorial Auditorium; the construction of the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center; and the redevelopment of the Delaware waterfront with its minor-league baseball stadium and nearby indoor sports and entertainment arena. There also is current controversy over proposals by Capital Health System, which operates two existing acute care hospitals in Trenton, to build a new hospital in Lawrence Township, and over the plan by Princeton Healthcare System, approved by the state health department in 2007, to close its existing acute care hospital in Princeton and relocate to a new complex to be built on Route 1 in Plainsboro.
In the more suburban communities outside Trenton, the focus of recent public debates has been on the impact of development and land-use and transportation policies, particularly as they impact traffic congestion along the Route 1 corridor and the costs and accessibility of public rail and bus transportation. Sharp increases in property values, along with higher property taxes, also have raised concerns over the affordability of housing, particularly for those on fixed incomes such as senior citizens, and the increasing loss of open space and farmland to development. |
