Former Princeton University official Nakia White Barr defeated longtime Mercer County Commissioner John Cimino on Tuesday, with incumbent Lucylle Walter winning the other Democratic nomination for the commission.
White Barr, a former assistant vice president, earned the right to share the Mercer Democratic slogan with Walter and Cimino, but the party nonetheless put its weight behind the incumbents, including with an endorsement from Gov. Mikie Sherrill. But White Barr, a younger candidate, ultimately was the top vote-getter.
As of 11:30 p.m., Barr has earned 20,100 votes, and Walter has received 19,124, but Cimino languishes behind with 15,116.
Cimino is the first incumbent to lose a primary in Mercer County since four-term incumbent Tony Mack fell in 2008 to Cimino.
White Barr spent more than three years as Trenton’s chief municipal prosecutor before a stint as the associate general counsel and secretary of the Board of Trustees at Michigan State University. At Princeton, she ran the Office of Institutional Affairs.
A former Ewing school board member and a special education teacher, Walter won a special election convention for the Mercer County Freeholder in October 1998 after Paul Sigmund resigned to take a private-sector job in California. She won by just two votes, 91-89, against Wendy Benchley, a former freeholder and Princeton Borough councilwoman whose late husband, Peter Benchley, wrote the best-selling novel Jaws.
Walter was elected in 1999 and re-elected in 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2020, and 2023. She had previously sought part support for freeholder in 1997 when James McManimon gave up his seat to run for Assembly. Brian Hughes, who later served as county executive, was endorsed by Mercer Democrats; McManimon lost the Assembly endorsement to now-Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing).
A former Hamilton Planning Board chairman, Cimino was elected to the freeholder board in 2008. He beat four-term incumbent Tony Mack at the Mercer County Democratic convention that year and then defeated Mack again in the Democratic primary. Mack later became mayor of Trenton before his conviction on federal bribery, extortion, fraud, and money laundering charges.
Cimino has been re-elected four times. His father, Skip Cimino, is a former assemblyman who served in Gov. Jim Florio’s cabinet.
The two incumbents will face Republicans Shaolin Brown and Donald Ober.
Republicans haven’t won a countywide election in Mercer since County Clerk Cathy DiCostanzo was narrowly re-elected in 2000. Brian Hughes ended 24-years of Republican control of the Mercer County Executive’s office in 2003 when he defeated DiCostanzo by 1,673 votes, 49%-47% and DiCostanzo narrowly lost her re-election bid for county clerk in 2005 to Paula Sollami Covello.
RELATED ARTICLES
-
February 25, 2026 -
April 28, 2020 -
November 9, 2022