Anti-Semitic, anti-Hispanic homophobe seeks return to local office in Trenton

In the week following the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, a controversial former Trenton councilwoman with a long history of making vile anti-Semitic, anti-Latino, and homophobic statements is attempting to make a political comeback in a bid for a school board seat in New Jersey’s capital city.

Robin Vaughn, who gave up her council seat last year to win just 8% of the vote as a candidate for mayor, once insisted that “Jew down” was “just a verb.”

In 2020, at a city council meeting, Vaughn went on a homophobic rant in which she called Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora, the city’s first openly gay mayor, a “pedophile.”

After those homophobic comments, the state’s most powerful political leaders – including Gov. Phil Murphy, the late former Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver, U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez, and the state’s entire Congressional delegation – called for her resignation.

Although Vaughn later apologized, she would not resign.  Gusciora beat her with a loud 71% of the vote last November.

Such a resounding defeat might have ended Vaughn’s political career, but in a low-turnout off-off-year election, Vaughn hopes to regain some political power.

It is unclear how her past comments will impact this year’s election – there are no polls in Trenton Board of Education races – but Gusciora thinks voters will reject Vaughn for her history of making bigoted remarks.

“The Zoom council meetings might have been entertaining for a lot of people, but they recognize that her sole purpose is to cause havoc and dysfunction,” Gusciora told the New Jersey Globe today. “Trentonians are smart, and they soundly reject the negativity and the dysfunction that she brings.”

Gusciora argued that Vaughn had few accomplishments during her tenure in office and that voters want to support substantive candidates and focus on getting things done.

“She has no platform, other than a demonstrable four years of just trying to blow things up and take the city backward,” he commented. “In the four years she was a councilwoman, she had absolutely zero accomplishments, except for causing dysfunction.”

To this end, Gusciora drew a contrast between what he sees as the progress of the city’s public schools with Vaughn.

“Students, despite their socio-economic status, are making it to Ivy League schools and finding great success,” Gusciora stated.

Part of this achievement, he argues, is based on the investment the city has made in the public schools and the work of the school board.

“We are actually building a new school in the South Ward, there has been progress in student performance, and we have a beautiful high school; so, there’s a lot of positivity that’s coming out of the school system,” he noted.

This success is a contrast to Vaughn, who, Gusciora argues, “did lasting damage to the city by blowing up projects.” But Gusciora admits that Vaughn had one key accomplishment: she was pivotal in getting school board members directly elected by residents.

“She did manage to get the school board elected,” Gusciora said.

Still, the two-term mayor and former assemblyman  Vaughn was the wrong candidate – believing she doesn’t bring the skills necessary to ensure the school board works properly.

“It’s really important that school board members be engaged in the community and work together to solve problems,” he said. “I’m supporting the first three candidates on the ballot because I think they will bring demonstrable results and work together.”

Gusciora’s preferred candidates – Yolanda Marrero-Lopez, Addie Daniels-Lane, and Larry Traylor – face Mary Horne, Kendotta Crawford, and Vaughn.

“I hope she gets the same eight percent she got in the mayoral election,” Gusciora said.