In solidly Democratic Franklin Township, Republicans are betting that a former mayor can lead them into a local victory despite enormous demographic shifts over the last few decades.
Brian D. Levine, a former mayor and Somerset County freeholder, is mounting a comeback bid against two-term Democratic Mayor Philip Kramer in a municipality that is much more Democratic than the one Levine used to carry when he sought local office in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
After serving as a councilman, Kramer ran for mayor in 2015 and won 61% of the vote. His margin jumped to 73% in 2019.
Levine is well-known in Franklin, but he hasn’t won there since winning his third term as mayor a dozen years ago. Local voters have not backed his bids for higher office.
He received 46% in his hometown when he took on State Sen. Bob Smith (D-Piscataway) in 2013 and lost Franklin in his successful 2014 and 2017 freeholder runs, and his 2020 bid for re-election in a county that has shifted from red to blue over the last five year.
Joe Biden won Franklin with 73% of the vote in 2020; while Levine ran 1,846 votes ahead of Donald Trump, he still lost his hometown by a margin of more than 2-1. In 2021, Phil Murphy received 70% of the vote against Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a onetime Somerset County freeholder.
Either way, Franklin is destined to elect a white mayor in a minority-majority town. The 2020 U.S. Census puts the municipality’s white population at 32%; 37% of local residents are Black, 23% are Asian American, and 15% are Hispanic.
Levine scored his first local win in 1997 when he unseated four-term Councilwoman Helen Reilly, who was running as an independent in a three-candidate field. Back then, Franklin’s Second Ward had just a slight Democratic voter registration edge.
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February 16, 2021 -
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