Clinton Mayor Janice Kovach, a Democrat who has held the post since 2012, appears ready to seek a fifth term next year, setting up a potentially competitive race against three-term Republican Councilman Ross Traphagen, who is announcing his candidacy today.
“Are you ready for another season, Clinton?” Kovach asks in a short video released this morning.
Kovach is perhaps best known locally for her hands-on approach to municipal government, including personally emptying garbage cans along Main Street on weekend mornings to keep the downtown shopping district clean.
In 2019, she told the New Jersey Globe that she carried garbage bags in her car and collected trash herself rather than having the town pay municipal employees to work weekends.
“So, I try to stay under the radar while I’m doing it,” she said.
Kovach, a former president of the New Jersey League of Municipalities and a former Hunterdon County Democratic chair, has been a formidable vote-getter in a town where Republicans have historically been competitive.
But Clinton’s political landscape has changed considerably since Kovach first became mayor, and last week’s midterm election offered another indication of the town’s increasing Democratic voting patterns.
Clinton had a 61% voter turnout, and Democrat Rebecca Bennett carried the town by 331 votes, 872-541, a 60%-37% margin, in her successful bid to unseat four-term Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield). Another 43 votes went to other candidates.
Democrat Caitlin Giles-McCormick defeated Republican County Clerk Mary Melfi in Clinton, 772-680, and Democratic commissioner candidate Jason Blazakis outpolled Republican incumbent Shaun Van Doren, 820-619.
Democrats also swept the two seats on the Clinton Town Council, with incumbent John Kashwick receiving 884 votes and Kimberly Stentz winning 858. Republicans Susan DeGasperis and Jonathan Price received 584 and 552 votes, respectively.
Kashwick and Stentz won by margins of 300 and 274 votes over the leading Republican, a substantial victory in a town where a handful of votes has sometimes decided council races. Their elections maintained a 3-3 town council with the mayor casting the deciding vote.
Still, Traphagen has demonstrated an ability to win local elections even when Democrats carry Clinton at the top of the ticket.
He won a third term last year despite Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill carrying Clinton by roughly 12 percentage points.
“I think that speaks to something important: people want elected officials who put their communities ahead of politics and deliver results,” Traphagen said.
Traphagen, whose family roots in Hunterdon County predate the American Revolution, was first elected to the council in 2019 and won a second term in 2022 by just 15 votes.
He was the Republican nominee for State Assembly in the 16th district in 2023, running with Grace Zhang against Democratic incumbents Roy Freiman (D-Hillsborough) and Mitchelle Drulis (D-Raritan).
In Clinton, Traphagen received 608 votes, finishing just seven votes ahead of Freiman, who received 601. Drulis received 595, while Zhang received 536.
Districtwide, however, Freiman and Drulis won re-election.
The town’s voting history illustrates how much Clinton has changed.
In 2024, Kamala Harris defeated Donald Trump in Clinton, 948-812, a margin of 7.5 percentage points. Democrat Andy Kim carried the town against Republican Curtis Bashaw, 908-795, in the U.S. Senate race, while Democratic congressional candidate Sue Altman outpolled Kean, 912-827.
In 2023, Democrats also carried Clinton in all three legislative races. State Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-South Brunswick) defeated Republican Michael Pappas, 612-560, while Freiman and Drulis narrowly outpolled Traphagen and Zhang.
Last year, Democrats Freiman and Drulis again carried Clinton, receiving 826 and 810 votes, respectively, against 687 for Republican Scott Sipos and 686 for Catherine Payne.
Kovach first won election to the town council in 2003, defeating incumbent Robert Smith, a former ten-year mayor, by 35 votes. She ran for State Assembly in the heavily Republican 23rd district in 2005, losing to Republican incumbents Michael Doherty (R-Oxford) and Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan).
Gov. Jon Corzine appointed her director of the New Jersey Division on Women in 2006.
In 2011, Kovach challenged Smith for mayor and defeated him by 41 votes, 53%-47%. She ran unopposed in 2015 and won a landslide victory in 2019, receiving 68% against Republican Martin Pendergast. She won a fourth term in 2023, defeating Republican Councilman Kyle Perloff, 735-480, a margin of 60.5% to 39.5%.
Kovach was the Democratic nominee for Congress against Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton Township) in 2014, receiving 39% of the vote. She later served as president of the New Jersey League of Municipalities and as secretary of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee.
In 2023, she turned down an opportunity to run for an open Assembly seat in the 16th district after Sadaf Jaffer announced her retirement.
“My heart’s not in it,” Kovach told the New Jersey Globe at the time, saying her commitment remained to Clinton and Hunterdon County.
Gov. Phil Murphy came to Clinton to swear Kovach into her third term in January 2020. At the same ceremony, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli administered the oath of office to Traphagen, who was beginning his first council term.
In 2024, Kovach was elected vice chair of the Hunterdon County Democratic Committee on a slate with former Rep. Tom Malinowski, defeating Karen Becker, 93-73. She briefly served as county chair after Malinowski resigned in November 2025 to seek the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 11th district, but declined to seek the position permanently.