UPDATE: Democratic Party Sets Ticket for November

UPDATE: This isn't the first time Democratic candidate Greg Newcomer has been asked to run for council. It's just the first time he's said "yes."

"A lot of people have asked me to do this. It's kind of a large thing to do," he said when reached for comment Wednesday. "The other times I was asked, I had different things happening in my life. I just felt now was probably the right time.

"And I think more people asked me to run this time than ever before."

Newcomer said he's honored to have been selected.

If elected, Newcomer said his focus will be on ensuring the public's voice is heard early and often, particularly at council meetings. 

"I hope what we're about is getting people to come out and feel good about meeting at a town council meeting," he said. "I've always said, the most important person in the meeting is all of the people."

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The Moorestown Democratic Committee has picked three familiar faces to represent the party in the November election.

Following a unanimous vote Tuesday night, the committee selected Greg Newcomer, Brian Sattinger and Mark Hines to be on the ballot in the June primary.

Hines, who also serves as Democratic committee chair, said the party feels very good about its ticket.

“We feel like there will be strong bipartisan support,” he said, adding that the didn’t weigh much on the Democrats’ mind.

“We really didn’t give much thought to it,” he said. “From our observation, they have good candidates.”

Hines said his running mates bring a wealth of experience as active members of the community, particularly Newcomer.

Newcomer, aside from being a regular at township council meetings, is deputy chair of the planning board and also sits on the township’s ethics board. He is a past Citizen of the Year (2004) and served four terms on the recreation advisory committee and was chair for three years, and also served as chair of the appearance committee, according to a release from the Democratic committee.

“He truly understands the township and how it works,” said Hines.

Sattinger—who ran for council in 2010 and lost (with 27 percent of the vote) to current council members Chris Chiacchio and Stacey Jordan—previously served as chair of the township’s technology and telecommunications committee and was involved in the Moorestown Youth Football Association. Sattinger and his wife, Julie, are also active in SpEAC (special education advocacy council).

Hines said Sattinger, as chief financial officer of Ironbound Capital, a Princeton asset management firm, brings to the table a deep understanding of finance, a quality currently lacking on council, according to the Democratic committee chair.

As for Hines himself, he said he was not inclined to run again, after a failed council bid in 2008.

“I decided about two years ago I would not rerun,” he said. But when Hines and his wife, Elizabeth Endres, and became active in the K.I.D.S. debate, it touched a nerve.

“With the open space issues, I was really struck by how many people came to me and said, ‘We want you to run,’” Hines said, adding a number of Republicans even asked him to run.

Hines, who served on the board of the and is currently on the Moorestown Improvement Association board, mentioned the ongoing  will likely be a focal point for the Democratic ticket, but it’s “not an all-or-nothing proposition,” he said. “We’re very much for recreation. We just want to make sure we do it the way the community wants us to do it.”

He said council has clamped down on public input the last few years and the Democrats are committed to listening to citizens. Their release states the candidates would restore the public’s “Requests and Presentations” portion to township council meetings.

Council has been all Republican since 2010. The last Democrat to hold a seat was Seth Broder. The last time council was Democrat-controlled was 2004, with a 3-2 split, according to Hines.

“We just don’t think one-party rule is best for Moorestown,” he said. “We have to do it. It feels like it’s time to make a difference.”

Newcomer and Sattinger could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.