Spadoro challenged in quest for fourth term
Democrat Jun Choi will face mayor in Democratic primary
BY ELAINE VAN DEVELDE
Staff Writer

Jun Choi

If Jun Choi gets his way, four will be a very unlucky number for Edison Mayor George A. Spadoro.

Choi, a municipal Democratic committeeman, is aiming to unseat the mayor in his quest for a fourth four-year term as the township’s top administrator.

The first step in the 33-year-old Democratic man attaining his goal was to announce his run against fellow Democrat Spadoro, in the June political primary race.

“I’ve seen a lot of self-serving politics in Edison and I want to change that,” Choi said. “You don’t go into public service to take care of yourself.”

George A. Spadoro

A resident of Edison since the early 1980s, Choi said that he became active in area politics only in the past five years.

“But the more I learned, the less pleased I was,” he said. “The lack of fiscal accountability, especially, is outrageous. There are vocal critics, but no one was willing to toss their hat in the ring and run. I decided that I need to be the one.”

But Spadoro supporter and local Democratic Party Chairman Dr. Thomas Paterniti says Spadoro has done an excellent job.

“He’s running [Choi] because he thinks there are all these things the mayor didn’t do,” Paterniti said. “I don’t know what town he’s looking around in, but it’s not Edison. He has to be confused with some other city. As an educator, I think he’s spending too much time in those Abbott districts. The mayor has an outstanding record, probably one of the finest of any mayor in New Jersey.”

Spadoro could not be reached for comment. He released a statement through his Woodbridge law office, Spadoro & Hilson, marked “paid for by Spadoro for Mayor.”

The statement, released last week said that, unlike Choi, he submitted his name for the party’s endorsement early in March.

“On April 4, I will stand before the Edison Democratic Or-ganization and ask to be its candidate for mayor in the primary to be held in June,” he said in the statement. “Today, I have the same enthusiasm and desire to serve the people of my community as I did when I first decided to run for mayor.”

Choi said the mayor’s style of governing is behind too many closed doors and said that is a main reason he is opposing him.

“Not open enough?” Paterniti asked. “No party is as open as the Democratic Party in Edison. I could go on and on, but this mayor has tried everything people have needed — open office hours, better roads, traffic lights, a Mr. Fix-It program for seniors, Mounted Police, an arts society, parks improvements — I could go on and on.”

While Paterniti called Choi a “nice young fella with a lot of ambition,” he said he is too scattered in the way he is setting his political sights.

Choi has, in the recent past, announced he was running for the Board of Education, state assembly, county freeholder but never actually ran for the posts.

He has been involved in township politics before as a local activist, but never in a run for the mayoral seat.

Former Councilman William Stephens has run for the seat unsuccessfully in 2001 Democratic primary against Spadoro. Stephens, who is still active in politics, said he is also considering a run as an Independent candidate in November.

Choi said his support has been strong.

In 2003, he formed his own Political Action Committee (PAC), Friends of Jun Choi. The organization was created to gather money for his quests for political office. He now has $150,000 in the pot for his campaign,” Choi said.

I have been fortunate,” he said. “I come to the primary a well-resourced person who has met a lot of people along the way who are interested in serving the public interest.”

The Edison Democratic organization has $180,000 for Spadoro’s campaign and there will be more once the fund raising starts, said Paterniti.

Choi initially set his sights on a state Assembly seat.

“I began to prepare for a run in the Assembly (18th District) last April,” Choi said. “But I told the leadership that if the seat were not open, I would not make the run this year. That’s what happened, and that was also when people began to encourage me to run for mayor.”

He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Columbia University’s graduate school. Choi worked on Bill Bradley’s 2000 presidential campaign.

Choi is the executive director of the state Department of Education’s multimillion dollar Student Achievement Task Force project. He has taken a leave of absence from his position to focus on the primary.

But that will not match Spadoro’s accomplishments over the past 12 years, Paterniti said.

“I challenge you to find a town that has a mayor who has done what he has done,” he said “Look at the Durham Woods explosion of the early 1990s, when the mayor was first elected. It was like another 9/11. He did an outstanding job. No one died; buildings were leveled. The way he organized it was a miracle. I call him another Rudy Guiliani.”

Though he will be running against Spadoro, Choi has sided with him on certain issues. He opposed the ward system for the governing body that was proposed by Spadoro adversaries in 2003.

Choi is also chairman of the township’s Fair Rental Housing Board, a position he was appointed to by the all-Democratic Township Council in 2003.

He supports the council candidates running with Spadoro — Parag Patel, Robert Diehl and Anthony Massaro — just not the mayor.

“I don’t understand how that could be effective,” said local Democratic Committeeman Anthony Russomanno, a Spadoro adversary. “How can he successfully back the people who support the mayor when they are the people who carry out the mayor’s mission?”

But Choi sees no problem with splitting his support.

“We have a government that is strong mayor, weak council,” he said. “I believe that, in light of that, whoever is elected as mayor, even if it is a newcomer, most council members would support that person.”

Choi did not submit his name in time to the municipal Democratic organization to officially compete for the party’s primary endorsement.

A meeting was slated for Monday night for the committee members to review candidates’ credentials. Spadoro is the only one who submitted his name for screening.

Paterniti said he would not allow Choi to address the committee at the meeting.

“I told people and advertised that they could send résumés in back in January,” he said. “He had plenty of time to submit his résumé and then he comes the last minute. I’m letting strictly those who submitted their materials to screen — period.”

Nonetheless, Choi said he plans to attend the meeting and address the committee to present his platform.

He also said he had mailed letters to all committee members detailing his goals as a candidate and asking for support.

John Covello, the mayor’s chief of staff, said on Friday that Spadoro would address more specifics in his speech to the committee on Monday night, after press time.

The mayor is in a full-time administrative position and makes a salary of $49,000 a year, according to township records.

“The mayor is definitely full time,” said Covello. “I would call him a 24-hour-a-day mayor.”