Choi raises $100K from campaign fundraiser BY JAY BODAS Staff Writer EDISON — Mayor Jun Choi added a little over $100,000 to his war chest from a fundraiser held recently at the new Mirage banquet hall on Oak Tree Road. Several hundred people were in attendance, ranging from a few members of the township council to former and current governors James Florio and Jon Corzine, the latter of whom arrived later on into the evening. The night was split between two parties: an initial reception resembling a cocktail hour set at $1,000 per person, followed by a second event in a neighboring room at $100 a plate. “We will make Edison the most open government in New Jersey,” Choi said that night. “After a year, I remain committed to our reform agenda, having secured millions of new dollars in grants, setting the highest ethical standards in New Jersey working with the Citizens’ Campaign, and the Edison project, which is actively bringing in new businesses and ratables.” After the event, when asked how much total money he now has, Choi said it would not be until mid-January before an exact figure could be tallied. But what is clear is that the first-year mayor of Edison is making plans for the future. He has retained several political consultants, including Evan Stavisky of the Parkside Group, a strategic communications firm based in New York City, who served as chief strategist for the mayor’s initial primary run last year. Stavisky said that his work as a consultant was not paid for with any taxpayer money, and that the reason Choi is currently raising money is to be well prepared for anything the future may bring. “The bottom line is that in politics, like in the Boy Scouts, you should always be prepared for whatever comes next, whether it is re-election or advancing his reform agenda,” he said. “The mayor is going to need the resources to talk to his constituents.” “In his last race, he was outspent considerably, and we don’t want to allow that to happen again,” Stavisky said. “One of the ways to be prepared is to have the financial resources to wage an effective campaign. It is a reality we all have to deal with.” However, Stavisky said Choi currently has no specific plans for any future election or race. “The mayor’s only plan right now is to continue doing the job his neighbors elected him to do, which is to be the best possible mayor of Edison Township, and he has no plans beyond that,” he said. He said that it was “premature” to discuss whether Choi would endorse specific candidates for the four Township Council seats that will be up for grabs next year, though the mayor was “looking for candidates who support his reform agenda.” The four seats include those currently held by Salvatore Pizzi, Charles Tomaro, Peter Barnes, and Joan Kapitan. “The political process will unfold in the next several months, and we will see what happens,” Stavisky said. “It is premature to talk specifically about who the mayor would support or to go into that level of detail.”