The local Republican Party needs a change

As a point of introduction, my name is Kirsten Light and the purpose of this communication is to ask for your vote in the primary for Bernards Township Committee on June 2nd.

I have lived in New Jersey my entire life, growing up in Berkeley Heights but calling Bernards Township my home since 2010.  I live here with my husband, Frank, my daughter, Caeli (21) and my son, Jaxon (10).  My daughter graduated from Ridge High School in 2022 and my son currently attends Liberty Corner Elementary School.  I love this town!  I care about this town, so much so, that when I saw the quality of our schools beginning to decline while our taxes soared, I ran for the Board of Education (BOE) and served on that board for three years.

While I was a member of the BOE, I served as the Finance Committee Chair and a member of the Facilities & Operations Committee for two years.  During this time, I was able to keep the increase to property taxes in year one to only 0.75% and achieved a 0.0% tax increase in year two which resulted in savings of over $5M to our community.   No services or staff were cut, teachers got raises and we ADDED four (4) new retired police officers to serve at each of the elementary schools for our children’s safety.

I now want to bring innovative solutions that show results like these to the Township Committee!

Last year, as Republicans, we suffered a devastating loss in the November elections that turned control of the Township Committee over to the Democrat party.  This has not happened in this town since the Great Depression.  But to those paying attention, this was not surprising.  The current Republican Municipal Committee (RMC) has been slowly disappearing from our community, focusing more on appeasing the “purple” voters than supporting their Republican base.  This has resulted in a sharp decline in voter turnout for elections, even though we still hold a slight majority.

The RMC has failed to turnout candidates that fire up our base.  Recently elected members, except for our amazing former mayor, Jennifer Asay, turned their backs on our town and their party by voting to build one of the largest high density housing projects in the entire county (574 units).  They have engaged in appalling attacks upon Committeewoman Asay at EVERY township meeting and truly have no plan on how to mitigate the damage that this housing project will inflict upon our schools, our roads and community.  

What is the RMC’s plan to solve for this?  They endorse the ARCHITECT and CAMPAIGN MANAGER of our recent devastating campaign losses, who failed to identify any specific issues our town faces or any actions that he would take.

For this reason, I have chosen to avail myself of the primary process, as the framers of our Constitution envisioned.  Let’s put the decision back into the hands of the voters!

We need serious candidates that can beat a popular Democrat mayor. 

We need someone who has already won a contentious election. 

We need someone who has experience governing.

We need someone that has a track record of providing results for our town. 

We need someone willing to fight for the position.

We need someone who can come up with innovative solutions for the challenges we face.

I AM ALL OF THE ABOVE!

I truly believe that I possess the qualities and experience that Bernards Township needs to tackle its biggest and smallest challenges.  Over the next couple of weeks, I will be rolling out a website that provides more detail on my campaign.  However, my current initiatives are:

Affordable housing: I pledge to work with our current Committeewoman, Jennifer Asay to mitigate the community damage of the Westgate housing development while proactively planning our community (without infringing upon the duties of the Planning Board) to minimize any additional affordable housing requirements while bringing in the businesses and services that our residents are asking for.

Property taxes: I pledge to bring my experience, not only from serving on the BOE, but as a CPA and a process improvement consultant to flatten the curve of budgetary spending so that our residents can stay in town and our children can afford to live here someday with their families.  This WILL mean working closely with the BOE to find shared services that can reduce the costs to both budgets.

Public safety: I pledge to work with our township to improve the quality of the roads under the township’s control, better vet the contractors chosen to perform the work, support and accept community support for our brave police officers, and evaluate the need for new services while making fiscally responsible recommendations to the Township Committee.

I acknowledge that the 2026 election cycle, with the midterm elections at a critical point, will be a challenging process.  But I am ready for that challenge.  I look forward to meeting with you and hearing YOUR concerns about our community so that I can be YOUR voice on the Township Committee!

Thank you for your time and consideration.  AND even if you don’t vote for me, please VOTE!