campaign 2026
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About Our Candidates
Councilman Shawn Guerra has lived in Bound Brook since 2013, after deciding to buy a home here and start his family. He is a business owner, and operates Leslie Furniture in Newark. His experience as a small business owner who understands revenues, expenses, and making tough choices has been helpful during his current term as Councilman, and his experience with Newark's Special Improvement District has helped him navigate the Bound Brook Business Improvement District and have a vision for rebuilding a downtown that had been devastated by flooding and fires.
Guerra is currently the chair of Public Safety, is on the Finance Committee and the Economic Development Committee, and is the liaison to the Business Improvement District. He is a decade-long member of the Bound Brook Fire Department, believes that service is important and would like to continue to assist the community. He holds great pride in the services and infrastructure the municipal government provides to its citizens, such as our Fire Department, EMS, and Recreation Center. He sees our recreation services and recent improvements — such as the opening of our community pool and additional programs for our youths and seniors — as great contributors to our community, and he is looking forward to the library reopening after almost 3 years, with a ribbon-cutting on Oct. 30. He’s excited to see what else the municipal government can do for its people. Guerra is also proud of our downtown; the beautification and increase in visitor turnout recently have helped to showcase the work put into downtown projects.
Guerra is a Democrat; however, he believes his decisions need to be in the best interest of the community, and partisanship should play no role. Working together across groups with differing thoughts and opinions is critical; in the end, multiple opinions help get us to solutions that work for everyone.
Kristen (Kristi) Colbert has lived in Bound Brook for 16 years, and has been politically involved for over a decade. She has a background in politics and government work, is a big-picture planner, and believes it’s important to keep the public informed. She’s experienced in sales and communication skills, and believes talking to anyone comfortably is one of her strongest skills. She welcomes tough questions and conversations.
Colbert is a member of the borough Planning Board and is currently Chair of the Shade Tree Commission. As a board member of the Bound Brook Community Garden, she worked on the “My Healthy Vegetable Patch” program, which addressed food insecurity and health issues for the Hispanic community. She serves as the Somerset County Democrats Committee representative for District 6 in the borough, and last year she also became the vice chair of the Bound Brook Democrats. Colbert has been endorsed by the Somerset County Federation of Democratic Women.
While Colbert considers herself a Democrat; she’s largely focused on prioritizing the needs of the community over any sort of partisanship, believing at the end of the day the council serves its constituents and needs to serve them equally.