BY BRYAN SABELLA
Staff Writer
Metuchen Democratic Borough Council incumbents Alan Grossman and Catherine Totin were re-elected Nov. 2 by comfortable margins.
Totin was the top vote-getter with 3,619 votes, and Grossman received 3,556, according to the Municipal Clerk’s Office.
Republican challengers Jennifer Lacy Patrick Lacsina received 2,657 and 2,511, respectively.
Metuchen also went big for Democrats on the national ticket, casting 3,877 ballots for Kerry/Edwards to 2,713 for Bush/Cheney.
The turnout was robust. Of the borough’s 9,348 registered voters, 6,690 people, or 72 percent went to the polls Nov. 2.
Totin, a councilwoman since 1996, will return for her fourth term, while Grossman, the current council president, will return for a second.
By successfully fending off their GOP foes, Totin and Grossman ensured that all six council seats will be filled by Democrats for at least one more year.
“I’m grateful to the citizens of Metuchen for acknowledging and recognizing the hard work we’ve put in,” Grossman said.
He was less pleased with the results of the national election, which saw President George W. Bush re-elected and the Republicans picking up seats in the House and Senate.
“I was certainly disappointed with the outcome, but now we need to work together to make the country better,” Grossman said.
Lacsina was gracious in defeat.
“Certainly, we wish our opponents the best of luck,” he said.
He added that the campaign wasn’t a total loss, adding that it wasn’t a total loss.
“We think we brought some issues into the Metuchen spotlight,” Lacsina said. “We felt very energized and there’s a lot of interest in the Republican Party in Metuchen.”
“One good thing was that the voter turnout was almost twice as large as it’s been in recent years,” Lacsina said. “It was good to see everyone doing their civic duty.”
His opinion of the national election results?
“I couldn’t be more elated,” Lacsina said.
The campaign was not without a bit of partisan bickering.
Lacy and Lacsina contended that the Democratic stranglehold on borough politics was stifling debate, while Grossman and Totin touted their records and said their opponents were too inexperienced
Lacy and Lacsina showed up at the Oct. 4 council meeting with Republican Municipal Chairman David Sachs to accuse the incumbents of stonewalling on debates.
Grossman and Totin’s said that the GOP candidates had declared in April, yet waited until September to propose three possible dates that conflicted with prior obligations.
Two weeks later, the Democrats charged that the Republicans had violated state election laws by failing to file a document disclosing the name of the bank holding their campaign funds.
The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission was unable to confirm that charge.