EDITORIAL Township needs a strong presence of both a Republican and Democratic party.
Monroe Township needs two healthy political parties.
It’s not that the majority Democrats have done a bad job. They’ve had success, keeping taxes among the lowest in Middlesex County and providing a high level of services. But significant issues lie ahead and it is important that a strong opposition party be in place to play devil’s advocate and to offer alternative approaches.
The problem is, the township Republican Party has been little more than a shell for nearly two decades. As our reporter Leon Tovey writes in this week’s paper:
The party has not won a local election since 1987 and has not had any representation on the council since 1989.
Recent elections have not been close Democratic candidates took more than two-thirds of the vote in 2001 and 2003.
The GOP has had difficulty finding new candidates (as of mid-day Thursday, four days before the candidate filing deadline, the party was planning to run candidates in Ward 2 and Ward 3, but not in Ward 1).
The Democrats hold a registration majority in all three wards and all but two voting districts.
To some degree, the party has earned its irrelevance. It has run far too many candidates who have used their campaigns as an excuse for personal attacks, has recycled too many bad candidates and has shown an unwillingness to acknowledge the good things accomplished by the Democrats, while also failing to offer an alternative vision of the future.
The new leadership at the top of the party, however, appears bent on correcting the mistakes made in the past. Sidna and George Mitchell are hoping to bring new energy to the party and a new focus on the future. Already, they have recruited a new face Carlos Lopez to challenge Joanne Connolly in Ward 3, and he plans to take on some sacred cows, including the notion that building new senior housing developments offers nothing but benefits for the township.
And there are plenty of questions that a revived opposition party might raise, such as:
Why have the last three tax increases fallen during years when there have been no elections, while election-year budgets have kept taxes flat?
Has the council considered the impact that the growing senior citizen population has on school budget elections? Seniors living in the township’s seven planned adult retirement communities have a history of voting against school budgets and referendums.
What effect will the dozen or so already-approved housing developments have on the township’s road network and other infrastructure, open space plan and schools?
These questions are not meant to imply that Mayor Richard Pucci, the Township Council and the Planning Board have been doing a poor job or that they are not focused on the future of the township. And, by no means are we endorsing the Republicans, their policies or their candidates. Political endorsements are made in October and only after each candidate is given a chance to meet with the paper’s editors.
We raise these issues because we believe questions need to be asked of even the most competent and effective governments. A Republican presence in the township can only invigorate the township’s political culture and keep everyone focused on what matters most the residents of Monroe.

