GOP wins mayor’s office, council seats

Republicans will now have 5-1 majority on council

BY SUE MORGAN Staff Writer

BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

WEST LONG BRANCH — Janet Tucci, a longtime Republican councilwoman elected to the mayor’s office last week, will take office early next month and is expected to lead meetings of the governing body for at least 13 months.

In the borough’s first contested mayoral election in several years, Tucci, a 20-year veteran council member, handily defeated incumbent Democratic Mayor John Paolantonio Jr., who was appointed to office in April.

Aside from gaining the mayor’s office on Nov. 8, the local GOP seized one more seat on the six-member council with the victories of council candidates Thomas DeBruin, Christopher Neyhart and Barbara Ruane, all of them Tucci’s running mates.

DeBruin and Neyhart trumped two Democratic candidates, incumbent Councilwoman Tanis Deitch and Barry Pollack, for two three-year seats on the governing body.

In January the two victors will be sworn in to their seats, which will expire Dec. 31 for Tucci, who chose to run for mayor instead of another council term, and Councilman William Boglioli, who opted not to seek office again.

Ruane, a successful write-in candidate last June, won the unexpired one-year seat now held by Deitch, herself appointed to office last spring, over Jeffrey Resnikoff, a Long Branch-based land use attorney.

Like Tucci, Ruane will take her oath at the first council meeting once the election results are certified.

Their immediate predecessors, Paolantonio and Deitch, were selected by the local Democratic organization earlier this year to fill the offices vacated by former mayor Paul Zambrano and former councilman Joseph DeLisa.

Zambrano and DeLisa, both Democrats, resigned soon after they were arrested and charged with extortion by FBI agents carrying out a county-wide investigation of corruption among public officials on Feb. 22.

Unofficial results released by the Borough Clerk’s Office show that in the mayor’s race, Tucci took 1,692 votes, topping the 1,022 votes cast for Paolantonio.

DeBruin led the pack of four candidates for the two three-year seats, with an even 1,500 votes followed by Neyhart with 1,381 votes. Pollack came in third with 1,146 votes while Deitch trailed with 1,050.

As for the one-year term, Ruane garnered 1,472 votes to easily overtake Resnikoff’s 1,094.

The numbers released do not include absentee or provisional ballots.

After the New Year, the GOP will hold a 5-1 majority on the council, with first-term Councilwoman Bettina Munson as the lone Democrat on the dais.

A lifelong resident, Tucci works as a learning disabilities specialist in neighboring Long Branch.

DeBruin, son of former West Long Branch Councilman John J. DeBruin Jr., attributed the GOP’s sweep of all four offices to a concerted effort by the candidates to meet the public and talk about the issues.

“We started going door to door the day after Labor Day,” said DeBruin, who will begin his first council term. “Our mission was to get to every door in town.”

As a councilman and eventually as the head of a council sub-committee, DeBruin hopes to focus his energies on giving borough residents the best services they can receive for the property taxes they pay.

Retired from his position as a detective with the state’s Office of the Public Defender, DeBruin now works independently as a polygraph examiner.

Ruane, president of an emergency management and counter-terrorism consulting firm in the borough, will succeed Deitch as the chair of the council’s fire department and first aid committee once she takes office.

In an e-mail, Ruane indicated that she will also serve on the Police Committee and the Public Works Committee.

“I would also like to use my emergency management experience to implement a state-funded Community Emergency Response Team [CERT] to train volunteers in our town in emergency preparedness and response,” Ruane wrote.

Neyhart, retired from the Ocean Township Police Department, favors improving the town’s relationship with Monmouth University, particularly where issues of the campus’ growth outside its boundaries is concerned, and keeping taxes stable.

Neyhart has said he is eager to see the findings of a structural engineer’s study of the aging police station building at 95 Poplar Ave.

The next council meeting is scheduled for Dec. 7 at borough hall.