I noticed a new spring in my step this morning, and a new appreciation for the fall colors, even though there’s some grumbling that the seasonal foliage this year has been kind of a dud.
Since Nov. 8, I’ve had a chance to take several showers to wash away the stink of a nasty election campaign, and I’m once again reassured that most voters are capable of cutting through all the bull thrown their way and making good decisions. And I’m happy to see that the bad decisions of some candidates came back to haunt them at the ballot box, and they were shown the door by voters who had simply had enough.
In Manalapan, for example, Democrats Michelle Roth and Anthony Gennaro came to the campaign for Township Committee with baggage, and while they slid into distasteful negative campaigning from time to time, the pair did speak to the important issues facing the community, like major development projects.
Their opponents, Republicans Peter Hall and Miracle Torregrossa, were spectacularly unqualified for the job and relied almost exclusively on negative campaigning. Unlike their opponents, who made themselves available for unscripted candidate interviews at the Greater Media offices, Hall and Torregrossa refused to participate, and when they answered any questions at all, their answers were nothing but attacks on their opponents and lengthy no-comments on their own positions. Voters made a good decision in denying them office.
In Keyport, where Mayor John Merla has steadfastly refused to step down despite federal indictments for corruption, voters sent a clear message that they are ready for change.
Democrats Joseph E. Sheridan and William Ortman won handily against Republicans June Atkins and George Strang for two seats on the Borough Council. Although Merla left the Republican Party in a snit earlier this year and now claims to be an independent, it apparently wasn’t enough to keep Atkins and Strang from suffering guilt by association.
Merla now says he will likely not run for re-election when his seat expires next year. If he’s convicted of the charges against him, he wouldn’t be able to serve anyway, since he could be in jail. But even if he beats the charges, his political career is finished and he will fade into well-deserved obscurity.
That’s a good thing, and Keyport voters made a good decision in moving the ball down the field.
To tell you the truth, I’m not sure how voters in Millstone Township made a decision in the race for two seats on the Township Committee. The campaign in that community was so vitriolic and deceptive voters apparently had to hold their noses and vote for the lesser of two weasels.
GOP newcomers Steven Sico and Ramin Dilfanian beat longtime Democratic warhorses William Nurko and Frank Cotter handily, largely because of deceptive scare tactics that suggested Nurko and Cotter would turn Millstone into a little Detroit, bristling with incinerator smokestacks, if they were elected.
Time will tell if voters in Millstone made a good decision, but I applaud their effort. Since virtually none of the candidates who have run in Millstone elections in recent years deserved to win, it’s a true sign of optimism and hope that so many voters turned out to exercise their responsibility as citizens and take a shot in the dark. I wish them the best, but at this point my expectations are so low I can hardly be disappointed.
Ditto in Edison, where newcomer Jun Choi used a guy in a chicken suit to help slaughter longtime Democratic Mayor George Spadoro in the primary and win the general election on a promise to “end machine politics,” defeating independent William Stephens by a margin so small it may not survive a challenge.
Stephens’ comments since the election, that Choi played a race card among the community’s Asian voters, are divisive and bitter. Choi will bring a fresh face and fresh ideas to Edison politics, and I wish him the best. I have to tell you, I predicted he would win as soon as I saw that chicken suit, and it turns out I was right.
In the 13th Legislative District, Republicans Amy Handlin and Samuel Thompson handily defeated Democrats William Flynn and Michael Dasaro, and I have to give voters there credit on two points.
First, they gave Handlin a win in the primary over longtime GOP incumbent Joseph Azzolina, who had muddied the distinction between representative politics and personal business, then used his pet newspaper, the Courier, to slime everyone with the temerity to disagree with him.
Second, they didn’t buy into Flynn and Dasaro’s negative campaign advertising, and with their votes showed disapproval of the Democrats’ association with Union County Democratic operative and dirty trickster James Devine. Devine embarrassed the Dems several times during the campaign, but he was raising money for them right to the end. It looks like their failure to disavow Devine backfired, and that outcome is very satisfying.
Voters in the 13th District made a good decision.
In the 12th Legislative District, voters made one good choice in giving Republican Jennifer Beck the win over Democrat Dr. Robert Morgan. Despite some good ideas and impressive endorsements, Morgan apparently violated the state Constitution by working for the state Department of Health and Senior Services while serving as a legislator. Because of that, there’s a cloud over all of the votes he cast during his first term, and that cloud would have darkened a second term as well.
At this point, the race for the second seat between Republican Declan O’Scanlon and Democratic incumbent Michael Panter is still up in the air. At this writing, O’Scanlon is holding a very narrow edge, but the official tally has not been released. No matter who is eventually decided the winner, however, the closeness of the race says that neither candidate won by mandate, and had better be on his best behavior once he gets to Trenton.
That would be a good decision.
Gregory Bean is executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers.