GOP to tab three potential successors
By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
HIGHTSTOWN — Mike Theokas, the lone Republican on the Borough Council and the campaign manager for the local GOP’s mayoral candidate, stepped down from his council seat this week because he is moving out of the borough.
Mr. Theokas, whose three-year term expires Dec. 31, 2011, announced at Tuesday night’s council meeting that he was resigning, effective Wednesday, Sept. 8, because he was temporarily relocating for at least six months to pursue a “professional and personal opportunity.” He declined to elaborate, and acknowledged the move from Hightstown may end up becoming permanent.
”I have no immediate plans to sell my home and move, but it’s a distinct possibility and it’s because of that I have made this decision,” he said.
”I realize the timing is difficult on many levels,” Mr. Theokas said. “But a very smart person told me that the timing — especially in local politics — is never right. There’s always something.”
Council members took turns wishing Mr. Theokas well and praising the dedication and bipartisanship he showed during his years on council. As the council members and the few members of the public still left at 11:30 p.m. gave him a standing ovation, a visibly moved Mr. Theokas made a motion to adjourn.
Municipal Attorney Fred Raffetto said Tuesday night that state law requires the Borough Council to name Mr. Theokas’ replacement, who will serve out the remainder of Mr. Theokas’ unexpired term. The council must choose one of three people whose names the Hightstown Republican Municipal Committee is required to provide by Sept. 22.
Under state law, if Mr. Theokas had resigned prior to Sept. 1, Hightstown voters would have had to choose someone to serve the last year of his unexpired term in the Nov. 2 general election, Mr. Raffetto said.
The GOP municipal chairwoman, Skye Gilmartin, said the eight members of the Republican Municipal Committee would meet Thursday night, after the Herald went to press, to start discussing their picks for Mr. Theokas’ seat.
When asked Tuesday night if GOP mayoral candidate Rob Thibault or the two Republican council candidates in the fall election, Lynne Woods and Selena Bibens, would be on the GOP committee’s short list for the appointment, Ms. Gilmartin would only say that no candidate would be precluded.
Mr. Thibault publicly split with Ms. Woods and Ms. Bibens over the police outsourcing issue and says he supports Democratic Council incumbents Walter Sikorski and Jeff Bond in the Nov. 2 election. Both Ms. Woods and Ms. Bibens oppose outsourcing the borough Police Department to East Windsor, while Mr. Thibault is among the proposal’s most strident supporters.
Mr. Sikorski and Mr. Bond serve on the three-member Borough Council subcommittee that is negotiating an outsourcing agreement with East Windsor. Any tentative agreement must be approved by the full council before it can be implemented, giving added significance to the appointment process for filling the seat formerly held by Mr. Theokas, who supports outsourcing.
Mr. Thibault said Tuesday night that he would be honored if the GOP committee considered him for the open council seat, but he would not accept it because it would be “unfair to voters” to take the appointment only to have to step down in January if he won the mayoral election.
Ms. Bibens said Thursday that she and Ms. Woods would seek the nomination for the open seat. Ms. Woods, a teacher at Hightstown High School, could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday before deadline.
Mr. Raffetto said that under state law, the Borough Council has 30 days to appoint someone on the Republican Municipal Committee’s list of three.

