By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
The two parties got their work done and went home early Tuesday on Primary Election Day.
There were no contests for nominations in the borough, the county or for Congress. The only race was for the Democratic nomination in the state 16th Legislative District.
This year, for the first time, Tuesday was also the deadline for candidates to file for the Board of Education for its first-ever November election of three members for three-year terms.
Current board President Cathy Wiedwald, of North Bank Street, joined two previous filers for school board. One is longtime member Ned Panfile, a Louis Street resident. The other is Sharon Liszczak, who lives on Rabens Avenue.
Mr. Panfile is one of three members whose terms were extended from April to the end of the year and must run on the November ballot.
Board member Andrew Zangara didn’t file.
The school board decided in February to move school elections from April to the general election for the next four years.
School board races will remain nonpartisan, and candidates’ names will appear on a separate section of the ballot.
For Borough Council, each party offered two names for nomination for the two three-year terms. Susan Horensky-Star, who ran last year, gained 200 votes and Councilman Richard Onderko, 217, to gain GOP nominations.
For the Democrats, former Councilman Lou Fischer received 157 votes and Ronald Skirkanish, 164, to win the right to run in the fall.
In its first election day in the 12th Congressional District, longtime Democratic Congressman Rush Holt won re-nomination without opposition. He got 155 votes in Manville.
In the fall, he’ll face Eric Beck, a South Brunswick-based risk management consultant as the GOP nominee. Mr. Beck gained 182 votes in the borough in the primary.
Manville was moved out of Republican Rep. Leonard Lance’s 7th District when new district lines were drawn following the 2010 census.
Democrats overwhelmingly chose teacher Marie Corfield, of Raritan Township, as the party’s nominee for state Assembly in the 16th District. She defeated former Princeton Township Mayor Sue Nemeth. In Manville, Ms. Corfield got 141 and Ms. Nemeth, 23.
The state Assembly race will decide the remaining year of the two-year term left by the death of Assemblyman Peter Biondi, a former Hillsborough mayor, following last year’s election. Republicans filled the seat temporarily with Donna Simon, of Readington Township, who was unopposed for the GOP nomination Tuesday. She got 179 votes in Manville.
Ms. Corfield, an elementary school art teacher, ran unsuccessfully for Assembly last November.
Manville has 1,344 registered Democrats and 1,127 registered Republicans. Another 2,806 voters are unaffiliated and could go to the polls and choose to vote in the party of their choice. They then would be considered a member of that party until and unless they filed otherwise.

