By Charlie Falkenburg, Special to the Packet
MONTGOMERY The unofficial results of Tuesday’s election revealed the town to be politically divided, with the Republicans winning just a little more than half the votes.
With all the election night ballots in, Republicans Christopher Sugden and incumbent Christine Madrid barely pulled ahead with 50.7 percent of the votes, with Democrats Mark Petraske and Andrea Bradley at their heels with about 49 percent.
The official count remains in flux as officials continue to gather a record number of absentee and provisional ballots caused in part by the impact of Hurricane Sandy.
Despite the GOP’s slight lead, officials remainED unable to project an outcome for the race.
”This race remains too close to call. The county clerk’s office is still counting several hundred mail-in ballots, so we will not know who will be on the Township Committee in 2013 quite yet,” said Mayor Ed Trzaska. “I believe all four candidates would serve as quality members of Montgomery’s governing body with each bringing something unique to the table.
A mere five ballots separated forerunner Ms. Madrid and her running mate Mr. Sugden, with 4,364 and 4,359 votes respectively. Board of Education member Andrea Bradley was in third with 4,284 votes and Mr. Petraske had 4,171 votes.
Ms. Madrid declined to comment until all the votes were counted at the County Board of Elections.
Despite being unsuccessful in his past three runs for town office, Mr. Petraske appeared hopeful the Democrats would prevail.
”There is a likelihood of coming out on top given the absentee ballots that are yet to be counted,” he said on Wednesday. “Historically, absentee ballots have not gone in favor of the Democrats, but this is a strange year with hundreds left to be counted.”
He attributed the Republican lead to his opponents “extremely negative campaign,” while his campaign focused on dealing with town issues straight on. He said this made him “disappointed,” but went on to wish Mr. Sugden and Ms. Madrid luck.
When asked about his plans if he lost again, Mr. Petraske said he would not run again for the Township Committee.
”I would not seek elected office any time in the near future,” he said, citing the impact his family suffers from negative campaigning.
Ms. Bradley and Mr. Sugden were not able to be reached in time for the publication of this article.

