ROBBINSVILLE: Challengers prevail in town, school elections

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
   ROBBINSVILLE — David Boyne unseated Robbinsville Councilman Dennis Shennard on Tuesday night, capturing 59 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results released by the municipal clerk’s office.
   Keith Kochberg also appears to have lost his seat on the Robbinsville school board by 239 votes to challenger Shaina Ciaccio. Ms. Ciaccio collected 52.7 percent of the votes cast in that race for a two-year unexpired term.
   Robbinsville Municipal Clerk Michele Seigfried said the vote tallies are unofficial and do not include provisional, mail-in and electronic ballots.
   Mr. Boyne, a former two-term councilman who served on the municipal governing body from 2006 to 2011, defeated Mr. Shennard by a vote of 2,676 to 1,866 — a margin of 810 votes — in the race for a three-year unexpired term.
   ”I want to thank all of the residents who voted for me and say that I’m looking forward to working with the mayor and the council to drive the township forward,” Mr. Boyne said Tuesday night.
   Mayor Dave Fried, Council President Ron Witt and the rest of the Robbinsville Township Council had publicly endorsed Mr. Shennard and supported his campaign. The council had appointed Mr. Shennard, a former township zoning board chairman who owns a landscaping business in Robbinsville, to the governing body in August to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Rich Levesque.
   Mr. Shennard’s interim appointment expires Dec. 31, and Tuesday’s special council election was to allow voters to decide who will serve the remaining three years of Mr. Levesque’s unexpired term.
   Robbinsville municipal elections are nonpartisan, meaning candidates run without Republican or Democrat Party labels.
   Ms. Ciaccio, a state child welfare investigator and daughter-in-law of Councilwoman Chris Ciaccio, said Tuesday that she was excited about serving on the school board and looking forward to campaigning for the passage of a $18.9 million school referendum that goes to voters Dec. 11.
   The proposed bond issue, if approved, would provide the district with the financing to add 29 classrooms at the elementary and middle schools — where there is already significant overcrowding — and make other upgrades.
   Four other Robbinsville Board of Education seats were also on the Nov. 6 ballot, but none of these incumbents had opponents. Vincent Costanza won re-election to a new three-year term with 3,478 votes. Also re-elected to full three-year terms were Florence Gange with 2,407 votes and Faith Silvestrov with 2,242 votes.
   Matthew O’Grady ran in an uncontested race for a one-year unexpired term and got 3,664 votes.