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UPPER FREEHOLD: Tweets and peeps propel write-in candidate’s win

McLaughlin reflects on election to Upper Freehold Regional BOE

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
   UPPER FREEHOLD — Who needs nominating petitions and campaign signs when you have Facebook friends and Twitter?
   Tia McLaughlin, 41, of Galloping Brook Road, used texts, tweets and Facebook to mobilize support and win a one-year term on the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education as a write-in candidate with 139 votes.
   Ms. McLaughlin, a special education learning consultant in the Howell School District, said last week she decided to throw her hat in the ring when she learned no one had filed nominating petitions to run for a one-year unexpired term on the UFRSD school board. This meant write-in votes would determine the race.
   Hurricane Sandy threw her campaign plans a curveball, however, leaving her without electricity or Internet for the entire week before the Nov. 6 election and making it “difficult to spread the word” about her candidacy, she said.
   But storms and power outages didn’t deter her.
   ”The day before the election, I used my smart phone, text, and my friends helped with social media to try to get the word out in Upper Freehold,” Ms. McLaughlin said last week. “As the election results came in, I was very humbled with the amount of people took the time to write in my name.”
   Ms. McLaughlin, who previously served a one-year unexpired term on the UFRSD BOE in 2003-2004, said her 17 years’ experience working in education would be an asset. She noted one of the Board of Education members who will be leaving at the end of 2012 is Eileen Heddy, an instructor at The College of New Jersey, and it is important for someone who has worked in education to replace her.
   Allentown Borough is losing one of its three seats on the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education because of population shifts documented in the last U.S. Census. Mrs. Heddy’s term is the one that expires at the end of the year, so it was her Allentown seat that had to become an Upper Freehold seat.
   Ms. McLaughlin said that when she joins the board in January, she will work toward curriculum improvements for all students, transportation issues, and improved communications between community and the school district.
   Ms. McLaughlin made headlines in July when she confronted Gov. Chris Christie about a broken campaign promise at his town hall meeting in Ocean City, where she was vacationing. According to an Associated Press story published in newspapers throughout the state, Ms. McLaughlin told the governor she felt betrayed by the changes he signed into law in 2010 that required teachers to pay more toward their pensions and health care benefits. She pointed out he had promised to protect these benefits in an open letter to teachers during his 2009 gubernatorial campaign.
   The AP wrote that the governor apologized to Ms. McLaughlin, saying, “I’m sorry to have disappointed you in that way.” The governor said he wrote the letter before he found out how seriously underfunded the state pension and health benefits system was. The AP described their exchange as a “polite dialogue … in stark contrast to the infamous exchanges” he has had with the state’s teachers union.
   Ms. McLaughlin is the mother of a Stone Bridge eighth-grader and a Newell Elementary School fourth-grader. She is involved in the local Girl Scouts and is a leader in the IGNITE youth group at St. John’s Church.
   Ms. McLaughlin earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in elementary education and special education from Georgian Court College. She also has a post-graduate certificate in learning disabilities.