MONROE – The Nov. 3 general election is just weeks away and three tickets are jockeying for the office of mayor and two, four-year seats on the Township Council.
The local Democratic Party, which has occupied the mayorship for 28 years, is saying goodbye to longtime Mayor Richard Pucci. The Democrats are seeking to retain control of the office with current council President Gerald Tamburro.
Tamburro is running alongside incumbent council members Leslie Koppel and Stephen Dalina.
“I think, in a nutshell, we intend to continue the great programs that we have in town,” Tamburro, who defeated a local business owner, Charles DiPierro, in the June primary, said referring to local police, emergency medical services and open space programs.
The Democratic ticket has strong ties to the Middlesex County Democratic Organization (MCDO). Tamburro is the chair of the MCDO’s senior citizen caucus, while Koppel serves as the party’s secretary. Dalina’s father, also Stephen but known to many as “Pete,” served as a Democratic county freeholder from 1990 until his death in 2013.
“The bottom line is the experience that we have,” Tamburro, a former bank president and vice chair of the county planning board, said. “Each of us has experience in the business world and the leadership of the township.”
But the local Republican Party is eager to increase its seats from the sole incumbent–– council Republican Michael Leibowitz. They’ve found their mayoral candidate in Herrmann Martin, the owner of the Hightstown-based investment firm Herrmann Investment Advisors and Associates. He is running alongside council candidates Joseph Atanasio and Harold Kane.
Party representatives did not immediately return calls seeking comment, but previously said the ticket is hoping to bring diversity of perspective to the governing body, which has largely been dominated by Democrats in recent history.
“[Herrmann] understands how to not spend more than you make,” local Republican Chair Roslyn Appleby-Kane said previously, following the primary election. “You can’t spend more than you’re bringing in. You can’t keep taxing people.”
A ticket of independents has also formed to challenge both parties, running against continued development in town as a way to preserve Monroe’s rural roots. They are also seeking to establish term limits for local officials and bring professionals, such as the township attorney, in house.
A local farmer and former Board of Education member, Ken Chiarella, is running for mayor, alongside council candidates Chirag Bhagat and Stanley Edelman.
“If you control development, you control taxes in Monroe. That’s something the current administration has not done at all,” Chiarella said.
“They haven’t done any smart development … we don’t even have a Main Street or a town center. It’s a sprawling mass of single-family homes.”
Chiarella said he also would seek to create a board of education liaison to strengthen ties between the school district and the municipality.
“We have new fresh ideas and our goal is to move Monroe forward. We’re not looking to cut and gut and hurt our services, we’re looking to build upon them and do it in a smart way where we save money,” he added. “We’re one town and that’s what it’s all about.”
County freeholder, state Assembly races for Monroe Township
Incumbent Middlesex County Freeholders Ronald Rios and H. James Polos, both Democrats, are set to face Republican challengers Jose Alonso and Sharon Hubberman. Each party’s candidates ran uncontested in the primary elections.
Monroe Township is located in the state’s 14th Legislative District, where the Legislature is wholly represented by Democrats. Republican challengers David Jones and Philip Kaufman, who ran unopposed, will seek to unseat Democrats Wayne DeAngelo and Daniel Benson. The incumbents were also unopposed in the primary.