Gerry Tarantolo, who served as Eatontown’s mayor from 1999 to 2014, is confident he can win a new four-year term as mayor.
He will seek the mayor position as a write-in candidate in the Nov. 6 election.
Earlier this year, Democrat Patricia May Kelly received the nomination from the Democratic Party to run for mayor, but she pulled out of the race in early October.
That left a two-man race for the mayor’s seat between Republican Mark Regan and independent candidate Anthony Talerico, who is currently a member of the Borough Council.
With Kelly having left the race, Tarantolo, who is a Democrat, announced his candidacy as a write-in candidate in a bid to return to elected office.
In the 2014 municipal election, when there was no election for president or governor, Republican Dennis Connelly defeated Tarantolo in the race for mayor, 1,482 to 1,480. Connelly is not seeking re-election after serving one term as mayor.
“I honestly think I can pull this off and win,” said Tarantolo, who is a retired electrical engineer.
Asked why he decided to enter the race as a write-in candidate, the former mayor said, “The candidate (Kelly) who represented my views removed herself from the election. The remaining candidates have publicly supported and voted to change zoning that would permit 700 apartments to be built on the current grounds of the Monmouth Mall.
“This poorly thought out zoning would be disastrous to Eatontown and especially to those residents living in the shadow of this approved development. I am giving the residents of Eatontown another option of representation as mayor who strongly opposes this aspect of the new zoning,” Tarantolo said.
Tarantolo said he was approached by residents who asked him to run again. He said he is confident he can once again serve as mayor after residents showed confidence in his leadership abilities.
“They lost confidence with the way they are being represented,” he said. “If I had not received this ambitious outpouring of support, I probably would not have pursued this undertaking.”
If elected, Tarantolo said, “I already had developed a legacy of achievements and continued to have an agenda of projects that would benefit the residents of Eatontown.”
He said that as mayor he would work to:
• Advance the redevelopment of the Eatontown portion of Fort Monmouth, after having served on the planning and implementation planning committees for the redevelopment of Fort Monmouth;
• Call for a re-examination of the master plan to assure wise planning goals are clearly defined;
• Revisit the development plan of the Route 35 and Route 36 corridors to make those areas attractive to clean ratable development with an emphasis on traffic mitigation. This requires working closely with the state;
• Revisit Eatontown’s affordable housing plan to ensure it is created with public input and not in the back room at Borough Hall.
“The public deserves government transparency,” Tarantolo said.