In the News
May vote total falls short
of November turnout
Proponents of a new form of government in Jackson who believed a May municipal election would allow residents to focus solely on local issues must have been surprised on Election Day, May 9.
Or maybe some politically astute players knew all along that a municipal election in May would absolutely draw fewer voters to the polls than an election in November and give their candidates a better chance of winning.
I guess one’s view of the situation depends on which side of the ledger you’re on.
I don’t live in Jackson and have no stake in who wins and who loses an election, but my view is that the residents of Jackson were sold a bill of goods with May municipal elections that will consistently produce lower turnouts than a November municipal election would.
While the municipal race may be the only election on the radar screen in the spring, in the end, a majority of township residents will not really care enough to come to the polls and vote on local candidates. I think more people will be dis-enfranchised than will participate.
In Trenton, consideration is currently being given to moving the annual school board election, which is held in April and traditionally has a very poor turnout, to November so that more people can be involved in the vote.
Jackson voters, in their wisdom, if you can call it that, went the other way and created a form of government – a nonpartisan directly elected mayor and council – that will, I believe, see less participation at the polls as the years go by.
On the day that Jackson held its first nonpartisan May election, voters elected Mark Seda to a four-year term as Jack-son’s first directly elected mayor.
Seda received 3,678 votes to defeat Michael Kafton, 3,113 votes, and Sean Giblin, 2,251 votes.
Seda’s entire slate running under the Taxpayers United for Jackson banner was elected to the new Township Council. The five winning council candidates were Emily Ingram, 4,567 votes, Ann Upde-grave, 4,437 votes, Scott Martin, 4,272 votes, Angelo Stallone, 4,266 votes, and Jason Gudaitis, 3,938 votes.
Six people fell short in their bids to win a council seat.
Running with Giblin under the Jack-son First Coalition banner were council candidates Michael Broderick, who received 3,395 votes, Barbara Spielman, 3,379 votes, Josh Reilly, 3,212 votes, Michael Reina, 3,076 votes, and Daniel Gross, 2,971 votes.
Blanche Krubner received 1,836 votes in an independent bid for council.
Kafton ran an independent campaign for mayor without a council slate.
The totals for the winning candidates last week fell short of the winning totals for Township Committee candidates in the past five November municipal elections.
In November 2005, a gubernatorial election year, Reilly, 7,038 votes, and Updegrave, 7,012 votes, running as Republicans, won seats on the committee, defeating Democrats Broderick, 6,271 votes, and Kevin Nerwinski, 5,902 votes.
In November 2004, a presidential election year, Seda, a Republican, received 10,842 votes and won a seat on the committee, defeating Democrat Joe Grisanti, 8,733 votes. Republican George Bush trounced Democrat John Kerry in Jack-son, 10,444 to 6,962.
The difference in Seda’s winning totals in November 2004 and May 2006 was 7,164 votes. Where did those people go? I guess they really don’t care about local issues now, do they?
In November 2003, Kafton, 4,978 votes, and Giblin, 4,900 votes, running as Democrats, won seats on the committee, defeating Republicans Bill Allmann, 3,906 votes, and Mel Schubert, 3,770 votes.
In November 2002, Reilly, 5,217 votes, and Broderick, 5,100 votes, won seats on the committee, defeating Democrat Mar-vin Krakower, 4,910 votes, Schubert, 4,890 votes, and independent candidate Ralph Sicuranza, 896 votes.
In November 2001, a gubernatorial election year, Grisanti, 5,403 votes, won a seat on the committee, defeating Repub-lican Hank Aranda, 5,114 votes.
The proof of how the May 9 election turns out will be seen in the agenda and programs put forth by Seda and his council over the next four years.
Jackson residents will have to decide at the end of that time if they want to keep the mayor and council members they have just elected or move in a different direction.
Mark Rosman is the managing editor of the Tri-Town News.