in Covered Bridge
is a key factor
Margin of victory
in Covered Bridge
is a key factor
By dave benjamin
Staff Writer
Manalapan Township Committee incumbents Rebecca Aaronson and William Scherer were re-elected to their second three-year terms on the governing body in the Nov. 5 election.
The two Democrats won by margins of about 800 votes over their Republican challengers Tom Toto and Anthony Musich.
The committee will remain in the control of five Democrats in 2003. Along with Aaronson and Scherer, the other members of the governing body are Mary Cozzo-lino, Drew Shapiro and Beth Ward.
Aaronson was the top vote-getter in the Nov. 5 election, polling 4,967 votes. Scherer won re-election with 4,853 votes. Toto polled 4,129 votes and Musich received 4,018 votes. These figures include absentee ballots.
With 21,789 eligible voters in the township (730 more than last year), 9,039 votes were cast this year (41.5 percent), which was 55 more votes cast than a year ago.
As they have in the past, the residents of the Covered Bridge adult community threw their support squarely behind the Democrats and provided most of the margin of victory for Aaronson and Scherer.
There are three voting districts in Covered Bridge and the totals for those three districts were 850 votes for Aaronson, 844 votes for Scherer, 141 votes for Toto and 128 votes for Musich.
Taking Covered Bridge out of the equation, the Democrats still would have won, but with much less of a margin of victory (Aaron-son, 4,117; Scherer, 4,009; Toto, 3,988; and Musich, 3,890).
Following the election, the candidates gave their views on the outcome.
"Manalapan is a great place to live with many fine and decent people who deserve elected officials who will stand up for the issues they believe in regardless of personal attacks," Aaronson said. "Manalapan residents deserve meaningful debate on issues that directly affect our quality of life, and not the slanderous lies that our opponents chose to campaign on.
"We want to personally thank the voters who gave us their support and assure them that their vote will make a difference. For those who chose not to give us their vote, we only wish that the smoke screen of misinformation has not clouded the issues," she said.
Scherer said, "We are very pleased that the residents of Manal-apan have honored us by giving us another three-year term. It’s a validation of all our hard work and efforts to stop overdevelopment, increase services for the town, develop open space and acquire new fields for our kids to play on."
Scherer said he enjoyed the last three years and is looking forward to continuing to make positive accomplishments for the benefit of all residents.
Toto, who was making his second bid for office in Manalapan since moving to the community in 1999, said, "I’d like to thank the residents who came out to support us and I’d like to congratulate Rebecca and Bill for their victory."
He noted the hard task Republicans have in getting votes out of Covered Bridge.
"I’ve been here since 1999 and maybe I just don’t know enough people in town," Toto said. "I just have to go out and meet more people and do more grass roots stuff to be successful. Maybe the third time will be the charm."
Toto, the former mayor of South River, Middlesex County, said he loves to serve the public and would love another chance to run.
"Hopefully, I’ll be back again," he said. "Let’s see what happens."
Musich, a former member of the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District Board of Education, said he wasn’t sure about running again. He thanked the people who helped in the campaign and supported his candidacy and he wished Aaronson and Scherer success in their new terms.