By: David Weinstein
Expect mailings and commercials on the local cable television channels as well as a knock at the front door as candidates and their parties gear up for the upcoming municipal elections.
In hopes of successfully transmitting their partisan political messages, township politicians are limbering up for the big game: The November election.
That’s when voters in South Brunswick will choose from six Township Council candidates. Each are vying for one of three, four-year council seats.
And although it’s early on in the campaign season — practically preseason still — township Democrats and Republicans both are beginning to plan platforms, fundraising and the best strategy for getting their messages heard by the South Brunswick voters.
“It’s very early on,” Roger Craig, chairman of the South Brunswick Republican Municipal Committee, said.
With more than 12,000 homes in the township, the undertaking is large and time consuming.
“We plan on spending a lot of time in the neighborhoods, walking the blocks, spending two to three hours in each neighborhood trying to speak with as many people as possible,” Charles Carley, chairman of the South Brunswick Democratic Municipal Committee, said Tuesday.
“We’ve already been out for the past three or four weekends and we know this is a big part of campaigning. We’ll continue to do this,” he said.
Mr. Craig said Tuesday from Georgia that his party recently has had a successful fund-raising evening at Good Time Charley’s in Kingston. More events like this are planned, he said.
Mr. Craig took issue with the local Democrats’ access to county Democratic money, which has paid for about 75 percent of the last three Democratic campaigns.
“We don’t have access to the $60,000 or $80,000 the Democrats have with the money laundering two-step from the county,” he said.
For the last three election cycles, township Democrats have received about $150,000 in either cash or in-kind contributions from the strong Middlesex County Democratic organiztion.
“We’ll do what we need to do to present our message,” Mr. Craig said. “But we don’t have anything quite like they have.
“What precisely the split between the various media we use will be will be decided soon. I anticipate a good mix for getting our message across,” Mr. Craig said
On the Democrat ticket are incumbents Carol Barrett and Edmund Luciano, as well as current Planning Board Chairman Frank Antisell.
The Republicans have fielded incumbent Ted Van Hessen, Joe Del Guercio, who ran in 1998, and Dawn Burns Smith on their ticket.
