As people go to the polls to vote in Rumson and Fair Haven on Tuesday, there are some facts about the boroughs’ governing bodies and their function and history that may have eluded many.
So, the notion in mind that an informed voter is a better voter, here are some facts that may enlighten and inspire at the polls:
Continue reading Rumson and Fair Haven Elections 2024: What You Need to Know
Who’s who and what? Well, in Fair Haven, starting at the literal top of the list, the borough’s new administrator, Christopher York, started work on Monday.
Continue reading Names in Fair Haven News: New Administrator, Volunteers Fair Haven’s race to fill two three-year Borough Council seats up for grabs pits incumbent candidates, Democrats Mike McCue and Meghan Chrisner-Keefe, native Fair Havenites, against newcomers, Republicans Kristen Hoey and Andrew LaBarbera.
Here is R-FH Retro’s chat with incumbent candidate Mike McCue …
Continue reading Fair Haven Elections: A Chat with Incumbent Borough Council Candidate Mike McCue, DemocratWith two seats for Fair Haven Borough Council up for grabs in the 2021 election, four candidates are vying: two Republicans, incumbent Betsy Koch and newcomer Tracy Cole; and two Democrats, newcomers Bob Gasperino and Sonja Trombino.
In the spirit of looking especially closely at the candidates and their views on local issues, Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect offered a detailed Q&A to each candidate that offered more of a retro twist, with a dip into the past and its effect on the present and future.
Continue reading Fair Haven Borough Council Candidates: Getting to Know Democrat Bob GasperiniWith two seats for Fair Haven Borough Council up for grabs in the 2021 election, four candidates are vying, two Republicans, incumbent Betsy Koch and newcomer Tracy Cole, and two Democrats, newcomers Bob Gasperino and Sonja Trombino.
In the spirit of looking especially closely at the candidates and their views on local issues, Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect offered a detailed Q&A to each candidate that offered more of a retro twist, with a dip into the past and its effect on the present and future.
The Q&A for each will be published in the order in which answers were received. Each question and answer offers your closest look at local candidates, so here’s your opportunity to get to know them.
Here’s our chat with Fair Haven Democrat Borough Council Candidate Sonja Trombino …
Continue reading Fair Haven Borough Council Candidates: Getting to Know Democrat Sonja TrombinoBy Elaine Van Develde
Familiar challenger Michael Steinhorn tried again, but did not succeed in ousting longtime Rumson Mayor John Ekdahl.
With 864 votes cast in the mayoral race, Ekdahl ended up with 565 of them, or more than 65 percent.
Steinhorn, a Democrat who has long attempted to break the longtime Republican stronghold on the governing body, garnered 294 votes, or 34 percent.
There were five write-in candidate votes.
Ekdahl will begin his fourth four-year term as mayor in January.
Incumbent Republican Borough Councilmen Marc Rubin and John Conklin won uncontested three-year seats on the dais, garnering 623 and 629 votes, respectively. A total of 1,276 votes were cast for the council race.
There were 24 write-ins.
Rumson is run with a Borough Council, or Mayor and Council form of government.
As with Fair Haven, the governing body has six council members and a presiding mayor. The mayor runs the meetings, but does not vote unless there is a tie.
He has veto power.
By Elaine Van Develde
They apparently just haven’t had enough.
That’s why Fair Haven and Rumson borough council incumbents are running for additional three-year terms on their respective governing bodies — and largely unopposed.
Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli faces no competition for his first full four-year term. Lucarelli filled former Mayor Michael Halfacre’s unexpired term when he was appointed director of the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control in January of 2012. The current mayor then won the uncontested election to finish Halfacre’s term through 2013 in November of the same year.
Newcomer Democratic candidate Aimee Humphreys is vying for one of two seats up for grabs on Fair Haven’s Borough Council. Running a lower-profile campaign, she is attempting to unseat either Susan Sorensen or Jerome Koch, both Republicans, on a platform of lowering municipal taxes and fighting reassessments. Humphreys was unavailable as of press time.
Sorensen is competing for her second term on council and Koch has served since 2002.
The two are running on a platform of experience and track records in office for keeping municipal taxes flat for six years, garnering $3.5 million in grants to offset the cost of capital improvements and more. They say, in their campaign literature, that they would like to “continue to run our borough like a successful business.”
In Rumson, Republican incumbents Shaun P. Broderick and Benjamin W. Day Jr. are vying to keep their seats on council.
Their only competition is Democrat Michael Steinhorn, who has attempted to break the characteristically longstanding Republican hold on the governing body several times and lost.
Steinhorn also ran for Monmouth County Surrogate in 2011 and lost to incumbent and former Middletown Mayor Rosemarie Peters.
The polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at all the regular polling places in both boroughs.
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