Unofficial Election Results: Dems Take the Win for Fair Haven Mayor, Council

History has been made in Fair Haven with the 2026 unofficial election tallies showing a win for Democrat Michal DiMiceli as mayor, with 1,170 votes, and her team of former Councilman Chris Rodriguez and newcomer Marian Croak.

DiMiceli will be the first Democrat in the borough’s entire 114-year history to hold the office of mayor. She won roughly 39 percent of the vote with 1,170, not counting mail-in, provisional and cure letter votes.

The election results also mark a second and a couple of other firsts for political history’s sake in the borough. The second is that DiMiceli is to be sworn in as second female mayor in the borough’s 114 years. The first female mayor was Republican Nancy Kern in the 1980s. The first in the mayoral win is that DiMiceli is the first female Democrat in the top spot on the dais.

Another first is that while with Rodriguez and Croak’s wins will make the six-seat Borough Council evenly split in party affiliations come January — three Republicans and three Democrats who cast votes— DiMiceli will have the ability to break tie votes as mayor. As far as the entire dais goes, for the first time, there will be a Democrat 4-3 majority.

Of all council candidates, Democrat and newcomer Marian Croak garnered the highest amount of votes with 1,616. Rodriguez, a former councilman, and previous mayoral candidate, won 1,564 votes.

Another first for the Fair Haven governing body: Croak will be the first African American to be elected to and serve on Borough Council.

Republican mayoral candidate and current council president, Betsy Koch, who garnered 1,068 votes, or roughly 36 percent, will remain on council for another year, when her third term ends. With the loss of Koch’s campaign team members, incumbent Republican Councilman Brian Olson, who eared 1,291 votes, and former Republican Councilwoman Kristen Hoey, who garnered 1,374 votes, the three Republicans on council will be Koch and sitting Councilwoman Tracy Cole and Councilman Kevin Griffin.

Newcomer to the mayoral race and Independent, Diana “Ana” Anttonen, won 736, or roughly 25 percent of the tallied 2,978 mayoral votes cast.

There were 5,856 votes cast for Borough Council, a high voter turn-out. There were four write-ins for mayor and 11 for council.

These results are unofficial, but a logical call, with Election Day mail-in (drop box, ballots and late) votes, provisionals and cure letters processing and pending throughout Monmouth County, according to the Monmouth County Clerk’s Office.

R-FH Retro will post the final counts when they become available and will feature a story on the winners.

In the meantime, congratulations to the projected winning team! And, to all those who ran and have served, R-FH Retro says, “Thank you.”