It was a somber night as district results started rolling in to the Democratic Headquarters at the Leonardo American Legion, it was evident early on that it wasn't going to be a good night for Democratic Committeeman Sean Byrnes or his running mate Mary Mahoney. From the moment that the first few districts started reporting in, the numbers didn't look good. Byrnes and Mahoney only managed to capture 6 out of 46 districts and gave their concession speeches shortly after 9pm.
It was a real disappointment to many in the room after it seemed that so much of what transpired during this election season in Middletown, was leaning in the Democrats favor. From the turf field debacle in Lincroft, to the 13.87% increase to the municipal tax rate, people in town were angry at the leadership of Gerry Scharfenberger and his GOP majority, who seem to take residents for granted.
With their victory yesterday, the Middletown Township Committee will once again revert back to the 5-0 Republican super majority that it had enjoyed for nearly 20 years before Patrick Short was elected in 2006 and then Sean Byrnes in 2007.
What will that mean for residents in Middletown? It will mean less transparency and more decisions being made behind closed doors with little or no public discussion, much like it was previous to Short's election.
Flooding issues in Port Monmouth and Leonardo will be once again placed on the back burner due to budget and cost concerns which means relief for residents in those areas will have to wait another 20 years for solutions and those that wish to see Township Committee meetings televised on the Township's public access cable channels are out of luck, it will never happen.
Township engineering and legal fees will continue to increase because the Majority will continue to appoint the same firms to represent the Township without first competitively bidding those services out to lower costs, like Sean Byrnes has advocated for.
The local environment is also at risk. If Gerry Scharfenberger gets his way thousands of metric tons of carcinogenic and arsenic laced spoils will be dredged and from the bottom of Shadow Lake and burried in Stevenson Park against NJDEP wishes, instead of investigating alternative solutions like what may be proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers, which now has as part of their mission, responibilities over the ecosytem.
Middletown residents deserve the type of government that they voted for, unfortunately those that they voted for will not always have the best interests of all the residents in mind. That's why I and others, will continue to act as watchdogs over those that feel that Middletown is her to serve them as opposed to the other way around.
25 comments:
You guys should worry less about dumping Scharfy and worry more about dumping Joe Caliendo. What is his record now 2-32?
On second thought, keep Joe around. Hope all the spray paint purchased was worth it.
maybe if you and your democrats would learn to work with and not against the other party they wouldn't have complete control.
A sad day. Thanks to everyone who supported these candidates, and to people like Mike for having a dissenting opinion.
My comment to Middletown republicans:be careful what you wish for. The republicans have never given tax relief to us, and they never will. They have no plan B if the "governors toolbox" doesn't pass, and they have no planning in place to try to reign in spending for the next budget. Who will they blame when taxes go up again?
Anon 7:58
Another asinine comment but not of the level that requires a response that I left for Anon 7:46.
What's wrong with the other party working with the Democrats? After all if I had to listen to the "fibber" Fiore state on the record one more time, about how he agreed with Sean Byrnes on so many issue but never supported anything that Byrnes presented to the Committee, I would be sick!
Tell me, should I or the Democrats that I support be happy with a 13.87% municipal tax increase for 2010 or the 45% municipal tax increase over the last 5 year period, should we have worked together to make it a 50% or 60% increase over that time? Duh, I think not!
How can anyone support that type of increase with a straight face?
Bipartisanship is a two way street, you have to give a little to get a little, the Middletown GOP never gave an inch unless embarrassed by Short and Byrnes to do so.
Get real will ya
And just how many times did Byrnes state on public record that he agreed with Fiore? Contrary to your distorted belief, Byrnes and the committee did agree on many things. Give us an example of where Fiore and the majority agreed with Byrnes and didn't move forward.
The republicans in Middletown do not know how to work with anyone except their cronies........they don't give a damn about anybody but their "insiders". Make no mistake about that ever !
As a former republican,now unaffiliated voter,these republican goons make this taxpayer ill....
Middletown has become a dictatorship under the current breed of republican in this community.Until six years ago the people who served exhibited some intelligence. Not anymore !
Today it is all about politics and the political machine "Peter's Puppets".
Any resident who cannot see this needs their heads examined !
Every time you write a check to pay your property taxes,remember what a jackass you were when you voted for these @sses !
I just came across your blog. I had to look hard to find comment about this local election. I'm not a partisan (I'ved worked as a senior staffer for two GOPers for what that is worth). I'm astonished that "Scharfy" won - I don't know anything about the other guy Sempsomething. Seriously, a 14% tax increase is blamed on arbitration but "Scharfy" was on the committee all the years it was stuck in arbitration. I don't get how a guy like this rewarded.
Wonder if 7:46 and 7:58 has her pom poms on today. Rant sounds familiar..
Go Mike !!
'
Kick the douche bag's @$$ while you are at it !!
Your mistake was backing Holt and Pallone! Cry to Pallone regarding the Bayshore! What has he done and you support him,you talk out of both side of your mouth. Pallone is the problem and Holt is the problem. You will never see relief on the Bayshore until they are out of office. Wake up
What did you think of your humble President today Mike? He seemed to be licking his wounds from the election resuts.
I guess that hope and change thing did not work out so well for him.
We the People have spoken and want our country restored back to Truth, Justice and the American Way!
Time for you to take your head out of the sand and listen to some reason.
I'm amazed this Mayor got re elected.
The people in this town are not informed.
Anon 11:59
Holt and Pallone have taken care of Middletown very well over the years but you wouldn't know it from listening to all the partisan republicans in Middletown.
a number of years ago Pallone secured a few million dollars for projects in Middletown to control flooding, when it was considered not enough projects were dropped and Pallone was demonized. I have never heard any Middletown Republican Committee member say anything positive about Pallone in my 6 years of paying attention to what goes on around town. Is it any wonder then that Pallone screws Middletown and doesn't give Middletown's elected official the time of day? Respect is a two way street, you have to give it before you get it. Pallone works extremely well with other towns in his district, Middletown is the only town that plays stupid partisan games with him to the detriment of those that live here.
Holt has brought close to $1M to Middletown in the past 2 years, He secured a $650K grant last year alone that the township has used to perform enegry audits throughout the Township and could go towards the purchase and installation of solar panels. To say that Holt has been ineffective is just dead wrong.
Anon 4:23
You must be one of those wacky NJ.Comers.
I don't think Obama is licking to many wounds, I think he is relishing the purge of so many false democrats from the ranks of Congress.
What happened yesterday will make the GOP come to the table and explain how they plan on fixing things. I think that they will fail because many of their views are just to radical like much of the crap you guys spew over at the NJ.com forum.
That was quick.
http://www.moremonmouthmusings.net/2010/11/04/scharfenberger-appointed-to-christie-administration-post/
Slick as S*** is going to Trenton.....
Middletown has suffered an OIL SPILL!
Scharfy is now exposed and deceptive as usual. All along only interested in self promotion.
Appointed to a business position.
That's beautiful, can't even do his own budget. Great choice Christie.
There is no other way to interpret the results of this election except to say that the majority of Middletown voters are happy with the way the current Committee is running the town.
In contrast to the reaction to the proposed school budget and the incumbents on the School Board, voters not only re-elected the Mayor, they dumped the lone dissenter from the Committee.
Voters obviously understand that changes are being made, and accept that there are things beyond anyone's control that led to increases in spending this year.
The "silent majority" have spoken, and have spoken loudly...
Anon 9:01
I can certainly understand how the ignorant can come to that conclusion seeing that you're one of them.
45% increases in taxes over a five year period is certainly within the control of those that oversee the municipal budgets, they just ignore it much like you.
And yet, the voters overwhelmingly supported the Mayor you hold "responsible" and rejected the Committee member you held to "have all the answers..."
People understand their tax bills well enough, they didn't "ignore" them, they simply must be satisfied both with the explanations of why taxes have increased, and happy with the services they receive for those taxes.
Otherwise they would have reacted to the Township Committee like they did to the School Board, no?
Anon 11:59,
NO,
once you anylize the numbers you will see that over 14K more votes were cast this year than in 2007, the last year Scharfy and Byrnes went head to head. The difference this year was the Tea Party activists that came out in droves to vote against Holt and Pallone, They voted republican down the line.
Schary and his running mate picked up nearly 63% of additional voters.
The school board election was a different beast, Christie jumped on the Unions which struck a nerve with a great majority of voters who were either out of work or knew other that were, including Dems. They voted against the school system and those that were on the BOE as a message. I don't think that you will see the same outcome the next go around.
The silent majority is either stupid or brainwashed. As I said before, how this guy and this party got elected is beyond imagination. The Tea party's righteous indignation doesn't apply to the Republicans in Middletown. Corruption and unethical behavior is the rule here, and it will only get worse, because there is no one to stop them. Democracy is vacant in this town.
The Mayor is guilty of lying by OMISSION. Whether or not you support his policies, his failure to disclose his patronage job to the public till a day or two AFTER the election is DISHONEST. No amount of cheerleading can change that. The fact that his cronies slapped him on the back as early as August is meaningless to the people that go to the polls. WE were not informed- and after having our mailboxes stuffed with junk mail and our phones ringing late at night- we know that the Mayor is not shy about tooting his own horn.
This man and his cronies have created a cesspool of a government that only represents the party faithful....
This has been true for years and will continue until the voters become educated about the issues.scrutinize candidates (guess we need to hire Private I's now) and cast votes with a great deal of discretion because YOU LIVE WHAT YOU VOTE !!
Post a Comment