Jim Grenafege and Carol Fowler lost their race for Middletown Township Committee against Tony Fiore and Stephanie Murray, falling approximately 1600 votes shy, which was by no means a landslide.
Like the Brooklyn Dodgers of old, the Middletown Dems will live on to play the game another day, getting closer and closer to that elusive World Series victory that they and their many fans and supporter so covet. The losing only makes them that much more determined to play harder next year.
Republicans can bask in their victory this year but remember, Democrats are not going away anytime soon, be ready for an even tougher fight next year.
Below are the official results as posted on the Monmouth County Clerks webpage:
| Vote Count | Percent | |
| REP - Anthony P. Fiore | 6,699 | 27.91% |
| REP - Stephanie C. Murray | 6,590 | 27.45% |
| DEM - James Grenafege | 4,977 | 20.73% |
| DEM - Carol R. Fowler | 5,108 | 21.28% |
| - Richard Morrill | 615 | 2.56% |
| Write-In | 16 | 0.07% |
| Total | 24,005 | 100.00% |
56 comments:
Nice sugar coat. Based on the turnout, 1600 votes is a landslide. What happened to the low turnout and help Morrill campaign plan?
Congrats Fiore and Murray, good election and look forward to your leadership!
When will the Democratic candidates be making a call to the Republican candidates to congratulate them? I know they didn't stop by their place last night. At least Short and Byrnes had some class and did that when they lost. These two not so much.
Gloating does not enhance your position and these comments only exacerbate the deep divide between parties in this town.
DOES NOT LEND TOWARD QUALITY OF LIFE IN THIS COMMUNITY!
Speaking of "class',when do you shut your mouth and go back in your hut for another year ?
The Republican party in this town should realize just how much you damage "their image". or do your campaign donations justify putting up with you ?
Congratulations to the Mayor and Middletown's newest political hack!
I love how she is labeled a hack before she is even sworn in!
aNON
Anon 5:55 AM,
A 7% spread is not a landslide. Do you help the Republicans when they put the budget together?
Just a note to Anonymous at 8:30, both Short and Byrnes were runnning for re-election and were still MT Township Committeemen at that time, so it would make sense to visit.
11:33 anon.
Behaved like an arrogant hack at the LVGA candidates night and it will not surprise anyone as we go forward. This bunch are all hacks !
Newsflash- in the past day Ms. Murray has edited her birthday and biographical info on Facebook. She couldn't wait to advertise herself as Committeewoman Murray- though one would assume such a moniker is inappropriate till she is sworn in.
Sorry, but political hack may actually be a step up from the third raters we entrust the township too. The only consolation is that there are 5,000 people in this township who still have some functioning gray matter.
Kinda think her reputation may precede her, don't you think ?
Been pretty mouthy for a naive candidate. Spouts before she thinks and does not have the knowledge or any experience( Middletown Mornings Koffee Klotch", ha ha ). Needs lesson on what taxes are in Middletown....and I don't mean JUST HERS.The cold,hard facts of life in this town and no one to blame but her buddies,the Republican TC members. ...the majority for 31 years !
How could your "sure fire" issues have failed?
People didn't care about televising meetings?
People didn't care that there is no Finance Committee?
People didn't care that taxes went up as they did?
People didn't care about Linda Libel's made up stuff?
I have been telling y'all for a while now that you weren't going to win on those bogus things. The voters of Middletown are too intelligent to fall for bull like that.
This year was probably your best chance with low turnout and all.
Ask yourselves: why couldn't we even get Democrats out to vote based on these issues? If Democrats had turned out at even 50% the Township would have two Democrats waiting to take seats in January.
Whoever is organizing and running the Democratic Party in Middletown needs to take stock of their own failings here. Y'all are outnumbered, but not by that much.
Or maybe you just look at things through a partisan lens so much that you believe your own hype?
The voters have spoken and they support the Middletown GOP's running of things for the last generation, period.
Time to rethink things guys...
What is there for a person to change on their birthday info?
Strange priority on the day you are elected to government.
Anon 4:12- it seems Murray wasn't informed the title isn't bestowed until the swearing-in. Looks like she is in quite a rush to update her resume!
6500 or so said they liked business as usual and about 5000 "dead horse beaters" gave the posse a thumbs down.
That is a fairly evenly divided township considering the obvious advantage accruing to the Rs. Mandate? Keep dreaming.
Maybe the dems don't like us being on the "list"...
By list I mean, 1 of the top 100 best places to live in AMERICA list! Thats kind of a hard fact to ignore, no matter how much spin you put on it.
Also well put Legion!
Hey stupid 6:24.
Did you pay attention to your governor and what he had to say?
The Dems still RUN TRENTON.
6:32.
TALKING TO YOURSELF AGAIN?
Psycho case if ever there was one !
Anon at 6:24
I don't buy the "This is a fairly evenly divided town" stuff.
The truth is that if people were unhappy with the way things were being done, they'd come out to vote against the R's.
As an example, look at the high turnout in the School Budget elections in 2010.
By contrast, not even the registered D's came out to vote yesterday.
Not coming out to vote is a sign of being content.
No.it's a sign you are too damn lazy to exercise your franchise.
Sounds like a theory from the doctor of the dead.
If the taxpayers believe it was the actions of the Republican TC that put Middletown in the top 100 places to live, why did such a small percentage come out to thank them and ensure the big bad Democrats didn't mess up their garden of Eden? Seems mighty ungrateful and risky for 80% to sit home with such a threat to Middletown's livability index lurking in the shadows!
Oh my lord. Was it not Middletown Mike who had stories the past 3 elections saying that Middletown Democrats had no chance in high turnout elections (Presidential and Governor) but can win low turnouts? Well here was the lowest turnout in Middletown history and still no win.
Check out registrations. There are 1000 Democrats and about 10,000 registered Republicans. Face it, even the Democrats don't believe the lies.
Nice try, Anon at 11:30... lol
The fact is that the D's either have to work hard to get their own people out to vote in a low turnout election or they have to find real issues to convince people not registered Democratic to vote their way.
Making stuff up and attempting to distort the facts just won't do it.
Remember that scene from Monty Python in the "Life of Brian?"
"What have the Romans ever done for us?" lol
Same thing here.
Oh well, maybe next generation...
Middletown has become the Soviet Socialist Republic of Middletown . Has been now for about seven or eight years now .....
Maybe it will take an action like taking down the "Berlin Wall" to correct the entrenched gestapo type government in this community.
The practice of fostering the divide that grips this town is the folly of fools. It is like throwing gasoline on a fire. You will get burnt !
anon at 9:23
You do realize that Soviet citizens had no vote in how their country was run, right?
Here, by contrast, the voters consistently elect and re-elect Republican majorities to the Township Committee.
See the difference?
Well Legion, it is true that you can't compare the Soviet system to ours in terms of free elections, but you would be uncharacteristically modest if you didn't admit that as in Soviet era Russia, the Republican apparatchiks in Middletown are richly rewarded.
One only has to attend a TC meeting to realize we have no choice whatsoever in this town. Waiting for those six approaching the dais to do the goose step and the salutation of their comrade in chief.
Disgraceful and outrageous display of condescension and disrespect of the citizens of this town.This is not the behavior of representation in a democracy. Maybe it's time to get the American Civil Liberties Union here to see this gang in action.
Talk about sore losers, Christie is now blaming Republican losses on the new legislative map. Yet according to Legion, when the status quo is maintained, that is indicative of a content populace. So it seems NJ voters as a whole were not dissatisfied enough with their Democrat leaders to toss them out per Christie's edict.
Monmouth County notwithstanding, most of NJ has rejected the Christie worldview, such as it is. And no surprise that Monmouth, being one of the nation's highest income counties, consistently tilts Republican. But your average NJ voter?
Seems the bloom is off the rose as far as Christie is concerned. Perhaps he will leap onto the number two spot with Romney and sweep across the nation convincing the unemployed and foreclosed upon that corporations are people too!
Anon at 10:35
You're right about the people of NJ. They are content with the legislature as it is,but this legislature moved very far towards what the Governor wanted over the last two years - didn't it?
Weren't the statewide D's warned by the unions in particular, that they would be voted out this year because of what they passed?
It will be interesting to watch this next year or so.
Oh, and Anon at 7:47 -
The ACLU - really?
You think your rights are being trampled on because you can't muster enough votes to elect someone to the TC?
You'd better be careful, inviting lawyrers like that around. They just might take up a case against your pal Linda Libel...
lol
Legion aka Brian Nelson, you have way too much time on your hands. Doesn't Middletown give you enough work?
It would be very telling if the TC found money to pursue a pointless libel suit while decimating local services, but then nothing could shock anymore.
I think Linda and some others have been in the forefront of fighting what Amy Handlin calls, Crony Capitalism in our Backyards. As a long time insider, Handlin certainly has a "birds eye" view of the local Republican feeding trough.
Legion 7:34 AM
I'm suprised that you raised the issue of libel at all. You must have forgotten the illegal (broke tax law)libelous email that Mayor Dr. Gerry "Lie When the Truth Works Against You" Scharfenberger circulated during the 2008 campaign. In so doing he jeapordized the tax standing of his employer -- Monmouth University. If you doubt the validy of these facts, call the Office of the President at the University and contact the legal department, as well.
Is there a statute of limitations for libel -- its only been about 3 years?
Also, I wonder what Fiore and Brightbill have to say about the issue -- they have never taken a positon on the untruthful campaign email that was widely circulated in support of their campaign at the time.
I bet you don't respond to this comment.
Anonymous 2:50 p.m..
If I remember correctly. "Brownsugar" and her brother and another loudmouth who has a position on the Sewage Authority board were also guilty of the libelous mudslinging in 2008.
Often wonder why that circus did not result in a libel suit because the damage they did was without conscience. Have never had an ounce of respect for the Republicans in this town since and am only too well aware of what the Middetown Republicans are capable of "to win".
If politics is worth selling your soul for....GOD DAMN THEM ALL !!
Y'all are so funny!
I said that Ms. Baum's screed was "libelous," and I made it clear that it would likely never be found to be legally libel.
"Libelous" is an adjective, which, of course, describes something, that is, assigns attributes to it.
Look it up.
What Linda's rant was all about was about pulling nonsense out of thin air, making accusations that had a tinge of potentiality to the uneducated or ignorant that might get people out to the polls to vote for the D's.
It didn't accomplish anything except to establish the fact that Ms. Baum will lie in order to attempt to achieve her political goals.
Plus it gives me a great nickname for her, doesn't it?
Anon at 2:50
You display a lack of understanding about which you post.
Libel is altogether something different from the laws whioch govern the use of private resources for campaigning.
And intent counts here. Mr. Scharfenberger made an admitted mistake in sending an email. His intent was simply to campaign.
Linda Libel fully intended to imply criminal behavior, stating that members of the TC present and past had profited directly by the delaying of a revaluation. She lied in a (vain) attempt to get potential voters angry, to try to convince them to vote for the D's.
What she did was libelous, as well as a miserable failure.
What the former Mayor did was simply a mistake. (We know that it was just a mistake because no legal actions have been taken. He apologized and the matter was dropped.)
Is that answer enough for you?
"What Linda's rant was all about was about pulling nonsense out of thin air, making accusations that had a tinge of potentiality to the uneducated or ignorant that might get people out to the polls to vote for the D's."
You should check your desk Legion, sounds like someone stole your playbook.
Whoever this "Legion" is, whether the lawyer or the "cheerleader" it is plainly clear.....either is full of shit! The intent of the then mayor was to win at any cost,no matter who he demeaned or who he hurt. He should have been prosecuted for the damage to he did to his employer and to those candidates he slandered.
Gerard Scharfenberger is capable of anything in the name of politics. That is even the opinion of his comrades and have heard it quoted "he is the" most enamored with politics person" they have ever seen !
Integrity ; ethics,and truthfulness are not strong points of this man. In fact those virtues are absent in him.
As to the other two possibilities for this Legion character.....no matter ....diatribe spouted by someone shortchanged in intelligence and integrity,a divisive to a fault idiot.
anon at 3:15
I beg to differ.
I present my information with intelligence and flair.
I note that y'all never can respond in any manner but insulting, and certainly not with facts.
I suggested well before the election what the outcome would be based on the weak "arguments" put forth by the D's here in town.
Even after 31 consecutive years, they can't get one - not one - member on the TC.
That's a whole generation of suck...
I don't blame y'all for being bitter.
You've been out of power for most of the lives of every citizen in Middletown.
Well Legion, you do have a flair, but certainly not for honesty.
I did get a laugh out of the whole "we own the future" angle to your post... May I suggest an anthem for the new "improved" township committee?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs5bnVoZK4Q
The carpetbaggers on the Tc are ignorant of fact because none of them have lived in this community even ten years and the real ignorance of this Legion.with a flair for writing, could be none other than the new fantasy novelist elected to the TC. Is she not aware of the two Democrats, Short and Byrnes who served ?
Put your name to your fantasies because we don't believe them ! Are you ashamed of who you really are ?
Lol
Let me be clear. What was implied in my earlier post is this:
"Despite not having been the majority in 31 years, the Democrats in Middletown can't even elect one member to the Township Committee - not even ONE!!"
It's pretty clear that the voters removed those D's from the TC as soon as they possibly could, didn't they?
Come and talk to me when y'all have some new ideas, some vision, and some hope for our party here in this yown.
Anon at 6:31
Sounds to me like you're old enough to be "soiling in your pants" nowadays.
Save the insults. You can't bother me with that stuff...
Whose party,which party,divisive moron?
This is the good old USA where we are all entitled to our own personal choices and that privilege should be respected and is protected by the Constitution of the USA. Of course in this town the officials have no respect for the law.led by the little runt of a lawyer.
Middletown is where the "thugs" think they own this town and forget 68,000 people live here and they are not all Republicans......or Democrats. The behavior of this TC towards the people of this community is deplorable.
Maybe what we need is an "Occupy Middletown " movement by all those who are not Republicans in this town and there are many who are neither R's or D's.
It is long overdue for consideration by the TC members to remember who they are elected to serve. Way to many years overdue....they are supposedly to serve 68,000 residents.regardless of party affiliation !!!!
Government here resembles a gestapo prison camp with the Republican thugs" in charge.
Anon at 9:53
Your hyperbole insults the memory of those who died at the hands of the Gestapo.
Legion 9:09 AM
Scharfenberger's intention was made obvious by the material he illegally distributed, which contained lies about the candidates.
So, based on what you said it was his intention to illegally campaign by using material that defamed the candidates that were running against Fiore and Brightbill. He never publically apologized for his illegal actions. Just like he never apologised for lying in 2010 -- even after the Asbury Park Press called him a liar in an editorial.
I recall Middletown Mike printing the defaming 2008 material in his blog. I wonder if he would be willing to reprint it and let his readers take a fresh look at it?
anon 1:11
Here you go:
http://middletownmike.blogspot.com/2008/10/monmouth-univ-in-jeopardy-of-losing-irs.html
http://middletownmike.blogspot.com/2008/10/scharfenberger-used-monmouth-university.html
Legion 12:42,diarrhea of the mouth. Go soak your head!
Anon at 1:11
It's been more than three years. I guess the university has already taken whatever action it was going to take.
And there is a distinct difference between Dr, Scharfenberger's opinons expressed in that e-mail and Linda Libel's posting here:
She accused members of the TC of committing a crime. Dr. S only stated his opinion about someone's political views.
It's one thing to say that an elected official or a candidate wants to raise taxes, quite another to say they profited illegally from an action they took.
Anon 1:11
More:
http://www.sableminded.net/2008/05/scharfenberger-on-moremonmouthmusings.html
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/commentary/timing-of-new-jersey-mayors-robo-call-is-questionable
http://trenton10.cityspur.com/tag/scharfenberger/
http://middletownmike.blogspot.com/2010/11/is-scharfenberger-recall-effort.html
http://sableminded.wordpress.com/category/mayor-gerard-scharfenberger/
http://www.daylife.com/article/0a494klbP4aHl
http://www.moremonmouthmusings.net/2010/11/12/part-2-the-asbury-park-press-is-unfair-and-biased-dishonest-and-incompetent/
http://middletownmike.blogspot.com/2010/11/monday-night-scharfenberger-is-tongue.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EumwZd2jVQs
http://www.google.com/search?q=Scharfenberger+%26+Asbury+Park+Press&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=ivns&ei=tGOMTveNL4fc0QGw6KiEBQ&start=20&sa=N
Is lying and cheating with slander to win an election legal behavior ?
Only when done by the Republicans in Middletown.huh?
Legion 5:38 PM,
According to my sources, Monmouth University chastized Scharfenberger for violating university policy which mirrored tax law. What they couldn't do because they didn't have the authority was charge him with the crime of violating tax law. So, if there isn't a statute of limitations and somone brought this issue to the attention of the IRS they would at least have to investigate the vilation of the law.
Then there is the issue of whether-or-not Scharfenberger's opinions are libelous and fall under the legal definition of defamation of character -- a separate legal issue This could get interesting.
Mike, thanks for providing the links.
Legion 5:38 PM,
According to my sources, Monmouth University chastized Scharfenberger for violating university policy which mirrored tax law. What they couldn't do because they didn't have the authority was charge him with the crime of violating tax law. So, if there isn't a statute of limitations and somone brought this issue to the attention of the IRS they would at least have to investigate the vilation of the law.
Then there is the issue of whether-or-not Scharfenberger's opinions are libelous and fall under the legal definition of defamation of character -- a separate legal issue This could get interesting.
Mike, thanks for providing the links.
Legion 9:09 AM,
Scharfenberger wasn't expressing an opinion. His e-mail states it as facts -- facts that are incorrect and are lies intended to damage reputations, lies that he has never corrected.
His intent seems to be to present the candidates opposing Fiore and Brightbill as damaged people who would harm the people of Middletown.
If the measure is intent then he fails, and maybe Fiore and Brightbill do also.
Bet you don't respond to this.
People keep saying "bet you don't respond to this..." What's the point of that - unless it gives you personal pleasure to type it - in which case, feel free!
If you don't see the difference between rendering an opinion about an individual's political intentions and claiming to show evidence that they committed a crime - I can't help you. There IS a difference, and, by the way, neither Linda Libel's statements nor Dr. S's would be held in court to be libel anyway - and I have stated that since this started.
Harry Truman said "Politics a'int beanbag..."
If you don't like that - stay out of it.
Oh, and Anon at 2:13 - you talk pretty big for someone who has zero understanding of how laws work.
The IRS could investigate the university, not the individual because the university is the entity that has the tax exempt status that the law regulates. Dr. S didn't violate tax law - his actions raised potential issues about his employers tax exempt status if they condoned politicking utilizing their resources.
They counseled him about it because they don't condone it -- case closed. They could have terminated him if they felt it was egregious - but they didn't.
By all means, contact the IRS though, I'm sure they they would be really interested in this big time case.
LOL
Legion 7:38 PM,
As an employee of the university, Scharfenberger is the university. When he violated tax law he also violated university policy, which was designed to protect the university from employees like Dr. Gerry. If the IRS makes distictions between 'big' and 'small' then the agency isn't doing its job. I'm curious as to what would happen if someone (anyone) would push the issue of a vilotion of tax law that wasn't reported by they university to the IRS. Does the university have a legal obligation to report the infraction to the IRS?
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