Dems edge out GOP in E.B. council race
Recount expected due to 20-vote margin for third council seat
BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

SCOTT PILLING staff All eyes were on the election tallies Tuesday night at the East Brunswick Democrats' headquarters. Pictured (r-l) are Township Council members David Stahl and Catherine Diem, and Stahl's wife, Sandy.

Local Democrats swept an election Tuesday in which more than 71 percent of East Brunswick voters cast ballots.

The victory means that Democrats will gain full control of the Township Council, as the Republicans lost the one seat they held on the five-member governing body.

Incumbents David Stahl and Catherine Diem were the leading vote-getters, finishing with 7,174 and 6,984, respectively. Each will serve a second four-year term.

Their running mate, newcomer Edward Luster, finished third with 6,426 votes, just 20 votes ahead of the leading Republican, Suzanne Blum.

Luster's seat is not assured, however, because Republican Party Chairman Charles Bruno said the party will ask for a recount.

Blum's 6,406 vote total was followed by Robert Tagliente, with 6,249, and Dr. Eugene DeMarzo, 6,127.

The totals include absentee ballots but not provisionals.

Bruno said he wants to make sure the ballots are read correctly. The Republican candidates said they support the recount.

Stahl touted the win as an approval of the Democrats' ideas and record.

"I'm very pleased with the results," he said. "I think it shows the majority of residents support our programs."

Luster said he is looking forward to serving alongside his running mates.

"Obviously I'm excited, what else can you say?" Luster said.

He said he felt confident going into the race, despite this being his first time running.

Diem said she is pleased because she feels voters chose candidates based on the issues and their record, and did not buy into the GOP's "fear-mongering and mud slinging."

As for the immediate future, Diem said she first plans to "take a deep breath and get some sleep," and then continue moving forward with programs already begun during her first term.

"I don't see myself changing course," she said. "People voted for us because David and I are independent thinkers."

Stahl said he believes residents appreciated his hard work and honesty, and that voters also reacted against what he described as negativity coming from the GOP. He also felt the Republicans were hurt by a "lack of vision."

Tagliente, however, said the Republicans did run based on the issues and a clear platform, and that they used "very little rhetoric" in the campaign.

"We purposely did not exaggerate," he said.

He said he was proud that the election results were close, especially between third and fourth place.

Tagliente pointed out how registered Democrats far outnumber registered Republicans in East Brunswick, and there is also a sizable number of independents.

Politics in East Brunswick, he added, tend to be different from those on the national scale, where poorer voters tend to favor Democrats.

"We lost in the wealthy districts," he said. "They are not as affected by increases in taxes, and don't know the issues too well. They also vote according to party."

Blum does not feel the anti-Bush among many voters this year hurt East Brunswick's Republicans. She knows people who voted for U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, but voted for Republicans on the local level.

"I don't think Bush's lack of popularity hurt us here," she said.

When asked how to explain the fact that she was the highest GOP vote-getter, she could only guess that it happened because she reached out to a "broad spectrum" of voters.

Blum and DeMarzo both ran for the first time this year; Tagliente had run unsuccessfully for council once before.

DeMarzo said that under the right circumstances, he would run again.

He said a lack of campaign funds had an effect on the Republicans' ability to gain votes.

"What hurt us was that they had much more money. They sent out five or six direct mailers," DeMarzo said. The GOP had less than $15,000 to spend.

He bemoaned the correlation between low finances and a lesser ability to get a message out.

"But that's what our political system has gotten to," he said.

Tagliente believes that if Republican Councilwoman Christi Calvano had run for a second term, she would have won easily.

Stahl said he does not view the election results as all that close because he beat out Blum, the closest Republican, by nearly 800 votes, and Diem beat her by about 600 votes.

"I think we convinced some Republicans and independents," he said.

Some 20,539 ballots were cast in the election, out of the township's 28,815 registered voters.

When the Township Council reorganizes Jan. 1, the all-Democrat body will include Diem, Stahl, Luster, current Council President Nancy Pinkin and Vice President Donald Klemp. The terms belonging to Pinkin, Klemp and Mayor William Neary will be up for grabs in November 2008.