Another one bites the dust with Block defeat

by: Jason Springer

Sat May 16, 2009 at 12:45:21 PM EDT

While they didn't pass a full dual office holding ban in the Legislature allowing people to be "grandfathered" in, the voters still have the ultimate say at the ballot box and this past Tuesday night they made the decision for Carl Block:

The major upset of the 2009 non-partisan municipal elections was the defeat of Carl Block, who has served as Mayor of Stafford (pop. 25,819) since 1983. Block lost by fifteen percentage points, 57%-42%, to John McMenamin, a former police lieutenant. Four incumbent Councilmembers allied with Block also lost their bids for re-election.
This is a stunning defeat for Republicans in a town where John McCain beat Barack Obama with 59% of the vote last year. Block is also the Ocean County Clerk, and an insider within the Ocean County GOP organization. McMenamin had the backing of Democrats, who backed GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie's proposal to ban dual officeholding. Christie attended a fundraiser for Block in Stafford just days after announcing his plan, which would have forced Block to choose between his two jobs.

At least Christie won't have to explain his support for a dual office holder while he rips dual office holding at the same time anymore. The loss for Block also will cost Party boss George Gilmore some business apparently. McMenamin ran an aggressive campaign and also received help from Congressman John Adler. The campaign credited the victory to personal relationships putting them over the top:

"Because we had candidates who had been in town for 30 years, they knew everybody," said Seim, who holds a PhD in medicinal chemistry. "They sat down at the beginning of this campaign eight weeks ago and identified 1,500 voters they knew in town. When we say that 1,000 of those voters had not participated in the last election, we knew we would be competitive. Based on the last mayoral election, we knew we needed 1,000 extra votes to win."

Incumbents went down in Ocean County, Burlington County, Camden County. Incumbents retained their seats in Hackensack, Asbury Park, Tinton Falls, Monmouth Beach, Bordentown City and Passaic, among other places. I don't know if Healy is a good gauge in Jersey City because of the overwhelming fundraising advantage and it appears there were many factors in play in Hoboken. Here's what the APP editorial had to say about Block's loss today:

Whether motivated by a need for change, by the recognition of conflicts caused by multiple public jobs or by the campaigning of successful mayoral candidate and former police lieutenant John McMenamin, Stafford voters moved the state one step closer to ending dual officeholding.

Campaigns will be looking for the larger lessons from these races. Looking forward to the November elections, incumbents on the ballot may be trying to figure out if this is going to be a wave that can only be overcome in some areas by large fundraising. In a diary posted on the side, Dennis M pointed to the big news of this race and questioned what it might mean for November.Do you think there is a larger problem for incumbents on the ballot or were these races just a product of the local factors on the ground?

Jason Springer :: Another one bites the dust with Block defeat

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Another one bites the dust with Block defeat | 3 comments

Mainly local (0.00 / 0)

In Jersey, "throw the bums out" sentiment is so generalized that it tends to cancel itself out. Somehow Block had made himself unpopular in Spotswood, must have lost touch with the residents.

by: Wesleylake @ Sat May 16, 2009 at 17:03:02 PM UTC

Mainly personal (0.00 / 0)

More personal than local. A wingnut insurgency against Boss George Gilmore's political machine has been going on for several years, and they came close last year to knocking off Gilmore's stooges in the freeholder race, as well as defeating Gilmore's hand-picked flunky Jack Kelly in the congressional primary.

On the Democratic side the only primary contest is in Barnegat Township where former "Reagan Republican"-turned-Democrat Fred Rubenstein is being challenged by Democrat activist Marianne Clemente for Township Committee. Rubenstein is harboring a personal grudge against his former GOP comrades Mayor Jeff Melchiondo and the deputy mayor Al Cirulli because they threw him off the township planning board.

As to Stafford there is no question McMenamin's victory was enabled by support from GOP insurgents in Stafford who are backed by the county insurgents and have been combating the Block/Gilmore machine for a long time.

http://christiegonewild.blogsp...

by: ken bank @ Sun May 17, 2009 at 00:01:20 AM UTC

Please tell the whole story . . . (0.00 / 0)

Ken Bank's comments require clarification. To begin, I was never a member of Barnegat Township's Planning Board. I did, however, serve on my town's Zoning Board for seven year begiining as the second alternate and advancing to Chairperson; a position I held for three of those seven years.

I was not reappointed because several months prior to the expiration of my term I dared to speak out about two items I thought deplorable.

First was the refusal of Jeff Melchiondo and Al Cirulli to afford equal protection under the law to constituents whose lifestyles did not meet their approval.

Second was the undeniable fact that these same two attempted to sneak through a 49% pay raise for their handpicked chums on the town's payroll.

Am I angry about this? No. I knew it was going to happen and was prepared for it. When you speak out against a political machine you have to stand ready for retaliation. For Jeff Melchiondo and Al Cirulli it was never about mine or any other unpaid public servant's track record. Rather it was about maintaining a blind allegiance to a greedy political machine that is responsible for the heftiest tax hikes in the history of a township I happen to like filled with neighbors whom I respect.

Changing political parties is not easy Mr. Bank. And it took a full 18 months for me to make up my mind. And just like I rarely voted a straight Republican ticket, I am sure there will be elections where I will not support a Democratic candidate. I vote for the person, not the party.

It is easy to predict the tactics that Jeff and Al will use in their campaign. I will be called every possible name short of those that are profane. They did this in 2006 - that is the reason I abandoned their campaign even though I was the campaign manager.

Incumbents should be judged on one thing. And that is their record over their last term in office. Jeff Melchiondo's and Al Cirulli's records are clear. It comes nowhere close to what they promised Barnegat voters in 2006.

Fred Rubenstein

by: twufred @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 11:03:55 AM UTC