Primary Election Edition

Editorial note – Please share and cross post this to family, friends and neighbors. If you wish to receive this as an email directly, please send an email to betterholmdel@yahoo.com.]

Primary Election Edition

May 25, 2020 – While most of the attention is focused on the Presidential election this November, New Jersey still has a primary election to contend with. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the primary was pushed back to Tuesday, July 7th.

Governor Phil Murphy has also issued an Executive Order that the all registered Republicans and Democrats will receive a vote-by-mail (“VBM”) ballot in early June. Many of you may not be familiar with voting by mail. It is a relatively simple process, but you do need to follow the instructions carefully in order for your ballot to be counted.

All ballots must be postmarked on or before July 7th to be counted. Holmdel First, a new nonpartisan grassroots group, has a short 3-minute instructional video to help you with this. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh8GWwFmKJY&feature=youtu.be

Registered voters not affiliated with any party (unaffiliated or independents) will get an application to receive a vote-by-mail ballot. Once a ballot is requested, unaffiliated voters can vote in the Republican or Democratic primary, but not both.

Column 1 (aka The Line)

There are five Republican Senatorial candidates vying to run against incumbent Democratic candidate Cory Booker in this year’s U.S. Senate race. On April 10th, there was a drawing for ballot position held by the Monmouth County Clerk. All five Republican candidates’ name was thrown in a box and then each name was randomly selected from the box. The order on the ballot was determined by the sequence in which the candidates’ names were drawn from the box. Rik Mehta’s name was drawn first, followed by Natalie Rivera, Tricia Flanagan, Hirsh Singh and Eugene Anagnos. As a result of this drawing, Rik Mehta will be in column 1, Natalie Rivers will be in column 2, and so on.

A few days ago, the Monmouth County Republican Committee (“MCRC”) sent out an email urging to “Vote Straight Down Column 1” - meaning to vote for Rik Mehta. It is possible that Mehta is the best Republican candidate for the US Senate race. However, the drawing on April 10th was supposed to be a random drawing. Therefore, the candidate that appears in Column 1 is by the “luck of the draw”. So, it is interesting that the MCRC would urge Republican voters to vote for Mehta. What if Natalie Rivera ‘s name was drawn first instead of second, would MCRC still urge to vote Column 1, meaning to vote for Rivera, or any of the other candidates if they were “lucky” enough to be randomly drawn first?

If a candidate’s appearance on Column 1 is truly random, then what is the basis for urging to vote Column 1?

In Holmdel, there are two seats that are open for Township Committee. On the Republican side, incumbent Mayor Greg Buontempo and his running mate Ronald E. Emma are being challenged by Vicky Flynn, President of Board of Education, and her running mate Domenico “DJ” Luccarelli. On the Democrat side, only Joseph Romano, has officially filed to be a candidate.

The local Holmdel County Committees, on both sides of the aisle, are supposed to recruit, screen and promote candidates for their respective party for local elections. As previously posted, incumbent Mayor Buontempo was not given the opportunity to be “screened” or make his case before the Republican County Committee. Instead, the Committee only voted on one and only one slate – Vicky Flynn and DL Luccarelli. With their request to be under the slogan Monmouth County Republican Organization and to appear in Column 1 denied, Buontempo and Emma are now expected to be in column 2 under the slogan “We the People” while Flynn and Luccarelli will be in Column 1.

Two months ago, we wrote about the “Line” and the advantageous placement of candidates (in this case, Column 1) that make the candidates beholden to party bosses (typically from outside of the town for local elections) rather than local residents. The recent email from the Monmouth County Republican Committee urging to “Vote Straight Down COLUMN 1” epitomizes the issue with the Line. Beyond the fact that the Line makes candidates beholden to party bosses, there appears to be no basis for urging to vote for the candidate that is in column 1 for the Senatorial race or for competitive local races. See the previous post “The Line” for more details:

https://betterholmdel.wixsite.com/home/post/the-line

CILU Candidates Forum

Thus far, we have already seen some issues that have surfaced in the Holmdel primary election. One issue that we expect to get some attention is school taxes. A quick survey conducted this week of Holmdel residents indicated that 99% of the 100+ respondents are concerned with the increase in school taxes.

The Holmdel BOE just voted to increase school taxes by $1 million and almost $5 million since 2016. This accounted for almost all of the increases in our property taxes during this period.

Township Committeeman Prakash Santhana has written two op-eds that suggest Holmdel may be paying more in school taxes and not getting the “bang for the buck”. Some alarm bells were sounded in 2019 when the ranking of Holmdel High School dropped below 100 among high schools in New Jersey. See link for more info: https://betterholmdel.wixsite.com/home/post/what-s-up-with-our-taxes

CILU – Citizens for Informed Land Use - will be holding its annual Candidates Forum for Holmdel primary candidates on June 15, at 7:30 PM, on a virtual basis via Zoom. Candidates will be allowed to make statements, followed by a Q&A session where residents can submit questions to the candidates.

We will share the link for the Candidates Forum once it is published.

Alternative to the Line

As indicated above, there are issues with the current New Jersey primary ballot with candidates vying to be on “The Line”. There is an alternative to this - Nonpartisan Elections. Holmdel First and CILU are co-hosting a virtual event on Nonpartisan Elections on Thursday, May 28th, 7 PM.

The guest speaker is Kevin Starkey, a partner at the law firm Starkey, Kelly, Kenneally, Cunningham & Turnbach. Over the past 30 years, he has represented many municipal governments with both partisan and nonpartisan elections. He is currently the municipal attorney in Tinton Falls, one of the few towns in New Jersey with nonpartisan elections. He also was the attorney for Jackson Township when it switched from partisan to nonpartisan elections, and in Stafford Township when it switched in the opposite direction.

See link below to register to attend this free virtual event:

Registration: https://forms.gle/Gz9cpHYu51chyFZPA