Post #19 Election wrap up- a study of interest 11/3/10

The wrap up of the 2010 Garwood boro election season. A study:

And the republican tribe of Garwood came out from the desert of governmental excommunication after being relegated there for 20 years of days and nights. And so they arrived in the Politically Promised Land. Paraphrased from the bible book of Exodus

Things always look clearer in retrospect of course. We are recapping this season only because it turned into an interesting one for sure, with dramatic and unexpected results.

The republicans and some residents felt something was amiss when back in March, 2010 ads were run in 2 local papers by the GW democrats looking for candidates. The democrat committee usually has a bull pen of reasonable and experienced people to draw upon for candidates which the mayor usually sets up through appointments to local boards. But this appointment action started looking abusive when the mayor, 3 years in a row, tapped planning board democrats to run as candidates. This revolving door attitude was not well accepted since the majority of those board members ended up with only one year experience under their belt and yet were able to put “member of Planning board” on their resume. All this did was weaken the planning board’s depth, as a new person then had to be appointed to replace the next leaving member.

By the deadline of the June primary, all candidates of both parties were set. The slate was to fill the mayor’s seat open every 4 years and 2 council positions of 3 year terms usually up for election every year on a rotating basis. (Both incumbents, cnlmn Styko-R and cnclmn Napolitano-D were not going to run again). On the republican side was Patricia Quattrocchi for mayor and ex-councilman Vic DeFillippo and new-comer Jim Mathieu for council. On the democrat side was incumbent Dennis McCarthy for mayor and ex-councilwoman Kathy Villaggio and new-comer Matt Allouf for council. One indicator that something may be brewing was the vote count in the primary. During the primary any voting is just for their own specific party candidates and is not a battle between the polical parties. All party votes stand on their own. Normally the democrats have more turnout than the republican side. But in this primary the republicans actually had about 100 more republican voters participate than the democrat side. This did raise some eyebrows on the democrat side.


Through the summer both parties started their foot campaigns by going door to door. The issues discussed with the residents were: on the GOP side-the abrupt bulk pick up cancellation, boro worker raises given in this economic climate and our incessantly increasing taxes. On the democrat side was what they had accomplished for the town, a shortcoming that the GOP mayor candidate does not own a home in town but rents, and a fault that one GOP council candidate had a terrible track record of attendance when he was a sitting councilman. Letters to the editor started to appear in the local papers that were endorsing their candidates. September then arrived and the campaigns went into full speed. There were fundraisers held for both party’s candidates. The republicans who usually reach out for donations by mail to party loyalists instead decided to do the local meet/greet/food/music route at a local rented hall. The democrats did their tried and true route of holding fundraising parties at a party loyalist’s home.

In late September an non-partisan political action committee called End Self-Serving Politics (PAC ESP) came onto the scene with a door to door flyer attacking the mayor’s problem of weak leadership. There was a second flyer from the PAC in the second half of October questioning candidate Kathy Villagio’s allegiance to Garwood since she works for the county government. The PAC called these flyers anti-campaign flyers, but they can be categorized by the subjects who are under attack as “swift-boating”. “Swift boating” is a general action by non-partisan third party groups questioning the leadership or qualities of only certain candidates who are running. The PACs are completely separate entities from any political parties. This type tactic can be effective if it has merits. They apparantly did since none of the issues were not fully refuted by the candidates. In review: the first PAC ESP flyer had the boro seal on it and the header said “from the desk of the mayor of Garwood”. What it humorously parodied was that the desk was speaking not the mayor. Some were affronted by that misleading info but as pointed out within the flyer, the mayor did the exact same thing by abusing the boro seal and header in campaign literature in the 2009 campaign season. Political operatives cried foul to the boro administrator but since the abusive precedent was set by the mayor himself in the previous election cycle, nothing could be done. It was conceded later by the PAC chair that 2 wrongs do not make a right.

In early October, literature describing the bios of the candidates in each party was dropped door to door. Also early October came a mailer from the republicans that said “you can’t afford the status quo”. in Mid- to late October came the additional campaign literature drops ascribing what the incumbents had done and for the opposition what plans they hope to do.

In a mailer piece from the contending republicans called “ITS NOT POLITICS, IT’S MATH”, the GOP pointed out the high cost of the boro workers salaries and benefits versus the smaller cost of road repaving as an example; along with a claim of transfer of wealth that the incumbents did by cutting services while at the same time giving boro workers a raise. Clearly the GOP issue was the expensive local govt allowed under the present elected officials

In response, the democrats sent a mailer called, “ITS NOT POLITICS-IT’S PEOPLE” and listed 6 bullets of past accomplishments: that the officials created handyman and leaf raking programs, increased recreational activities, led the way for shared services, fostered transparency. They stated that “we value each and every municipal employee”. It appeared as if the democrats were on the defensive but the points within rang true.

End of October and beginning of November, the campaign literature was fast and furious. On November 1st a mailer was sent by the opposing republicans showing Governor Christie and his wife arm and arm with the candidates, and called them "the Christie Reform Team". At the same time a letter by the democrats was sent out by the mayor noting that “at every moment and with every decision, we promise you we have the interests of our residents in mind”. A hand-dropped letter from the GOP Republican Committee Chair stated “we cannot afford the status quo” and “we will fight the county’s endless tax increases and heed your school budget decisions”, obviously questioning the council’s small $9,000 cut from the school budget when the school budget was defeated back in the april BOE election cycle.

One new tactic used by the democrats was the "robo-call". In mid October, each Garwood resident received a recorded call endorsing the democrat candidates for mayor and council. (Unknown who's voice was on the recording).

On the NJ.com Garwood forum were the usual back and forth posts from anonymous posters as to how great the mayor is and how wrong the PAC chair is. To which the PAC chair always responded that the attackers should back up these anonymous claims that he errs in his statements. However, none of the anonymous attackers could come up with any justification against the PAC claims. This obviously helped the validity of the issues brought up by the PAC ESP flyers to those readers who follow the forum. Near election day, an anonymous political operative posted a scurrilous personal attack on the republican mayoral candidate finding fault with her past husband and present husband, all untrue and unfounded. This post was immediately removed from the Garwood forum.

There was action in the Westfield leader also. In the late October edition, there was a letter to the editor from a senior couple, who signed off endorsing the democrats, attacking the PAC ESP flyer and the PAC chair's sporadic attendance at the senior meetings. In the same newspaper edition was the candidate bios again, and an interview with the republican candidates but not the democrat ones. The democrats missed the deadline it appeared. There were statements from both candidate groups and a “down-home-sounding” letter from the GOP mayoral candidate stating, she and her family lived here for 30 years, and she will restore a strong leadership to Garwood.

And the campaign was not without incident. In mid October a 13 year old youth while delivering the PAC ESP flyer on Myrtle street delivered it to the mayor’s house and had the mayors wife come out after the minor to allegedly confront him with uncomfortable questions. The PAC chair after being told this by the youth and his mother subsequently allegedly confronted the mayor’s wife about the intimidation. That night, the mayor used two police officers to go to the minor’s house and request the parents to come to boro hall where the mayor and his wife apologized. Then the mayor’s wife had the parents sign a statement describing the mayor’s wife's side of the story and giving consent if it ever needed be read in a public forum which it was at a later date. This signing was done while the police actually stood over the meeting. This was an odd set of events. At a subsequent council meeting, the mayor, his wife and her supporters set up a clandestine attack on the PAC chair during the public speaking portion in the hopes of marginalizing the episode of the mayor’s wife's intimidation of a minor and the possible abuse of the police and boro hall in the incident. It was considered abuse since none of that bullying incident had anything to do with the boro and its operations so the police should not have been involved. But the reason given by the mayor's wife of the use of the police was because she feared for her life from the PAC chair who lived nearby the youth's house. Some residents found that hard o believe. It was during this council meeting that the letter signed by the minor's parents was read aloud.

The second incident took place within 2 days of the election. Two mayor McCarthy supporters sent bulk emails out from their personal computers calling one of the republican candidates and also the PAC chair, “creeps” and “rude” and to vote for the democrat candidates. The PAC chair receiving the email with the alleged aspersions then responded to the bulk email list that all readers should ignore the political operatives and that one should vote their conscience either republican or democrat. But in the PAC chair’s email was a possible legally actionable statement about one of the suporters who had sent the email, to which that supporter’s wife took exception and by a phone call wanted a formal apology. The PAC chair complied. She also demanded her husband apologize for using the childish term “creeps”, which he then complied. One could see the emotions rising leading up to the election. As one email recipient later responded: these emails were all uncalled for and the political party behind it should be embarrassed.

Then came Nov 2nd Election Day. The final results were surprising as the republican contenders won not only the 2 council seats but the mayor’s seat also. This hasn’t been done in at least 18 years.

Why did the mayor cause his seat to be lost? After all, it was his to lose. As the past democrat political party chair of the boro proclaimed once, “This is a democrat town!” The registered voters are indeed 3-2 in favor of the democrats. The governing body over the last 20 years has been majority democrats and most of the time has been 100% all democrats. So what happened? The political forensics:

It was a myriad of items, some large many small. Yes there is the anti-government backlash in motion nationwide to which the local GOP received some advantage. There is also the residents now thirsting to become more informed as to what our government in doing, since the residents are busy and not able to watch them. But as I see it, and as one of the political academics of the town, it was a lot more. The 2 biggest items that felled the democrats were: 1) the abrupt bulk pick up cancellation, and 2) always the incessant tax increases; even after we have been receiving that “extraordinary tax relief” during the Corzine years. The abrupt cancellation of the bulk was a decision by the finance committee of the council and was the direct result from Gov Christie's rescinding of municipal aid to GW. This had the residents irate primarily because it was so abrupt. It actually was cancelled after the last pick up with no warning in early March. People that figured they could wait until summer to dispose of their bulk were out of luck. The council should at least have given notice to the residents of one last pick-up. Plus there was no fall back plan afforded the residents. The total absurdity that came out of this was that when the majority democrat governing body agreed to cancel bulk, that actually gave the republicans a second issue to take advantage of outside of the normal tax increase issue. The governing body could have actually kept bulk and just had higher taxes which the residents would already be complaining about. And the resulting higher tax impact still would have been within the mandated acceptable tax “cap” set by the state.

The democrats year after year had always crowed about giving the residents the “services you have come to expect”. They failed to deliver (or in this case “pick-up”) on their mantra and the residents took them to task. The republicans capitalized on this also by pointing out that the boro workers still got a raise while services were cut.

Other factors in play: there were residents that faulted the mayor for not cutting enough “fat” out of the defeated school budget, although it actually was not specifically in his hands to do. He was blamed anyway for it. Even his mishandling of the Rahway Valley Sewerage Authority appointment and the huge sewerage cost impacts were noted by the residents as partly responsible.

In addition issues that helped to slowly chip away at the mayor’s win cushion: He alienated the fire department by enabling the suspension of a fire fighter on a minor item, yet having 2 criminal charges totally dismissed on a GW police officer who, it turns out, is the brother of a Union County freeholder. This police officer incident and dismissal was covered up from the residents and even from the boro council. Some residents were mad at that cover-up. He alienated the heritage crowd and the Lion’s club by having the Lions Club Gazebo planned to be demolished for the rec area yet that info wasn't made public. It had to be leaked out. He alienated some parents because the planned recreational area has shown no construction in the last 10 years except for a tripling in price. The parents that were in support of it now have their kids grown and moved out. Some were incensed based on the PAC ESP flyer that he has his wife receiving grant money as pay through the municipal alliance committee and she did not need to keep track of her hours to get paid, although the tracking is mandated by law. She just got paid anyway. There were allegations of a conflict of interest with the county and his auto parts business and also the county manipulating our boro through taxes. But these last 2 issues may have had very minor affects. There could be many more reasons and issues but these were the higher profile ones contributing to his demise. This was all discussed by the residents, candidates and factions.


In the end, the groups remaining that the mayor had to depend on was his central close friends and supporters, many hard core democrats and those who are afraid of change. The republicans swept the races. The mayor’s seat election results were Pat Quattrocchi 703 and Dennis McCarthy 639 (prior to absentee ballot count.) The council seats had even larger pluralities by party approximately 800 versus 550. Election numbers weren't seen like this by the republicans for a long time. This was an amazing turn of events since for the past 5 elections, the democrats normally held a large plurality toward the mayor’s seat election as republicans and independents could not assail the position.

The governing body make up starting 2011 regarding the 6 seats of council are split 3 republican and 3 democrat and the mayor’s seat is held by a republican. Since on a local level there really isn’t any party philosophy to push, they should all work well together. We shall see if politics come into play through Mayor-elect Quattrocchi’s appointment process. She did state that she will include all political parties and residents in the process. (Maybe she should reach out to the ex-mayor for his possibility of an appointment since he does have much experience.)

The now ex-mayor (starting january) had unfortunately in the past turned the appointment process very political and so left out 2/3s of the residents who may have wanted to be involved; and that became somewhat deleterious to the boro of Garwood. This hopefully will change.

It is now november 3rd and the sun did come up.

We should all thank ex-mayor Dennis McCarthy for his approximately 20 years of service to the residents of Garwood. Good luck to the boro.