A vacancy on the Cape May County Board of Commissioners could be filled soon – or not – depending on what Republican leaders decide to do.
But Republican County Chairman Michael Donohue hinted that someone will finishing the remaining nine months of Melanie Collette’s term. Collette resigned last Friday to take a $115,000-a-year job as Cape May County’s public information officer.
“We will likely fill the seat,” Donohue told the New Jersey Globe.
Cape May Republicans have several options: appoint one of the two candidates who are unopposed for the county commissioner in the June 2 primary election, hotelier and former U.S. Senate candidate Curtis Bashaw and former North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello; pick a caretaker to serve out the year; or leave the seat vacant entirely. There are few close votes on the Cape May board.
Collette had already decided not to seek re-election and wanted to focus more on her broadcast career; she has been making regular appearances on national conservative TV news outlets. Her running mate, Will Morey, is also not seeking re-election.
In a vote to appoint her on Friday, Morey was the lone abstention.
In the spring of 1991, Assemblyman Edward Salmom (D-Millville) announced that he would not seeking re-election and was also resigning his seat. Salmon had just come off an unsuccessful bid for State Senate in a 1990 special election that was a precursor to what would become a Republican wave election after Democratic Gov. Jim Florio proposed a $2.8 billion tax increase.
Democrats in Cape May and Cumberland counties named Raymond Batten, a Cape May attorney who had lost three Assembly races in six years, to fill the seat. The extra incumbency didn’t matter: Batten lost to Republican John Gibson by nearly 10,000 votes.
The following year, Florio appointed Batten to serve as a Superior Court Judge.