Plumsted Mayor Dominick Cuozzo, a controversial, homophobic pastor, lost his bid for re-election to his township committee seat on Tuesday.
Cuozzo and his running mate, Committeeman Michael Hammerstone, were the only candidates backed by the Ocean County GOP organization to lose.
Thomas Potter (948) and James Hagelstein (943) defeated Hammerstone (497) and Cuozzo (488).
A group of Plumsted residents initiated a move to recall Cuozzo from his township committee seat last year, alleging that the Republican has harassed and discriminated against women and LBGTQ persons and spent taxpayer money to settle personal grudges.
Cuozzo, the pastor at the Bible Baptist Church in Plumsted, defeated incumbents Erik Sorchik and Jack Trotta, in 2021.
Following Assemblyman Ronald Dancer’s death last July (R-Plumsted), Cuozzo ran in a special election convention for the legislature and got clobbered; Alex Sauickie, then a Jackson councilman, defeated him by a massive 69%-29% margin. Dancer’s widow backed Sauickie.