Just three candidates for three seats in Cedar Grove

A majority of the seats on the Cedar Grove Township Council are up in the May 9 non-partisan municipal election, where Councilman Peter Tanella is retiring after eighteen years in local government.

All of the candidates are running unopposed.

Mayor Joseph Maceri is seeking his second term on a ticket with Councilman John Zazzali and former school board member Michele Mega.

Zazzali, the nephew of former Chief Justice James Zazzali, was appointed in February after Joseph Zichelli resigned to become township manager.  He is running for a four-year term with Maceri, while Mega will seek Zichelli’s unexpired term.

Mega is the daughter-in-law of former Mayor Ann Mega.

Maceri was elected in 2019, defeating incumbent Harry Kumburis by 28 votes.

That election led to an investigation by the Essex County Prosecutor’s office after the New Jersey Globe obtained a Ring.com doorbell video showing he was still seeking vote-by-mail ballots, perhaps to close the gap in a close race.

The U.S. Postal Service confirmed that at least one man sought to deliver VBM ballots two hours after the polls closed, according to an email sent to Essex County Board of Elections Clerk Linda von Nessi obtained by the Globe through an Open Public Records Act request.

Fourteen months later, the prosecutor’s office said they would not file criminal charges.