One of Sayreville’s most popular vote-getters, Kennedy O’Brien, has come out of retirement to become the new mayor, a post he held for twenty years before his retirement in 2019, flipping one of New Jersey’s premier blue-collar swing towns to the GOP.
O’Brien defeated Democrat Bill Henry, the Zoning Board chairman, by a 60%-40% margin; he leads by 1,777 votes.
Republicans Michael Colaci and John Zebrowski won two at-large borough council seats, ousting Democratic incumbents Mary Novak and Vincent Conti. In a race for the unexpired term of Eunice K. Dwumfour, who was shot and killed outside her home in February, Republican Stash Synarski defeated Democrat Kenneth Scott with 59% of the vote.
The Republican sweep leaves no more Democrats in local government.
The incumbent, Democrat Victoria Kilpatrick, won the open seat in 2019 by three votes out of more than 7200 cast against Republican Arthur Rittenhouse. She did not seek re-election.
Republicans easily won a mayoral election in Old Bridge, where Council Vice President Debbie Walker defeated Jill DeCaro, a Democratic councilwoman. Walker leads DeCaro, 2,003 votes, 57%-43%, in the race to succeed Owen Henry. Henry, a Republican, was elected to the State Senate on Tuesday.
Republicans Anita Greenberg-Belli, Mary Rita Sohor, and Erik DePalma, scored decisive victories in their races for at-large township council seats.
In Milltown, Democratic Mayor Tina Jensen Mehr trails Republican challenger George Murray by 39 votes, 1,104 to 975. Two Republicans also lead in the race for borough council seats.
Peter Guindi, a four-term councilman, was elected mayor of South River, defeating Democrat Shawn Haussrmann, a former councilman. He leads by 461 votes, a 59%-41% margin. Guindi defeated incumbent John Krenzel in the GOP primary by eighteen votes.
Republicans Henry Dziemian and James Gurchensky easily won borough council seats, ousting the lone Democrat in local government, Julie Meira, by over 200 votes. The two Republicans had run with Krenzel in the primary.
Republican Thomas Gibbons ousted Jamesburg Mayor Marlene Lowande by fourteen percentage points in Jamsesburg, where he has a 531 to 395 lead. Two Democratic incumbents, Thomas Goletz and Bertin Lefkovic, ran unopposed.
Monroe Mayor Stephen Dalina defeated Republican Charles DiPierro to win a second term. He leads by 3,811 votes, 62%-38%. Democrats Miriam Cohen, Terence Van Dzura and Michale Merkel easily won their council races.
Democrats held their four seats on the Edison Township Council in a landslide, with Joseph Coyle, Ajay Patil, and Richard Brescher winning re-election, along with newcomer Asaf Shmuel.
In Woodbridge, Mayor John McCormac was re-elected by a 2-1 margin against Republican John Vryaric. Democrats won four at-large council seats in a landslide.
The lone Democrat on the Dunellen Borough Council lost her seat on Tuesday when Republican challenger Cristol-Iris Lantz unseated incumbent Jessica Dunne by a wide margin, 705 to 471. Republican Councilman Hal Vandermark was re-elected with 750 votes.
In Cranbury, Democrat Matthew Scott leads Republican Joe Buonvavlonta by 47 votes, 571 to 524.
Highland Park Mayor Elsie Foster, a Democrat, won re-election with 80%, along with two council candidates.