Tanella, Maceri win in Cedar Grove

Cedar Grove Councilman Peter Tanella and his running mate, Joe Maceri, defeated Councilman Harry Kumburis and James Palma Tuesday.

Tanella received 909 votes, the most of any candidate in the race.

Maceri placed second with 796 votes, narrowly edging out Kumburis’s 763.

At 736, Palma received the fewest votes.

Keen observers of Cedar Grove politics ought not have been surprised when Tanella and Kumburis announced they would run on separate slates earlier this year.

The two councilmen feuded in over the town’s mayorship in 2017, when Tanella was elected by the Cedar Grove Council to a then-unprecedented second consecutive term as township mayor.

Kumburis was seeking to become mayor himself and had asked his fellow council members for their support in that endeavor.

In 2017, the councilman also alleged that Kumburis had a conflict of interest because his law firm, Mandelbaum Salsburg, represented the Cedar Grove Garden Center, where a developer was seeking to build an apartment complex.

Kumburis said a partner in his firm previously represented the Garden Center but maintained that he had recused himself from any potential conflicts.