Carl Block

Mayor Donald Cresitello, left, and Zoning Board Chairman Tim Dougherty at their debate the week before Election Day.

Certainly, someone running for re-election this year might be comforted by special case asterisks in those contests where challengers upset sitting mayors or council people.

But consider the name politicians who lost over the course of May and June municipal cycles, or found the terrain too tough to run again, or barely won re-election, and it looks like treacherous territory for incumbents in a gubernatorial election year.

Two of last week's losers - Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello (buried by Tim Dougherty, 62.46 to 37.48%) and Edison Mayor Jun Choi (who lost, 50.70 to 47.79% contest to Councilwoman Toni Ricigliano) - arrived at their re-election bids with their own particular challenges.

In or around elected office for over 30 years, Cresitello possesses institutional knowledge and insider connections that helped as he kept Morristown's tax rate stable over the course of his most recent four-year term. But he also asked for pay raises for himself, which the council refused, targeted undocumented workers in his crackdown of apartment house stacking, and considered placing a public works' garage in Ward 2, which empowered his opponent to build on a base of residents who felt disrespected.

Mitch Seim, campaign manager for Stafford mayoral candidate John Mcmenamin, who last night toppled longtime incumbent Carl Block, said his team capitalized on the fact that members of their slate had deep and longstanding roots in the community but were not natural politicians.

“Because we had candidates who had been in town for 30 years, they knew everybody,” said Seim, who holds a PhD in medicinal chemistry. “They sat down at the beginning of this campaign eight weeks ago and identified 1,500 voters they knew in town. When we say that 1,000 of those voters had not participated in the last election, we knew we would be competitive. Based on the last mayoral election, we knew we needed 1,000 extra votes to win.”

Running on an anti-tax platform against a powerfully connected Republican machine with ties to county chairman George Gilmore, McMenamin received 3,538 votes (57.25%) to Block’s 2,622 (42.43%).

Carl Block's unsuccessful bid for re-election as Mayor of Stafford - a job he's held since he ousted Wesley Bell in 1983 -- had more to do with local issues than with voter opposition to dual office holding.  He was re-elected in 2006 by just 221 votes against Robert Kusznikow, who first won prominence in 1997 when he spent a week in jail for refusing to allow Stafford officials to connect his house to the local water system.  Kusznikow, who won a Council seat yesterday, maintained that his well water was cleaner than the water offered by the township.

The major upset of the 2009 non-partisan municipal elections was the defeat of Carl Block, who has served as Mayor of Stafford (pop. 25,819) since 1983.  Block lost by fifteen percentage points, 57%-42%, to John McMenamin, a former police lieutenant.  Four incumbent Councilmembers allied with Block also lost their bids for re-election.

This is a stunning defeat for Republicans in a town where John McCain beat Barack Obama with 59% of the vote last year.  Block is also the Ocean County Clerk, and an insider within the Ocean County GOP organization.  McMenamin had the backing of Democrats, who backed GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie's proposal to ban dual officeholding.  Christie attended a fundraiser for Block in Stafford just days after announcing his plan, which would have forced Block to choose between his two jobs.

Carl Block’s in a battle again, in Ocean County.

That’s because his usually quiet town of Stafford has transformed into a political warzone, as Block, the incumbent, 26-year mayor, attempts to fend off a challenge by former Police Lieutenant John McMenamin, who’s receiving considerable blended backing from the Ocean County Democratic Organization and a local renegade Republican outfit.

When he didn’t become police chief in 2005, McMenamin sued Block and the town for $8.6 million. The judge threw the bulk of the case out, and McMenamen settled for workman’s compensation and disability payments that finally added up to $177,000.

Out of the courts and into the streets, now McMenamin is challenging Block in a mano-a-mano with remnants of U.S. Rep. John Adler’s (D-Cherry Hill) field staff on the ground at his campaign’s disposal, still energized from last year’s 3rd Congressional District win. 

Ocean County Democrats used Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie’s call to end dual office-holding to their advantage in that Republican machine controlled county.

Noting that state Sen. Robert Singer (R-Lakewood), Assemblyman Ronald Dancer (R-Plumsted) and County Clerk Carl Block – all Republicans – are each mayor of their hometowns, Democratic freeholder candidates Robert Bianchini and Michael Collins said that Christie should call on them to resign from their municipal positions.

All three Republicans are listed as supporters of Christie on his Web site.   

"I would expect that these two members of the State Legislature would immediately comply and then other Ocean County politicians holding two public offices like Mayor Block will follow their lead,” Collins said.  “Chris Christie says he would be able to pressure the Legislature to follow through on his policies as Governor, let's see him get his supporters to do it as a Candidate."

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Of the two New Jersey congressional districts where Republican incumbents did not seek re-election this year, the third district in parts of Ocean, Burlington and Camden counties is arguably more Republican than the seventh district, which includes parts of Hunterdon, Somerset, Union and Middlesex counties.  In District 3, Jim Saxton won 58% of the vote in 2006 and 63% in 2004; George W. Bush won with 51% in 2004.  In the 7th, Mike Ferguson nearly lost his 2006 re-election bid to Democrat Linda Stender, 49%-48%, after winning 57% in 2004; Bush won 53% four years ago.  Republicans have held the Saxton seat since 1884 and the Ferguson seat since 1956.

Ocean County Clerk Carl Block

In Ocean and Burlington Counties, Republicans have all held the county clerk seats for as long as anyone can remember.  This year, buoyed by the surge in Democratic registrations, Democrats have a crack at both of them.

Among the most surprising competitive races this cycle is in Ocean County - one of only six New Jersey counties where there are still more registered Republicans than Democrats.

Five year incumbent Carl Block is fighting to win his second full term against Berkeley Mayor Jason Varano in a place where no Democrat has won county-wide since 1989.  But Varano has seized on expenditures Block made from the county clerk's trust fund, which is drawn from fees from mortgage, deed and passport applications.  He's even up on cable television and radio with advertisements - unusual for an Ocean County Democrat.

Varano has hit Block on his office's expenditures of nearly $25,000, on trips to several locales across the country, during which Block was often accompanied by his deputy and a confidential aide.  He's also gone after him on an overpriced framed picture of Freeholder Jack Kelly, an expensive clock repair bill and a plasma screen television in the main office.  Block has been bloodied in the local press for these expenses, with the Asbury Park Press writing several articles on the subject.  The paper endorsed Varano, saying that block's "self-interest, partisanship, entitlement, slackness with tax dollars and violation of the public trust" make him unfit for another term.

Still, Block has spent three times the amount of money Varano has to date.  In solidly Republican Ocean County, he remains the default favorite, and rather than argue against the charges one-by-one, he faulted Varano for what he characterized as a completely negative campaign.

Ocean County Clerk Carl Block said the numbers of newly registered voters in his county bulged in the past four and a half months, with forms still coming into his office on deadline day.

As of this afternoon, the GOP stronghold numbered 100,724 Republicans, 79,257 Democrats and 195,859 unaffiliated voters. That’s up from the June Primary in which voter registrants numbered 92,616 Republicans, 74,840 Democrats and 150,204 independents.

“We still have a lot coming in,” said Block. “Those new numbers will be off by a couple of thousand by the time it’s over. We’ll take them as long as they’re postmarked by today.”