Glen Gilmore

In additional to contests for state, county and local office, voters in Hamilton Township will be asked to vote in a November referendum to decide if they want to spend $4 million to preserve Klockner Woods, a controversial piece of property purchased by a developer for $375,000, that Hamilton Township then bought for more than ten times the amount. 

Party leaders and state officials are predicting a low turnout in this year's midterm legislative races. This, despite the low ratings that most New Jerseyans give the legislature and citizens deep concerns about high property taxes, political corruption, and the direction in which the state is headed. But with most legislative districts drawn to be safe, the high cost of mounting a serious challenge against an entrenched incumbent, and citizens' skepticism about either party's ability to solve the state's complex problems, folks simply don't seem to be excited this campaign season.

Dismissing the protocol that says the champion needs to enter the ring last, Hamilton Mayor Glen Gilmore sat on stage before GOP challenger, John Bencivengo, made his entrance today in the ballroom of the Nottingham Fire House.

General election politics in most towns gets ugly come October. In the politically charged Hamilton, where everything hits a little earlier, the candidates have been trading freely and often. Months ago, Bencivengo went after Gilmore on gangs and the mayor’s open space plan. Gilmore’s camp in turn hit Bencivengo on the latter’s attempts to sell anthrax-proof hand lotion to terror-spooked postal workers, and floated a rumor that an overwrought Bencivengo would soon be exiting the race.

"We’re going to sweep in the 14th," boasts Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, of the GOP ticket comprised of Assemblyman/State Senate candidate Bill Baroni and running mates Tom Goodwin and Adam Bushman.

The prediction assumes that Baroni’s star power will be sufficient to catapult Goodwin and Bushman into the State Assembly -- a bold statement given Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein’s reputation as a worker bee, and her four consecutive wins in a politically competitive district.

The GOP-controlled Hamilton City Council today lashed out at Mayor Glen Gilmore, charging the Democrat with sitting on the town’s budget and riding out the election before notifying taxpayers of a 25 % tax hike.

"Under law the budget was supposed to be produced by August 10th, but he wants to put it off," complained Council President Dave Kenny, who said the most obvious preliminary numbers to jump out at him were from a recent auditor’s findings showing $4 million in increased spending and $2 million in decreased revenues, among other add-ons.

Five years later, Republicans could be the beneficiary of "Bob's Law" -- a New Jersey Supreme Court decision to allow Democrats to replace Robert Torricelli on the ballot with Frank Lautenberg in the '02 U.S. Senate race. In two of the state's larger towns, where Republicans could win mayoral seats they had held until recent years, their potential success could be impeded by flawed candidates. A change of candidates -- it's administratively feasible to do that for at least another month -- could change the races entirely.

In Toms River, population 89,706, the Internal Revenue Service has over $120,000 in federal tax lients against Council President Greg McGuckin, the Republican candidate for Mayor. And in Hamilton Township, population 87,109, John Bencivengo, the GOP mayoral candidate, faces allegations that he sought to profit over an Anthrax scare at the Hamilton Post Office after 9/11.

In response to Republican challenger John Bencivengo's call for ten debates, Hamilton Mayor Glen Gilmore said he would settle for three engagements.

"Mayor Gilmore's not doing ten debates," said Gilmore spokesman Doug Suessegger. "The mayor's got a town to run."

The candidates already had one debate at Steinert High School. Suessegger said the mayor would be available to do two more prior to the election on Nov. 6.

GOP mayoral candidate John Bencivengo faces two-term incumbent Glen Gilmore

In the Hamilton race for control of City Hall pitting Democratic Mayor Glen Gilmore against Republican businessman John Bencivengo, the dynamic involves that old struggle for the town’s identity, and the argument comes with particular urgency in a summer of countywide gangland violence that hit Hamilton hard last week.

Population near 90,0000, Hamilton looks like Jersey’s final, 40-square mile fortress of cris-crossing highways where every blue collar Davy Crockett backed up to the edge of the state can take a last, rifle-swinging stand at an affordable life for himself and his family.

The Republican-dominated Hamilton Township Council wants a question on November's ballot, asking the people directly what Hamilton ought to do with Klockner Woods.

A few years ago, Mayor Glen Gilmore and the then-Democratic Township Council purchased the 53-acre tract for $4.1 million. Gilmore subsequently lost control of the council in part when the Republicans spun the mayor's open space purchase come election time as a frivolous cash-for-swamp deal.

The new Hamilton Township Democratic Municipal Chair is Jill Moyer, the Executive Secretary to Mayor Glen Gilmore.  She replaces former Council President Daniel Benson, who stepped down last night.