May 13, 2009 - 2:57pm
Inside Edge

Change of control will cost Gilmore legal post

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.

Also notable: the election of John McMenamin as the new Mayor - and the victory of five of six Council candidates on McMenamin's slate - will almost certainly mean the termination of Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore as the Stafford Township Attorney.  Aside from partisan differences, McMenamin is an ex-cop who sued the township after being passed over for police chief  and wound up with an undisclosed out of court settlement.

Wally Edge can be reached via email at politicsnj@aol.com.