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.