RED BANK – Though vote totals are still unofficial, it appears that the Red Bank Borough Council will have its first Republican member since 2007.
If the vote stands as now reported, Republican Cindy Burnham will be sworn in as a council member in January and Incumbent Democrat Kathleen Horgan will retain her council seat.
The race was a close one with incumbent Sharon Lee, a Democrat, just 25 votes behind the top vote-getter, according to unofficial results.
The election is expected to be certified on Nov. 18 following the evaluation of provisional ballots. There are in excess of 1,000 provisional ballots in Monmouth County with no indication of how many are from Red Bank, according to Bertha Sumick, Monmouth County special deputy clerk for elections.
The results as of Wednesday morning showed Burnham was the top vote-getter with 1,292 and Horgan just one ballot behind with 1,291. Incumbent Democrat Sharon Lee was close behind her running mate with 1,267 votes while Republican Sean Di Somma garnered 1,185 votes.
Unlike the council race, the governor’s contest at the top of the ticket between incumbent Republican Chris Christie and Democrat Barbara Buono, a state senator from Metuchen in Middlesex County, was called by most news agencies for Christie within a few minutes of the polls closing at 8 p.m. Christie garnered about 60 percent of the vote.
