By John Burton
RED BANK – The longstanding discord among Red Bank Republicans calls into question whether an incumbent will secure her party’s nomination for the borough council race for November.
Democrats have announced their candidates, selecting incumbent councilmember Kathy Horgan to run for an additional three-year term and naming attorney and current Zoning Board of Adjustment member Erik Yngstrom as her running mate for the two available seats for the November ballot.
“I’m really glad we’re organized early and we have two strong candidates,” said Edward Zipprich, municipal Democratic Committee chairman and borough councilman.
On the Republican side, municipal committee chairman Sean Di Somma said this week the party wouldn’t decide on its slate of two candidates until later this month. Petitions have to be filed with the municipal clerk by April 4 at 4:30 p.m.
But Di Somma’s further comments calls into question as to what the committee will do about nominating Republican incumbent Cindy Burnham, whose term is up this year.
Di Somma said “I personally have not endorsed Cindy Burnham,” and has no plans to. Di Somma added that the three other incumbent Republican councilmembers have not offered their support for Burnham, either.
The committee has the ability to name anyone, as long as the candidate meets the residency requirement and is a registered party member. “The local committee will decide who gets the party line,” Di Somma said. And the chairman said he believes anyone seeking the nomination “should have to come before the committee and say this is why I deserve your endorsement and this is why I deserve the party line (on the official ballot),” Di Somma said.
But in the real world, the committee chair is likely to have considerable sway over the selection process. Having the party ballot line is an advantage for the candidate in securing the support of party faithful, especially in a presidential election year, which traditionally will draw out more voters.
Burnham said this week, whatever the municipal party decides, she is empathic that, “I’m focused on working on Red Bank and getting re-elected.”
“I’m going to seek the committee’s support and I’ll see where it goes from there,” she said, leaving the door open for a possible independent run to retain her seat on the six-member borough council. “Where it goes, who knows,” she offered.
Di Somma and Burnham were running mates three years ago for council seats, with Burnham succeeding. Early on in that campaign, tension developed between the two, with both of them for all purposes campaigning independently. That tension has only become more pronounced both behind the scenes and increasingly publicly, especially as Burnham continues to operate as an independent firebrand, at times criticizing the actions of her fellow GOP councilmembers and others on the governing body.
Burnham, long a self-described “citizen activist,” has a long history of sparring with the previous Democratic-controlled borough council, going back before being elected. When she won in 2013, she became the first Republican to take a council seat since 2007. “I definitely revived the Republican Party,” in the borough, she maintained, and said she is “disappointed” in what appears to be lack of support in the party for her candidacy.
In the last two years, with Di Somma serving as committee chair, the local GOP won a total of three council seats, holding a 4-2 majority, the party’s first majority on the council in more than two decades.
