By Sunayana Prabhu
SHREWSBURY – Three candidates are eyeing two open seats on the borough council this year; Republican Mayor Kimberly Eulner is running unopposed to retain her position.
After Mayor Erik Anderson resigned in January 2024 to join the Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners, Eulner took the oath of office as interim mayor for the term ending Dec. 31. She is now running for a full mayoral term.
Shrewsbury follows a borough form of government, with a mayor and a six-member council. All positions are elected at-large on a partisan basis in general elections. The mayor is elected directly by voters to a four-year term; council members are elected to serve three-year terms on a staggered basis, with two seats up for election each year in a three-year cycle. This year, Republican incumbent council members James Daly and Devon Morton are up for reelection. They are being challenged by Democratic candidate Alexander “Max” Howard.
The Two River Times reached out to the candidates to learn more about their backgrounds and top priorities for the community.
Borough Council
James Daly (R)
James Daly has called Shrewsbury home for 15 years, where he and his wife, Kathleen, are raising their four children. A Shrewsbury Borough School and private school parent, Daly is an active volunteer and coach in both recreational and girls travel sports. Professionally, he works in artificial intelligence at Google.
Daly has served three years on the Shrewsbury Borough Council after previously serving 12 years on the borough’s zoning and planning boards. On council, he has championed Shrewsbury’s Film Ready initiative, expanded recreation programming for children and adults, supported economic development, and strengthened collaboration with the Board of Education.
According to Daly, his top priority is continuing to grow Shrewsbury’s local economy. “We can continue to reinvest in our parks, our rec programs, and our community without placing any additional burdens on taxpayers. The New Jersey film industry presents a tremendous opportunity for this. I’ve been heavily involved in that through our Film Ready initiative that we were able to put in place, and now it’s about building those partnerships with companies that are supporting Netflix and others, given we are one traffic light away, to create sponsorship opportunities and bring private investment back into our community,” Daly said. “Our commitment goes even beyond that. I’ve been continuing to revamp our rec sports programs. We’ve improved our insurance programs for staff. We’ve streamlined processes across the board. So now it’s about how can we continue to reinvest into the future here.”
Alexander “Max” Howard (D)
Howard has been a Shrewsbury resident since 2008 and is the father of two daughters who attended the borough school district. Howard is a therapist in private practice in Shrewsbury. Previously, he served for 16 years as director of a program in Brooklyn, New York, focused on working with families, foster care and preventing child abuse. He has also supervised mental health programs. He is an avid swimmer and hiker and founded a group for ocean swimmers that has more than 400 members.
Howard said he’d like to bring more transparency to the borough’s communication with residents. He said his top priority is addressing traffic and quality-of-life issues from the Netflix development at Fort Monmouth. He said he’d like to “clean up and work with the county to purchase the former Mr. Good Lube and make a right-turn lane onto White Road – it backs up tremendously.”
He added that the Newman Springs corridor needs upgrades and that he would “work on redevelopment of its entrance to our town. It is blighted with abandoned buildings. Perfect place for nice housing and pocket park similar to the Ivy (condominiums),” Howard said.
Howard called for “more diversity of thought and ideas on council,” where there have been no Democrats or Independents “for over 65 years,” he said.
Howard said he will look for grants to transform Wardell House (on the municipal complex grounds) into a senior center or community center. “Let’s not let it deteriorate,” he said.
Additionally, Howard said he would like to “put in place legislation to add a council-issued traffic study when developers come to town, paid for by the developer. They can use theirs, but we also get to hire one not associated with the developer,” he said.
Devon Morton (R)
Devon Morton and her husband, Ed, moved to Shrewsbury in 2012 and have raised three children, she said. According to Morton, volunteerism and community involvement have been important parts of their family life. Professionally, Morton is the purchasing manager and customer solutions representative for a lighting manufacturer where she has worked for over 13 years.
Morton was appointed February, 2025, to the unexpired term of council member Brendan Gilmartin. She is now running for a full term on the council. She has served as council liaison to the Environmental Commission, the Shade Tree Commission, and the Shrewsbury Community Garden, supporting initiatives that help preserve the borough’s character, promote environmental stewardship and strengthen community connections.
Morton restarted the borough’s Safe Routes to School program and partnered with EZ Ride, a nonprofit organization, to explore initiatives that encourage safer travel for students, pedestrians and residents throughout town.
Morton said her top priority is traffic safety and that pedestrian communities feel safe moving about in the borough. “There’s a concern with traffic, just volume,” Morton said. “I think the landscape of our community has changed and is going to continue to change and evolve. And infrastructure is hard to keep up with that. We have a small community of walkers and bikers and joggers and people trying to get around town who live here. It’s becoming increasingly difficult, especially for our children and other pedestrians on the road.”
Mayor
Kim Doran Eulner (R)
Kim Eulner is a lifelong resident of Shrewsbury and bought her childhood home from her parents in 2003, where she raised her two sons, Mark and Michael, and continues to live. She is vice president of Client Strategy & Success with AccuPoint Solutions, based in Avon. She is a graduate of Shrewsbury Borough School, Red Bank Regional High School and Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, where she earned a B.A. in sociology and was a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority and rowed varsity crew.
Before being appointed mayor in January 2024, she served in the New Jersey General Assembly, representing the 11th District from 2022 to 2024 (serving on the Financial Institutions and Insurance, Human Services and Oversight, Reform and Federal Relations Committees). She served on the Shrewsbury Borough Council from 2019 to 2022.
Eulner said she has several priorities for her next term as mayor. Among them are: to continue to keep borough tax rates steady; to identify additional shared services with Monmouth County and surrounding municipalities; to support the Shrewsbury Police and Volunteer Fire Departments and First Aid Squad; to continue working with the state and county to improve traffic safety in town; to support community pride and to support the borough’s film-ready status.
She said it is important to continue to be accessible to all residents, “to listen to their issues – big and small – and to resolve them in a timely and responsible manner, and to continue to work hard and ethically as a public servant and to serve as a role model to our children and community.”
Editor’s note: Answers have been lightly edited for clarity and style. Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by last name.
This article originally appeared in the October 8-14, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
