By JF Grodeska
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS – A crowd of about 30 Democrats met at Kevin Smith’s SMODCastle (formerly the Atlantic Cinema) on First Avenue for an election night watch party, just before the polls closed Tuesday evening.
Outwardly, everyone appeared optimistic about the outcome of the borough council election which pitted Democrats Eileen Cusack and Vito Colasurdo against incumbent council members Stephen Boracchia and Brian Boms, council president and chairman of the local Republican Party. But despite a façade of hopefulness, attendees seemed apprehensive about the “Big Red Wave” anticipated to sweep the nation.
From the beginning, the two campaign methods were vastly different. While the GOP campaign led with what appeared to be a cookie-cutter approach in step with the national Republican Party, using tag lines referring to their Democrat opponents as “proud progressives” who support the spending policies they say are causing inflation, the challengers focused on issues like protecting open space, fiscal responsibility and other local concerns. And they pointed out what they said were the failings of the incumbents.
As the crowd waited for all local districts to report results, the atmosphere was subdued. Council member Jon Crowley remarked that he would be happy if even just one of the Democrats won a seat on the council.
When asked what was the first thing each candidate wished to accomplish if they won a seat on the Atlantic Highlands Borough Council, Cusack said, “I think that I would like to accomplish that we’re all in this together, that it’s not separate individual issues. It’s what we need to do as a town to go back to being the open, friendly, nondivisive town that it was once, a few years ago. I would make it obvious that we’re not (a divisive town).”
“The first thing that I want to accomplish is bringing Atlantic Highlands into the 21st century as a coastal community, in terms of climate change and resilience,” Colasurdo said.
“There was a report today by The New York Times that says that the country is far behind its goals (to combat) climate change. As a community that has the largest municipal harbor on the East Coast, we need to be prepared for the next 20 to 30 years and ensuring that that asset remains intact.”
At 9 p.m., news came that machine in-person voting showed Colasurdo and Cusack had pulled ahead by significant numbers. The room began to buzz.
By 9:15 p.m., 100% of the borough’s districts had reported. Cusack, Colasurdo and their campaigns had pulled off an upset, defeating Boracchia and Boms.
Results are unofficial until certified by the Monmouth County Clerk.
The article originally appeared in the November 10 – 16, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
