By Emily Schopfer
SEA BRIGHT – Sea Bright voters will see five candidates running for two full-term seats on their November ballots, as well as two candidates vying for one two-year unexpired term. The seats of council members Marc A. Leckstein and John M. Lamia Jr. expire Dec. 31, 2026, and both candidates are running for reelection. No seats representing Sea Bright are open on the Shore Regional Board of Education.
Candidates running for the two full-term seats are Democrats Leckstein and Susana Markson; Republicans Benjamin Perrin and Jeffrey Booker; and Independent (former Republican) Lamia.
Running for the two-year unexpired term (expiring Dec. 31, 2028) are Democrat Margaret C. Fisher and Republican Charles H. Rooney III. The seat was left open by the Aug. 17 resignation of council president Samuel A. Catalano. Council member Jeffrey Booker was appointed Sept. 15 to temporarily fill Catalano’s seat, but Booker is now running for his own full-term seat.
Amid the contested municipal election, the borough council also recently became involved in a lawsuit pertaining to a $2.5 million bond ordinance for a proposed bulkhead and flood mitigation project, approved by a four-to-one council vote with one abstention on Sept. 15. Leckstein, who voted against the ordinance, filed the lawsuit Oct. 2 against Booker and the Borough of Sea Bright.
This year’s general election will take place Tuesday, Nov. 3. Early voting began Oct. 24 and will run through Nov. 1.
Except for Leckstein, candidates did not respond to requests for interviews by press time. The following information came from online sources and previous articles.
Full Terms
Jeffrey Booker (R) currently chairs the Sea Bright Beach Committee. He previously served on Sea Bright’s council after his election in 2021.
According to a Jan. 3, 2021, InsiderNJ Interview, Booker is “a longstanding operative, campaign manager and political consigliere.”
“For the better part of the last 20 years I have been involved in Republican politics,” Booker told InsiderNJ in the 2021 article.
John M. Lamia Jr. (I) has served on Sea Bright Borough Council as a Republican since 2015 and is running for reelection this November as an Independent. Lamia told The Two River Times in June that witnessing the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy in 2012 motivated him to run for council in 2014. Although he initially ran with the Republican party, Lamia said during the June primary that, for him, the situation is less about the right party and more about the “right person.”
He said during the primary that two of his biggest accomplishments were the redevelopment of Sea Bright train station and the Sea Bright community center (Sea Bright, Cecile F. Norton, Community Center). Lamia would continue these improvements to the community center if reelected. If reelected, Lamia said he does not “want to give up on things put in motion already,” but that Sea Bright is going through exciting changes.
Marc A. Leckstein (D) originally served as a council member filling an unexpired term in February 2012, and was elected to a full term in November 2012. Leckstein served until 2021 and was elected to serve again beginning in January 2024.
He said the biggest priority for him would be a “focus on flood mitigation as we head into 2027.” More importantly, Leckstein said that he would focus on pushing flood mitigation “legally and correctly,” and “not just doing things to benefit a select few.”
Additionally, Leckstein said there is “complete inequity” in the funding formula for Shore Regional High School, which about a dozen Sea Bright high schoolers attend. Shore Regional, as Leckstein explained, taxes Sea Bright residents at what he sees as an unfair and disproportionately high rate that is determined by waterfront properties in Long Branch.
According to the borough’s 2026 municipal budget, 2025 school taxes (including local and regional) cost Sea Bright residents over $4.24 million. Leckstein said he would recommend a per-pupil basis for taxation and is open to renegotiating with Atlantic Highlands and Highlands to regionalize with the Henry Hudson Regional School District. “We can go back to the Henry Hudson schools and merge with them or deal fairly with Shore Regional,” he said.
A lengthy legal battle finally concluded in fall of 2025, when the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Borough of Sea Bright has legal standing to petition for withdrawal from Shore Regional. To pursue future regionalization with Henry Hudson, Sea Bright must get permission from the Monmouth County Superintendent of Schools for a referendum, according to a Feb. 27, 2025, Two River Times article.
Susana Markson (D) is president of the Ocean Ridge Condominium Association, residential representative on the borough’s Special Events Committee for 2026, and former assistant beach manager for the borough. According to an October 2024 Two River Times article, Markson has also lived in the borough since 1997, has worked at Donovan’s Reef, a Sea Bright landmark, for 17 years, and previously served on the planning board and library committee. Markson also served on the council after being “appointed to fill Maria Fernandes’ unexpired seat for one year when she was elected Mayor in 2008,” she said.
Benjamin Perrin (R) is a former chief and current captain with Sea Bright Fire and Rescue. Professionally, Perrin has an extensive background in real estate and development. For over a decade, Perrin worked as a managing partner and site supervisor for Hackensack-based general contractor DiCarolis Associates Inc. Since 2018, he has been a managing partner with Perrin Associates LLC, a real estate and development company, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Unexpired Term
Margaret C. Fisher, M.D. (D) is a first-time candidate for borough council with a longstanding public health background, specializing in pediatric infectious disease. Fisher was honored with the Pediatrician Lifetime Achievement Award from the New Jersey Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics in December 2025. She also chairs the advisory board of the Children & Family Health Institute and serves on the Board of Trustees for VNA Health Group.
Charles H. Rooney III (R) served on the borough council from 2012 to 2021. Rooney publicly expressed his support for the proposed flood mitigation project during an Aug. 18 public hearing. “Our battle is the river. It’s a no-brainer,” Rooney said. “Little by little, this town of Sea Bright, because we are a barrier island, is going to go under the water if we don’t do what we need to do. We need to really think hard about passing up this opportunity.”
Rooney is the son of the late Charles “Charlie” Rooney Jr., who served as Sea Bright’s mayor from 1989 to 1999.
This article originally appeared in the October 29-November 4, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
