Local Primary Candidates Announced

By Jay Cook |
Registered Republican voters in Atlantic Highlands will have a choice to make for the best candidates in the June 5 primary race for municipal office.
But in other Two River towns, Democratic and Republican party candidates are running mostly unopposed. In some cases, no Democrats at all have stepped forward to run in the primaries.
The winners of the local primary elections will run under their party’s banner in the Tuesday, Nov. 6 general election, a midterm election which is generating national interest because all 435 seats in the Unites States House of Representatives and 34 seats of the 100 seats in the United States Senate will be up for a vote.
In the April 2 filings, it was revealed there will be a changing of the guard in Shrewsbury Borough. Longtime Republican councilman and mayor Donald Burden, whose mayoral term concludes at the end of this year, will not be seeking re-election. Burden, a Shrewsbury resident for 42 years, has been on the borough council since his first oath of office in 2003.
It is one of the many ways Burden has contributed to his small town of approximately 4,100 people. Burden has been a steward of Shrewsbury’s rich Colonial American history and has led the Shrewsbury Historical Society since 2004. He has also served as a member of the Shrewsbury Schools Board of Education, the borough’s Shade Tree Commission and has been a library commissioner with the Monmouth County Library Commission since 2013.
The primary election filings show that borough councilman Erik Anderson will be seeking the mayor’s seat as a GOP candidate, while the Shrewsbury Democrats will put David Dragonetti up for the position.
Of the 11 Two River-area towns with primary elections in June, Atlantic Highlands will host the only contested race. While the two options for Democratic candidates have been chosen, the borough Republicans are fielding four candidates for the mid-summer race. The small, bayside community tucked up against the Sandy Hook Bay recently had its borough council turn into a Democratic majority after Thomas Hayden and John Crowley won elections in November.
For the third consecutive mayoral election, Red Bank Mayor Pasquale “Pat” Menna will not only not face a primary challenge, but he’ll also have a clear path to another term unless an independent candidate arises in the coming months. Menna was last challenged in 2006 when he ran for mayor against John P. Curley, currently a Monmouth County Freeholder. The local Republicans haven’t put a challenger to Menna since then.
Historically, Monmouth County has primarily been a Republican-leaning county, and that shows in the Two River area. Three of the 11 municipalities will not feature any Democratic candidates filing to compete in their municipal primaries – those include Colts Neck, Oceanport and Rumson. There are no Democrats on the governing bodies in Colts Neck or Rumson. The only Democrat on Oceanport’s governing body is Mayor Jay Coffey.
Middletown Township boasts the only race where none of the primary candidates selected have actually been elected to office. Anthony Perry filled a vacancy left by Stephen Massell in November and Rick Hibell was sworn in earlier this year after Gerry Scharfenberger resigned from the township committee after being elected to fill a vacancy on the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders. The Middletown GOP candidates aren’t typical incumbents and will face challenges in November from Tricia Maguire, who unsuccessfully ran for township committee last year, and Danielle Walsh, currently on Middletown’s Board of Education.
Candidates listed in boldface are incumbents. Every petition filed for the June primary was verified by the respective municipal clerk’s office in each municipality.

Highlands’ municipal government is nonpartisan. Petitions for elected office are not due until Sept. 4. Two borough council seats are up for election.