Red Bank GOP Launches E-Newsletter

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By John Burton
RED BANK – The Borough Council Republicans are taking the message directly to the public.
Linda Schwabenbauer, Michael Whelan and Mark Taylor, the three GOP members among the six-member borough council, have begun distributing their own newsletter last week via email and Facebook.
“Here’s an opportunity for transparency,” said Whelan, “where we were able to get out our message.”
The emailed newsletter was distributed to about 300 residents, according to Schwabenbauer, names that were accumulated during her initial 2014 run for council, plus those collected by Whelan and Taylor and those from the Red Bank Republican organization, which go beyond just party members.
There have also been a handful of additional residents who’ve signed up to receive future newsletters after it was initially distributed last week, she said.
The newsletter, titled “The Bottom Line,” offers sections on such recent – and at times controversial – topics concerning areas the three council members oversee as chairs of various committees as well as other committees’ work. Among the topics discussed: the installation of new water meters and water and sewer rates; the ever-hot topic of parking in the borough; issues of public safety concerning police and the volunteer fire departments; what’s going on with the borough Parks and Recreation Department and its programs; and the status of the 2016 municipal budget, when it failed to win passage from the council late last month.
“People often asked us, first of all, for more transparency,” for what the governing body is doing, Schwabenbauer explained as to why she and her two colleagues started the effort.
“That’s the one thing we hear a lot, ‘Why are you doing what you’re doing?’” she continued. And with social media and the use of email, “You have a much broader reach with a newsletter.”
Another point, Whelan said, is the media’s shortcomings in presenting all of the details of an issue, with the councilman realizing “That’s just how media works, that’s the world we live in.”
“We have voted the same way, we have the same vision and we understand what needs to get done,” Whelan said, explaining it was only natural that the three would work together on informing the public.
The newsletter, however is not intended to be a political tool, Schwabenbauer and Whelan maintained. Schwabenbauer acknowledged one insertion of a partisan nature, in the budget debate. She said it was clearly noted in the newsletter that it was her political viewpoint. “I think the way to do it is to be clear about it: this is my political plug,” she said.
“I say it’s political. But they’re political,” countered Borough Councilwoman Cindy Burnham about the three Republicans and this effort.
Burnham is now an independent and running as such for re-election this November. But she was first elected as a Republican until having a public falling out with the local GOP establishment, which then failed to endorse her with the party ballot line.
Burnham has taken exception to some of the newsletter’s content calling some of it “false statements.” Burnham referenced the Republicans’ characterization of the debate over the installation of new water meters—which she opposed—and discussions over water and sewer rates.
Burnham said she has been relying on Facebook to keep her supporters abreast of issues and about her re-election campaign.
Schwabenbauer said the three hope to continue drafting and distributing the newsletter roughly quarterly.
An official borough newsletter used to be written and produced internally by Borough Clerk Pam Borghi. But Borghi explained that it was never used as a political vehicle and was eventually discontinued some years back because using the borough website, email lists and text messaging were a more efficient and timely way of disseminating information to local residents.