By Philip Sean Curran
SEA BRIGHT – Dina Long became mayor of Sea Bright in January 2012, a town she called at the time “the best place on Earth.”
Ten months later, her small seaside community was devastated by Super Storm Sandy and Long found herself thrust into the very public role of helping the borough recover.
“In some ways, Sandy seems like just yesterday,” said Long, who will be leaving office when her term expires at the end of December. “Every day, we’re still dealing with the recovery from Sandy. But in other ways, it feels like a lifetime ago.”
Long, 49, declined to seek a third term. In an announcement on social media earlier this month, she called it “an honor and a privilege” to serve Sea Bright, a community she came to in 2002 when her husband Rob, now employed in state government, became the pastor of the First United Methodist Church. Elected mayor in 2011, she also served eight years on the borough council.
“I’ve spent the last 16 years volunteering on the local government in Sea Bright,” she said. “I don’t believe in being a politician for life. And I feel that Sea Bright has come to a place where I feel good not running for a third term.”
In explaining her decision, she said she needed to spend time with her family and take care “of my own health.” She and her husband are the parents of a 15-year-old son, Sam.
“He’s a little nervous that he’s going to be the recipient of all my extra time and attention,” she said, letting out a laugh.
Long did not shut the door on running for some other political office, but said, “The political climate, the state of political discourse, has become so ugly and personal and separated from facts and actual records that I’m not enthusiastic about participating in that arena.”
“It’s too ugly,” she said.
Long, a native of Neptune and daughter of a professional golfer, has worked for some of the biggest names in New Jersey politics. A professor at Rutgers University, where she studied journalism as an undergraduate, connected her to people so she could work on then Gov. Jim Florio’s reelection campaign. She also worked for former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, Gov. Jon Corzine and Gov. Jim McGreevey.
She started her political career as a Democrat, but in 2013, she crossed party lines to support Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s reelection campaign. The move put her at odds with the leadership of her party, including then-Monmouth County Democratic chairman Vin Gopal, now a state senator.
She subsequently left the party and is an independent. She said she is “content to stay nonaffiliated.”
“Neither party is speaking to my values right now,” she said. “But I definitely think that I’m disappointed in the lack of civility around political discussions. It used to be that people could have different ideas and still be civil and even friendly to one another even though they disagree.”
Gopal said in an email, “Mayor Dina Long served the residents of Sea Bright with honor and distinction, leading her town through extraordinary challenges during Hurricane Sandy.”
Sandy defined her two terms as mayor, Long said. The storm devastated the 4.5-mile-long community that sits on a peninsula. Utilities were knocked out, homes and businesses damaged, roads covered with sand. The town suffered more than $18 million in property damage and “lost $60 million in tax ratable property,” according to a report prepared for the borough.
The community had to rebuild after the storm, which included repairing the old seawall and building part of a new one.
“For more or less, she’s the reason the town has come back as much as it has,” said councilman Kevin Birdsall, whom Long recruited into local politics. “She’ll be greatly missed.”
Other politicians around the county spoke of her leadership in Sea Bright’s recovery from Sandy. Monmouth Beach Mayor Sue Howard lauded the way Long handled the crisis.
“She put a lot of time in, a lot of effort,” Howard said. “She did everything she needed to do to help them get back on their feet.”
“She really was a true leader in a very professional, professional way,” said Thomas A. Arnone, director of the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders. “And she was stern and firm when she had to be. And she was compassionate and considerate when she had to be.”
Asked if she planned to support any of the candidates running to replace her, Long replied that she “probably” would make an endorsement. Democrat John Sanders is running against Republican councilman Brian Kelly in the mayoral race.
Long works as an English professor at Brookdale Community College. Asked how she intended to spend her first day out of office, she joked that she might show up at Borough Hall “out of habit.”
