Easy victory for WLB
unchallenged incumbents
Unusually high number of write-in ballots may have been protest votes
By Sherry conohan
Staff Writer

WEST LONG BRANCH — Mayor Paul Zambrano emerged the biggest vote-getter in the uncontested elections for mayor and two Borough Council seats last week, but many voters seized the opportunity to express themselves by casting write-in ballots in one race or the other.

Zambrano, a Democrat, drew 1,685 votes in seeking election to another four-year term as mayor. Councilwoman Janet W. Tucci and Councilman William J. Boglioli, both Republicans, received 1,618 votes and 1,569 votes, respectively, as they were returned for another three years in office.

In the election for mayor, 39 write-in votes were cast, including two for Arthur Cosentino and one for A. Cosentino, a presumed total of three for the stealth candidate who erected two signs in the week before the election asking for write-in votes for mayor, and whom Zambrano said he didn’t know.

In what might be construed to be a protest vote, Ray Rubman, president of the West Long Branch Sports Association and one of its three soccer directors, received three votes, and R. Rubman received two votes, for what appears to be a total of three for him, while Mark DeRasmo, vice president of the Sports Association and a baseball/softball director, received three votes, M. DeRasmo received one vote and M. Deasmo (sic) received four votes, for an apparent total of eight, for mayor.

Zambrano and the council locked horns with the Sports Association this year over both the installation of lights for the ball field at Valenzano Park and the use of that ball field. The mayor and council directed that a fall baseball league get some use of the baseball diamond at Valenzano Park and moved some of the Sports Association soccer games there to Sorrentino Park.

Boglioli and Tucci each received one vote for mayor, as did Borough Clerk Lori Cole. Councilman Richard Cooper received four votes for mayor, and Cooper, with no first name, received one vote, for a possible total of five.

Others drawing votes for mayor included Robert Peterson, two votes, and Bob Peterson, four votes, for an apparent total of six for the one-time Democratic council candidate; Irv Miller, secretary of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, two votes; Dina O’Hare, who is active in the PTA, two votes; and one vote each for J. Cieri, a former Democratic councilman; Matthew Tucci, Janet Perriera and Kathy Elfner.

Elfner objected to a Walgreen’s store approved for Routes 36 and 71.

In the election of the two council candidates, R. Rubman got one vote and two other Sports Association members received one vote each — Jack Kinas and Ron O’Neil. Susan Juliano, head of the fall baseball league, also got one vote out of the 15 write-ins cast for council.

Arthur Cosentino showed up again, with two votes for council. Irv Miller reappeared too, with one vote. Steven Warren, who once ran for the Board of Election, garnered three votes, and Peggy Warren got one vote. Mary Lynch, a former member of the Shore Regional High School Board of Education, got one vote, and William Lynch, a borough policeman, got one vote. Others receiving one vote are Susan Trocchia and Geraldine Fawcett.

Zambrano said if any of those receiving write-in votes were really interested in running for office, he wished they would have filed as a candidate. He said he wasn’t afraid of the competition.

"They had an opportunity to put their name in in April," he observed.

The non-binding question on the ballot on increasing the county’s open space tax passed by a 3-to-1 margin, with 1,046 votes for it and 336 against.

Those figures on the open space question were exclusive of the results from District 4 which were not recorded on the result sheet.

A total of 2,342 voters went to the polls in the election, which is 47.5 percent of the 4,885 registered voters in the borough.