Fried
Mayor Dave Fried keeps his seat in Robbinsville
From the top of the ballot down, Election Day did not hold much drama in Robbinsville.
Incumbent Dave Fried won his third term as mayor, beating Dave Boyne by nearly 19 percentage points. Results from the Mercer County clerk’s office had Fried outpacing Boyne, 2,383-1,631. Eight voters wrote in a candidate.
“When you think about the margins of elections, you always look at the numbers,” Fried said. “I think that really speaks to the fact that the residents do feel we’re moving in the right direction, especially in an era where people are so disenfranchised with government. Most people dislike government right now, and dislike what’s going on in government. The fact that our residents responded so positively to us this election, in the light of what they’re feeling overall about government in general I think was a good thing, and a testament not only to me but all the staff we have in the town.”
Fried has been mayor since 2005, and has been involved with municipal government for more than a decade, including stints on the planning board and as a township committeeman and councilman. It was Boyne’s first run for mayor. The challenger will return to his seat on township council, where he has two years remaining on his term.
Joining Boyne there will be Vince Calcagno and Sheree McGowan. The incumbent council members won new four-year terms, each besting former councilman Dennis Shennard. Calacagno led all council candidates with 2,502 votes, followed by McGowan (2,170) and Shennard (1,684).
The two winners joined Fried as a slate during the campaign.
“I’m very happy,” Fried said. “I’m also pleased the township responded to what was really a positive campaign that we ran. We really tried to keep this about the issues, and what we were going to do for the future.”
(The Advance had an extensive conversation with Fried about his vision for Robbinsville’s future, details of which will be published in the January 2014 edition of the newspaper.)
Three Board of Education seats went uncontested, handing new three-year terms to Thomas Halm, Jr., Keith Kochberg and Matthew O’Grady.
The closest races of Election Day were in the state’s 14th Legislative District, which includes Robbinsville. Democratic state Sen. Linda Greenstein had a 1,483-vote lead on Republican Peter Inverso, the retiring CEO of Roma Bank and a former state senator himself. Greenstein enjoyed wider support in her home county of Middlesex, but won Mercer County by just 540 votes. The 14th District includes East Windsor, Hamilton, Hightstown and Robbinsville in Mercer.
Robbinsville went even stronger against the incumbent, handing Greenstein 1,655 votes to Inverso’s 2,169, a 514-vote decision in favor of the Republican challenger. The township also preferred the Republican state assembly candidates—Steve Cook and Ron Haas—to Democratic incumbents Dan Benson and Wayne DeAngelo.
Overall, though, DeAngelo and Benson held about a 4-percentage point gap on Republican Steve Cook, the nearest challenger. Election Day tallies in Middlesex County actually had Cook receiving three more votes than Benson, but revised results swung in favor of Benson. Mercer County never was in doubt for Benson, the second highest vote-getter, who beat third-place Cook by more than 2,000 votes here. Republican Ron Hass finished in a distant fourth, 2,000 votes behind Cook and nearly 6,000 votes behind DeAngelo.
Also on the state level, incumbent Gov. Chris Christie won re-election soundly, besting Democrat Barbara Buono by 22 percentage points overall. Christie won Robbinsville even more handily, with a 42-point gap.
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