Gerald Halloran moved to West Windsor with his young family a year ago, favoring the rural environment over an increasingly overdeveloped Hoboken. Settling down in town, Halloran is now acting on his interest in public service, running for a Council seat this fall alongside Hemant Marathe and Virginia Manzari.
“I’m starting the next chapter in my life,” Halloran says. “West Windsor is a great community with many resources. I want to make sure the town remains an attractive community. Coming from Hoboken, I saw the damages that overdevelopment does. I want to make sure that damage doesn’t come here.”
The campaign is young and Halloran declined to discuss specific proposals or positions. The three candidates have focused on collecting signatures, meeting residents, and listening to their concerns.
“I’m very excited,” Halloran says, about “the expression and innovative ideas that Hemant and Virginia will bring. We’re mostly looking to have a discussion with the community over the next three months. We’re going to be talking about the future of West Windsor.”
Halloran grew up in Canastota, New York, a small village near Syracuse dotted with onion, potato, and dairy farms. His father was a quality control engineer for paving companies, his mother a teacher and an active member of the state-sponsored Community Action Program. She would educate low-income families on personal finance and how to navigate government programs.
After majoring in communications at SUNY-Oneonta, Halloran pursued a career in radio. He was an on-air talent for his college radio station, and after college he worked for a station in Syracuse and then for WKCU-NY.
At WKCU Halloran worked in the marketing and promotion department, and he eventually transitioned to sales. He currently works as an area sales manager for Santander, specializing in auto finance.
“I go to dealerships and I help facilitate them producing auto loans for customers on behalf of Santander,” Halloran says. “I enjoy being out and about, meeting people. This role gets me driving as far north as Edison, Somerville, and south to the Bay Shore area. I probably do 500 miles a week. It’s good, I love being out. Sitting in a cubicle gets tiresome for me, I’m definitely a social person.”
His wife, Susie, recently started a public relations business. She grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Having both grown up in rural areas, they did not want to raise their infant son in Hoboken. After living in the city for eight years, they considered the area was getting overdeveloped.
“We wanted to raise our three-year-old son in a rural environment. We were drawn to the open environment here. Lakes for boating, streams for fishing. Golfing is great around here, I’m a big golfer,” Halloran says. “It’s a great place to raise a family, it’s not overdeveloped, but you have the Route 1 corridor with all the amenities.”
The Hallorans live off Canal Pointe Boulevard, and they regularly take their son to the D&R Canal Park. The boy attends Windsor Happy School on Clarksville Road, and Halloran is interested in maintaining the quality of the school system.
While West Windsor’s municipal elections are officially non-partisan, Halloran’s slate is aligned with the Republican party. Earlier this year Halloran attended a campaign school sponsored by the Mercer and Monmouth County GOP. The program was in Freehold, teaching attendees the soup to nuts process of how to campaign, and there Halloran met Tony Davis and Ira Marks, both Republican candidates for Mercer County freeholders.
Through them, Halloran was introduced to Marathe and Manzari, and he decided to join their team.
Talking with residents has been Halloran’s favorite aspect of campaigning so far.
“Our role is to listen to them,” Halloran says, “And also to use our ability to compromise with the rest of the Council and move West Windsor forward in a way that benefits everybody.”
