Red Bank Democrats celebrating at campaign headquarters on West Front Street Tuesday night. (Click to enlarge)
Democratic incumbents Kathy Horgan and Sharon Lee coasted to victory in the Red Bank council race Tuesday, extending the party’s domination of the governing body for at least another year.
Mayor Pasquale Menna, who ran unopposed for a second term, capped the slate’s box-out of GOP challengers Rob Lombardi making his second bid for council in two years, and GOP treasurer Joe Mizzi.
Preliminary results, excluding absentee ballots, showed Horgan tops among the foursome, with 1,479 votes, followed by Lee, at 1,448. Mizzi is show as having pulled in 1,317 ballots, with Lombardi tallying 1,297.
Mizzi and Lombardi, gathered with family and supporters in a Bridge Avenue storefront, conceded at 8:40p, forty minutes after the polls closed.
Over on West Front Street, where the Democrats had set up camp, Horgan said she had a message for all borough residents.
“We are here for you,” she said. “We’re here for everyone in Red Bank, whether they’re Republican, Democrat or unaffiliated. So please call us.”
Menna, having secured his second term as mayor, said he’d heard “bad news for Democrats” from all over Monmouth County. In Red Bank, he said, the party “has been able to weather a very difficult storm that’s affecting the rest of the county because of good government.”