In a reprise of one of his nastiest fights as a member of the Red Bank Council, John Curley says that “scumbags” and “vermin” associated with former Mayor Ed McKenna are trying to undermine his candidacy for Monmouth County Freeholder with misrepresentations.

In a story on PolitickerNJ.com, Curley says a flier sent to voters in recent days that blames him for a $400,000 increase in taxes in 2006 is the work of a McKenna-led political action committee.

From the report:

“Some people believe what they read in a political flyer, but this only goes to show what kind of scumbags we’re dealing with when it comes to (former Red Bank Mayor) Ed McKenna and his Monmouth County Mayors Leadership PAC.

“They are vermin,” Curley added of the former mayor’s fundraising arm. “They are a bunch of dirtbag skeeves, and you can quote me on that.”

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Grace Cangemi at home on Rector Place.

On Nov. 4, Red Bank voters will have four ballot choices for two seats on the borough council, now composed of four Democrats and two Republicans.

Both open seats, by happenstance, are held by Republicans: Grace Cangemi, who is running for re-election, and James Giannell, who is not running; he’s serving out the tail end of the term from which freeholder candidate John Curley resigned in July.

This week, redbankgreen is posting interviews with each of the candidates. Instead of transcripts, we’ve got the complete audio. The interviews are between 22 and 33 minutes in length. [See the editor’s note at bottom of story.]

The interviews are not meant to be literal head-to-head comparisons. Rather, they cover some common issues — including taxes, a community center and healthcare coverage for the mayor and council — while exploring each candidate’s own experiences a bit in order to shed some light on who they are and how they think.

We’re running them in reverse alphabetical order; Democrat Ed Zipprich’s interview ran Monday; Republican John Tyler Jr. was featured Tuesday, and Democrat Juanita Lewis was spotlighted Wednesday.

Today, in our final installment, we spotlight Cangemi.

Mary Grace Cangemi is the only incumbent in this year’s Red Bank council race, but also the only one now wrapping up her third campaign for the governing body in three years.

“Apparently, I love to run,” she says with a laugh.

A mortgage broker by day, Cangemi says without sarcasm that she loves the business of the council — interacting with residents and borough hall employees, trying to solve problems. And the coming year, she believes, will bring a slew of problems in the form of financial challenges that haven’t been experienced in a long time.

“I think we are looking at a year when we’re going to have to make some very hard decisions,” she says. That means, she says, looking public employees in the eye and telling them that even though they may deserve a raise, taxpayers can’t take on any more costs, so they’ll have to wait.

“Otherwise, we have to look our residents in the face and tell them, ‘I don’t know how you’re going to afford to live here,'” she says.

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