A Rumson voter signs in at the Forrestdale School polling station Tuesday afternoon.
By SUE MORGAN
By 8p, Democratic Borough Council candidate Michael Steinhorn expected to have picked up his campaign signs, all 25 or so of them, that he had strategically posted around Rumson.
Ninety minutes later, when he learned had come in last behind two GOP council incumbents, Steinhorn was already gearing up to be an unelected advocate for more than 1,300 residents who supported his challenge to years of one-party leadership in town.
“They haven’t had a choice (of candidates) in 25 years,” Steinhorn told redbankgreen, echoing the central plank of his campaign message.
The other 5,100 or so voters decided to stay in the comfort zone that Republicans have provided them over the town’s 101-year history, a run of dominance so complete that no Democrat is believed ever to have been elected to borough office in that time.
Shaun Broderick won a second term with 2,537 votes, or nearly 40 percent of the total, and Council President Robert Kammerer trailed closely at 2,516 votes, or 39.3 percent, returning him for a third term.
Steinhorn’s post-primary running mate, Fred Blumberg, never made it to the general election ballot. He was forced to drop out of the race over the summer after he lost his lease on the home he was renting in the borough and moved out of town.
“I pretty much held my own with what could be expected in my town,” Steinhorn says. “I’m grateful to everybody in my town who did not have anyone else to vote for (during) the last 25 years.”
Mayor John Ekdahl acknowledged that Steinhorn’s challenge was a noteworthy variation from the recent past, as Republicans have generally had the abllot all to themselves.
“Our party hasn’t been opposed in about 20 years,” Ekdahl says.
Still, the return of Broderick and Kammerer to the council “was kind of what we expected,” he adds.
The town’s GOP had not expected now President-elect Barack Obama to pull in as many votes he did in Rumson, which largely went for GOP candidate John McCain, Ekdahl said. Cindy McCain was welcomed by some Rumson residents with open arms when she stumped for her husband in the borough this summer.
“I think (Steinhorn) benefitted by what seems to be Obama’s popularity,” Ekdahl said. “He ran relatively strong.”
Neither Broderick or Kammerer could be reached for immediate comment. They’ll be sworn to new three-year terms in January.
Meanwhile, Steinhorn says he’s prepared for his next challenge — to be a voice for what he called “the one-third of the town that has no representation.”
Most of that one third lives between the townÂ’s border with Fair Haven and Bingham Avenue, and are overruled by what Steinhorn termed the three “country club districts” nearer to River Road.
“The wealthier people are in this town, the more they are Republican and they don’t vote for anyone else,” Steinhorn said.
Voter turnout in the borough was larger than anticipated in part because of a highly promoted registration drive according to Jane Hartman, an assistant to the town administrator.
