GOP FLOATS THREE TO SUCCEED HALFACRE
Two sitting council members and a former member are the nominees to fill the empty seat of former Fair Haven Mayor Mike Halfacre, who resigned last month to take a job in the Christie Administration.
The local Republican Committee last week submitted the names of Council President Jon Peters, Councilman Ben Lucarelli and former Council President Andrew Trocchia to fill out the 2012 portion of the two years remaining on Halfacre’s term, committee chairman Rich Magovern tells redbankgreen.
The borough council, though it meets tonight, has scheduled a special meeting to select a new mayor from among the three on Monday, February 20 at 7 p.m. 5 p.m.
Magovern, himself a former councilman, tells that he’d “feel confident with any of the three” nominees taking the center seat on the council dais. Fair Haven’s mayor is allowed a vote only to break a tie.
Halfacre, a lifelong borough resident in his second term as mayor, resigned January 25 to take the top job at the state stateĀ Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
If either Lucarelli or Peters gets the nod, the local GOP will have to go back to the drawing board and find a replacement for his council seat, Magovern said.