Clockwise from top left: Mike DuPont, Nancy Facey-Blackwood, Ben Forest, Mark Taylor and Kate Okeson. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
CLARIFICATION: This article reported results as of 11 p.m. on election day, and the outcome may change as mail-in ballots are counted.
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank voters went with four of five slate candidates in the borough’s historic election for charter study commission Tuesday.
But first, they said “yes,” overwhelmingly, on whether the study should take place.
According to the Monmouth County Clerk’s website, the top votegetters in the race were:
Nancy Facey-Blackwood 840 votes, 12 percent of the total
Mark Taylor 743 votes, 10.6 percent
Kate Okeson 689 votes, 9.8 percent
Mike DuPont 676 votes, 9.7 percent
Ben Forest 673 votes, 9.6 percent
By a nearly two-to-one margin, voters also overwhelmingly approved the formation of the commission in a referendum. With all nine voting districts reporting, ‘yes’ votes totaled 1,505, compared to 754 ‘no’ votes.
The five winners will be tasked with reviewing Red Bank’s 113-year-old form of government and recommending next steps, with a possible turn to nonpartisan elections.
Coming up short in the 11-candidate race were Scott Broschart, Jesse Garrison, John Gosden, Aimee Humphreys, John Jackson and Tom Wieczerzak.
Broschart, a longtime proponent of nonpartisan elections, was the only candidate of a five-member slate that included Facey-Blackwood, Taylor, Okeson and Forest not to make the cut.
Among the winners are two former council members, both lawyers: Mike DuPont, a Democrat, and Mark Taylor, a Republican.
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