RED BANK: MIRANDI & JACKSON CLINCH SEATS

Democrats Angela Mirandi and John Jackson at the West Side Community Group candidate’s forum last month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

As it appeared on election night, Red Bank voters elected Democrat Angela Mirandi and running mate John Jackson to the borough council last earlier this month, according to completed tallies.

Voters also overwhelmingly approved a referendum to change the town’s form of government and election process, and elected political newcomer Billy Portman to succeed Pasquale Menna as mayor, official results posted by the Monmouth County Clerk Monday showed.

Tallies for the council race, above, and referendum, below, as posted on the Monmouth County Clerk’s website Monday. (Click to enlarge.)

With all ballots – early- and election day in-person; mail-in and dropbox; those marked provisional or requiring “cure letters” – marked “processed” shortly after noon Monday, Mirandi and Jackson topped Republicans Mark Taylor and Jonathan Maciel Penney in the race for two council seats.

Of the four, only Jackson responded to a redbankgreen request for comment Monday:

“I’m excited to do what I’ve longed to do in Red Bank—serve our community in a leadership capacity. I also appreciate that voters based their choice on what they saw and heard of us, through our own words and actions. Angela and I will lead in the same manner in which we campaigned—with thoughtfulness and integrity.”

He said he and Mirandi had not yet heard from Taylor and Penney.

Mirandi was appointed to fill a vacancy in February; Jackson will succeed Councilwoman Kathy Horgan, who did not seek a sixth three-year term.

More than 68 percent of voters answered “yes” to the public question on changing the form of government in place since 1908 with a “council-manager” form.

Because the referendum called for an all-new governing body to be seated July 1, 2023, Portman, Mirandi and Jackson, as well as the incumbent council members, will have to run for election again in May if they hope to keep their positions.

In the interim, all seven governing body seats will be occupied by Democrats for the sixth straight year beginning January 1.

Voter turnout ranged from a low of 33.6 percent in district 9 to a high of 58.5 percent in district 1, with an overall rate of 43.5 percent, the clerk’s office reported.

Here are the tallies as the counting progressed:

	Nov 8	Nov 14	Nov 21
PORTMAN	2350	2414	2475
WRITE-INS	88	91	94

MIRANDI	1707	1753	1798
JACKSON	1688	1736	1780
TAYLOR	1551	1583	1625
PENNEY	1459	1483	1516
WRITE-INS	NA	30	30

REFERENDUM YES	2013	2066	2108
REFERENDUM NO	931	944	970

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