Councilman Michael DuPont contends that this flier, distributed by Republican Councilman John Curley to Red Bank residents last week, is a smear on his wife. [Click on flier to enlarge]

In a letter to the editor published in the current issue of the Two River Times (print version only), DuPont says the handout — printed on vivid green paper — defames his wife, Doreen, who gave birth to twins earlier this year.

As evidence, Dupont cites the flier’s claim that “Our new Mayor [Pasquale] Menna appointed DuPont and [former Mayor Ed] McKenna’s wife to the Planning Board. How cozy.”

On his first day as mayor in January, Menna nominated Christine McKenna to serve as an alternate member of the planning board for a term that ends Dec. 31. The nomination was part of an omnibus reorganization resolution that included several dozen appointments. Curley voted no on the measure, which was passed by the Democratic majority. Download rb_appointments_10107.pdf

DuPont, however, is not on the planning board and has never been, he says.

Here’s an excerpt from DuPont’s letter:

Councilman Curley, your lime-green letter endorsing your colleagues defames my wife with falsehoods and insinuations. You owe her an apology and the truth to the residents of Red Bank. Your lime-green letter is simply political slime.

But Curley’s handout does not make any mention of DuPont’s spouse, unless it is interpreted as meaning DuPont and McKenna are maried to the same woman.

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Red Bank Democrats swept the board in Tuesday’s election, led by mayoral candidate and Latin buff Pasquale Menna, who outpolled fellow councilmember John Curley by 101 votes in unofficial tallying to become the first immigrant Italian to win the borough’s top elected post.

Incumbent Councilman Arthur Murphy III won a clear victory over Republican rivals Grace Cangemi and David Pallister. Democrat Michael Dupont, however, won only after a review of absentee and provisional ballots gave him an unofficial 16-vote win to complete his party’s hat trick and preserve the 4-2 council majority.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I just got off the phone with Monmouth County,” an ebullient Mayor Ed McKenna told a crowd of several hundred gathered amid former clothing display racks and busted sheetrock at the former Garmany store on Broad Street. “They have Michael DuPont by a landslide 16 votes!”

The crowd, which had been waiting nearly two hours to find out if DuPont, a law partner to McKenna, would join his running mates on the governing body, erupted. DuPont appeared to weep.

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