Politics & Government

Local Republicans Try to Take Their Loss Philosophically

Tuesday's election blowout for the McCormac Democrats was a hard pill for the local Republican party to swallow.

Yesterday was a tough day, said Christopher Struben.

The Woodbridge attorney who ran as the Republican mayoral nominee lost by a 3 to 1 margin against incumbent Mayor John McCormac in Tuesday's election. McCormac's entire slate of council candidates trounced the Republican runners as well.

While it seemed that there was little good news that could be sifted from the election results, Struben was trying to take his loss philosophically.

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"You have to go by what the people wanted. They're satisfied with McCormac and his policies," Struben said. "You can't argue with it."

What stunned Struben was the turnout in his native Colonia, the Fifth Ward of the township.

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Forty percent of Colonia voters cast a ballot Tuesday, "an astonishing number," Struben said.

The Republican candidate was chalking up the turnout to the announcement last week that the township had purchased the land development rights to the Colonia Country Club for $6.2 million. The open space issue resonated with Fifth Ward voters, he said.

Struben lives in Colonia, as does McCormac and Bob Luban, the Fifth Ward councilman and the only Republican on that body.

"I thought I'd do better in Colonia," he said. "We're still crunching the numbers."

Future races aren't out of question for Struben, who compared his results to other mayoral races in the past.

The only time Republicans got over 28 percent over the vote in a mayoral race in the last 7 mayoral election cycles was when former Councilman Vinnie Martino ran against Frank Pelzman. 

Pelzman, a Democratic councilman, won the race against Martino, but passed away unexpectedly in 2006. 

"Vinnie got a lot of votes because people knew who he was. This year, I got 34.8 percent, and that's the most any Republican candidate has gotten who has run against the two behemoths, [former mayor and Gov. Jim McGreevey] or McCormac," Struben said. 

"We lost, but we've done better than any Republican candidate has in a long, long time."

The internal Republican party battles that culminated in an acrimonious fight between Struben and Luban in the June primary are still there, but Struben didn't blame the Republican organization for his loss.

"I would've gotten the same results if the party had been more active in my election. I don't blame them," he said.

Even so, Struben said he thought that the municipal Republican party needed an overhaul.

"We need young blood, not people who are just out for their own interests. I think that change is going to have to happen, or the party isn't going to be relevant anymore," he said.


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