McCormac-backed BOE Team Wins Election; Leidner Returned to Office

The only election in Woodbridge Tuesday night was for three seats on the Board of Education, and although it wasn't a municipal election, it proved the strength of Mayor John McCormac in Woodbridge.

That's because McCormac's BOE team - Daniel Harris, a legislative aide to Woodbridge Council attorney Craig Coughlin, and Board of Education incumbent Ezio Tamburello - were the top vote-getters in the election.

Harris won big with 9,568 votes, followed by Tamburello with 7,520. 

The third seat was retained by BOE incumbent Judith Leidner, who grabbed 6,550 votes. 

Leidner ran with fellow BOE member Lawrence Miloscia, who came in fourth in the voting. Only 58 votes separated the team mates.

Another big surprise was He was initially chosen to run on the Harris-Tamburello ticket, but was dropped when he revealed that he had obtained permission from the township Democratic Party to run for office in what is supposed to be a non-partisan election.

Capitano also said that he had intended to run for the Board last year, but was told not to on pain of having his son's job as a carpenter in the school district cut if he went against the wishes of the local Democratic Party officials.

Capitano received 6,089 votes in the race.

Woodbridge Township Clerk John Mitch cautioned that the votes are still preliminary since there are several hundred provisional and absentee ballots yet to be counted by the county.

Miloscia didn't expect that those ballots would make a difference in his fourth-runner status. 

"All it will do is raise the river for everyone. We'll still be in roughly the same place," Miloscia said. He didn't want those votes to bump him up at the expense of Leidner.

"I'd hate like hell to overtake Judy," he said.

Miloscia was on the board for 9 years, while Leidner served 12 years. 

"We're both fairly experienced in the whole operation. We're sorry for the outcome, but that's the way it goes," he said.

Miloscia said he expects to still be involved in the district by reading to school children, an activity he said he enjoys. 

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