Manasquan, Belmar Vote Against Change In November Election

Today is a good day to be an incumbent.

Voters in Manasquan and Belmar joined the rest of New Jersey voters on Tuesday in giving Republican Chris Christie a second term as governor, returned their GOP state representatives to Trenton and sent their Democrats back to the dais to head up their small town governments. 

In the race for governor, voters in each of Manasquan’s four and all of Belmar’s five districts went for Christie over Democratic challenger state Senator Barbara Buono, a trend consistent with patterns throughout Monmouth.

The heavily Republican county exceeded the statewide margin of victory for Christie, giving the governor just less than 71 percent of the vote to Buono’s 28 percent overall. In statewide tallies, Christie garnered 60 percent of the vote to Buono’s 38 percent.

A Monmouth County Board of Elections map showing preliminary vote tallies is a sea of Christie fans, dotted only sparsely with tiny islands of Buono support.

Buono won only a handful of districts in the county, including one district in Freehold Borough, one district in Aberdeen Township, two in heavily Democratic Red Bank, three in Long Branch, one in Neptune City and several in Neptune Township. The state Senator did carry the city of Asbury Park and the tiny westerly town of Roosevelt, with a population of fewer than 900.

Voters in Manasquan and Belmar also gave their incumbent state legislators another shot in Trenton.

Manasquan’s four districts and Belmar’s five went heavily for state Sen. Robert W. Singer, the Republican incumbent, over Democratic challenger William H. Field, who failed to win a single precinct in the race for a Senate seat in the 30th Legislative District.

Preliminary tallies put Singer at 69 percent of the vote to Field’s 31 percent, according to county figures.

For state Assembly, Manasquan and Belmar voters overwhelmingly returned Republican incumbents David Rible and Sean Kean to represent the 30th Legislative District. Democratic challengers Lorelei Rouvrais and Jimmy Esposito lost in each of 82 precincts in the 30th district, according to county tallies.

In county races, Manasquan and Belmar also leaned with the rest of the county toward incumbents with all districts in both towns returning representatives to their county posts for another term.

Voters supported Republican Shawn Golden as Monmouth County Sheriff over his Democratic challenger Ruben M. Scolavino, 65 percent to 35 percent. 

For two Freeholder seats, GOP incumbents Thomas A. Arnone and Serena DiMaso were returned for another term.

Locally, Manasquan and Belmar voters returned their Democrats to the Borough Council, defeating GOP challengers.

In Belmar, GOP challengers Thomas Burke and David Schneck made a race of the election, with both winning in the northernmost voting district and Burke as the top vote getter in the southernmost voting district and Schneck just two votes behind each of the Democrats. 

Democratic incumbent Brian Macgovern and his running mate Janice Blackburn won handily in the borough’s three interior districts, ultimately winning the election, with 30 and 27 percent of the vote, respectively.

In Manasquan, incumbent Democrats Edward Donovan and Owen McCarthy won in three of four districts, with the highest margin of victory in the two westerly districts – voting districts 1 and 2.

The easterly districts – 3 and 4 – were far tighter, with just seven votes separating the top and bottom vote getters in district 3.

GOP challenger Robert K. Ferrante garnered the most support in voting district 4, with running mate Edgar A. Hyer trailing McCarthy in that district by just one vote and Donovan by just two, according to county figures.