Rizzo and Lane win the two Neptune Committee seats by a wide margin.
RIZZO: 3,885
LANE: 3,784
HOGAN: 2,162
MOLL: 2,013
Ocean Grove is districts 1,2, and 3, out of a total of 20.
Ocean Grove voting:
Rizzo: 459
Lane: 411
Hogan: 370
Moll: 246
So, the two incumbents won in OG despite the fact that they and their colleagues have essentially ignored Ocean Grove in their policies.
In the 4 Shark River Hills districts, Moll and Hogan beat Rizzo and Lane, but the Midtown districts rolled over the Repubs by wide margins.
For example in Midtown south, Moll and Hogan got 19 votes combined, while the two Dems got 521.
This one sided election provides even more justification for secession because the chances of having even-handed representative government for many Neptune citizens are minuscule.
You, our readers, can comment and tell us what you think about these results. And for those who voted for the incumbents how about telling us why. You can do that using your actual names or pseudonyms.
Meanwhile, if you cared enough to vote, then you might consider attending Township Committee meetings to see for yourselves what single party rule is doing to Ocean Grove.
Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net
Original Broadway Cast: “The Bum Won.”
Bryan A ,
If, as you suggest, the bigger the Town the lower the taxes, then New York City would have the lowest taxes in the country.
Grovers need to do a study regarding secession.
Blogfinger: I understand your concerns about one party rule, but what is the alternative? Even if Neptune had a ward system where OG elected their own committee person, the Democratic candidate still would have won.
As for secession: A lot of towns are combining services and seeing tax savings. Secession would be a move in the opposite direction of the current trend ,and I doubt Ocean Grovers would be in favor of it once they saw the potential increase to their property taxes.
Bryan A: You are correct. As Annie Lennox once said, “Some people like to be abused.”
Bryan: About 700 OG voters cast 2 votes each. This is not even close to a majority of eligible voters in town. So you really can’t draw conclusions about the “general population of Ocean Grove.”
But even if you are correct in believing that most people in the Grove would have supported Rizzo and Lane, the system is flawed for those of us who do not agree with the one party rule Committee which has such power over us. In a democracy for all the people, there has to be a system where everyone can feel represented even when in a minority. A good example would be Congress.
In Ocean Grove, many of us feel helpless regarding some of our lifestyle issues such as taxes, land development, zoning, and parking.
The problem here is that the governance situation is bizarre given the presence of the powerful Camp Meeting Association, the indifference towards us at the Mother Ship, and domination by most Neptune voters who may not care about our concerns. At the last referendum for secession in 1985, Neptuners refused to vote to allow us to split.
Shark River Hills voted mostly for Hogan and Moll, yet, despite their majority opinion, they are stuck, as we are, by dominant one party rule.
Only secession will bring comfort to all the citizens of Ocean Grove (perhaps joined by SRH.)
–Paul @Blogfinger
It appears that Rizzo and Lane are the preferred candidates of Ocean Grove. Perhaps the concerns this blog has with those candidates are not shared with the general population of OG.
The Republicans come around once a year and put their names on the ballot.
That’s all they do.
Of course they always lose.
I am a registered Republican who is very disheartened by the Local Republican Party.
This is a dark day for OG. Two people with the clear intent of violating the law to rape OG for the benefit of the rest of Neptune have won reelection.
To have a Township Committee member that has withheld a document from the public that shows violations of law clearly shows a failure in equal representation.