Politics & Government

Point Beach Mayor Narrowly Wins Re-election and One Running Mate Wins

One of Mayor Barrella's running mates, Bret Gordon wins, but Phyllis Thomson loses

Mayor Vincent Barrella has won re-election by only 36 votes, according to Ocean County election results.

On Tuesday night, Barrella said that Republican Stephen Reid, who was challenging him, had called him to concede.

"We won the absentees and the regular votes, it was close," Barrella said, referring to him and one of his running mates, Bret Gordon, who also won.

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Also, Republican Wiliam Mayer, who is the municipality's bond counsel, won, according to the county results.

Mayer said on Wednesday morning that when his term expires as bond counsel on Dec. 31, he will not seek reappointment since he won the election.

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According to the county election web site, the results are as follows: Barrella, 812; Reid, 776; Democratic Council President Tim Lurie (who had filed late to run and then withdrew his candidacy before the end of October), 81; three write-in votes, with 1,672 votes in total.



This past Saturday, residents got a campaign mailer from Lurie that he was supporting Reid.

Council results are as follows, in order of highest to lowest vote getters: Mayer, 767; Gordon, 686; Republican Andy Cortes, 669; Independent Phyllis Thomson, 621; Independent newcomer Karen "Kitty" Stillufsen (who was not running on Barrella's slate), 217; Democratic councilman Frank Rizzo, the only incumbent who ran, 177; and Democratic newcomer Nick Mazzola, 144.

Barrella said he and his running mates went to the Woman's Club on St. Louis Avenue. He said he and Gordon went with Thomson, his unsuccessful running mate, who wanted to go to the Woman's Club to concede to the GOP.

County officials had said at the end of October that Point Beach voters had requested more than 200 absentee ballots and that more than 100 had already been returned before the end of last month.

As of October 2010, Point Beach had approximately 5,400 residents and 3,505 registered voters, according to the Borough Clerk's office.

This will be the second year in a row that Barrella narrowly beat back stiff opposition.

Last year he narrowly defeated two opponents and a recall effort. The recall effort failed by a vote of 829 yes to 1001 no, according to Ocean County records.

Barrella also narrowly beat Reid and Democrat John Dixon.

The results were: Barrella, 701; Reid, 591; and Dixon, 233. The 2010 council election results were: Republican Kristine Tooker, with 1,134 votes and Democrat Michael Corbally, with 994, votes won the two seats that were open. Republican Joellen M. Arrabito received 788 votes and Democrat John Morrongiello received 658 votes.


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