{"id":10871,"date":"2017-05-02T00:11:15","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T04:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=10871"},"modified":"2017-05-02T09:58:29","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T13:58:29","slug":"young-minister-launches-fact-based-independent-brick-mayoral-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2017\/05\/young-minister-launches-fact-based-independent-brick-mayoral-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Minister Launches ‘Fact-Based’ Independent Brick Mayoral Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rob<\/a>

Rob Canfield (File Photo)<\/p><\/div>Rob\u00a0Canfield graduated from high school in 2009. Less than a decade later, he believes he is the best choice to run the town he has lived in since 2002.<\/p>\n

Canfield, 26, a part-time youth minister at an Assembly of God church in Monmouth County, works full-time for a local dental services company in patient support. He said if he wins the election in November, he\u2019ll give up his job to be a full-time mayor of Brick.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main reason I wanted to run is to help people in a more meaningful sense, in a way more than is typical,\u201d said Canfield, who described his political beliefs as \u201cmoderate with conservative tendencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

His platform: use fact-based data to solve issues affecting the township, and make himself available to solve the issues of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be going out, being on the street, cleaning up garbage, whatever it is,\u201d said Canfield.<\/p>\n

In order to lead Brick, he will have to defeat Democrat John Ducey, who is running for his second mayoral term. Party sources have said internal polling shows high approve ratings for Ducey, who this year passed the first budget that reduces municipal property taxes in decades.<\/p>\n

Ducey, for his part, said he has worked hard to be as accessible as possible to township residents. He frequently meets with various neighborhood associations and civic organizations, and last year began live question-and-answer sessions on Facebook that have drawn thousands of viewers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s well-watched, filter free \u2013 people ask me whatever questions they want and I answer them, if I have an answer,\u201d said Ducey.<\/p>\n

Canfield promised to review the township\u2019s budget to see where more savings can be achieved, but promised not to cut public works or the number of police officers on the force. He wants to reduce the township\u2019s surplus account in order to pass more savings to taxpayers, he said.<\/p>\n

Canfield\u2019s primary issue, however, is tackling the ongoing heroin epidemic affecting Brick, along with the rest of Ocean County.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy approach to it is taking what we already have and expanding it more,\u201d said Canfield, promising to expand the HARP program, under which addicts can come to the police department and ask for help without the threat of criminal charges, to be seven days per week.<\/p>\n

Ducey said the program, which is offered each Thursday, is available seven days per week already, but Preferred Behavioral Health, the organization which evaluates patients and gets them into a rehab program, can only staff the program full-time once per week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone comes in on another day of the week, we don\u2019t turn them away, it will just take a little longer,\u201d said Ducey. \u201cIf they\u2019re looking for help, they\u2019ll get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canfield said if elected, he would want to lead a county-wide effort to combat drugs, which has already been a priority for Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would be trying to fight to see how the county could help, or how we could get the funding to expand it,\u201d Canfield said.<\/p>\n

As to his campaign strategy: \u201cdon\u2019t act like a politician.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that I\u2019m trying to do is just not give that aura of being a politician,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are sick of it. \u201cWe\u2019ll look at the facts, not blame anyone, and figure out what we can actually do and what we need to fight for. I will not be slandering anyone or sending out postcards about court cases I know nothing about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canfield said his youth should not be an issue in the race. In fact, he said, he\u2019d like to be an example of someone who is not the stereotypical millennial.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all depends on how you carry yourself,\u201d he said, of the age factor. \u201cIf you\u2019re actually able to offer something, that\u2019s much better than the stereotype of the typical young person who\u2019s angry over a few issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Ducey, Canfield will also be running against whichever candidate \u2013 Domenick Brando or Martin Ebert \u2013 wins the GOP mayoral primary in June.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rob\u00a0Canfield graduated from high school in 2009. Less than a decade later, he believes he is the best choice to run the town he has lived in since 2002. Canfield, 26, a part-time youth minister at an Assembly of God church in Monmouth County, works full-time for a local dental services company in patient support. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[2875,24,92,2874],"class_list":["post-10871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brick-elections","category-government","tag-2017-mayoral-election","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-john-ducey","tag-rob-canfield"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/16300036_373666862999471_5613784349223320027_o.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-2Pl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}