{"id":23140,"date":"2023-11-08T01:48:52","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T06:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=23140"},"modified":"2023-11-08T12:06:45","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T17:06:45","slug":"crate-democrats-sweep-brick-municipal-elections-retain-control-of-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2023\/11\/crate-democrats-sweep-brick-municipal-elections-retain-control-of-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Crate, Democrats Sweep Brick Municipal Elections; Retain Control of Government"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_23145\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/crate_catalano.jpeg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23145\" class=\"size-large wp-image-23145\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/crate_catalano-1024x683.jpeg\" alt=\"Lisa Crate and John Catalano (Campaign Photos)\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/crate_catalano-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/crate_catalano-400x267.jpeg 400w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/crate_catalano-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/crate_catalano-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/crate_catalano-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-23145\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lisa Crate and John Catalano (Campaign Photos)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Election Results:<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"tablepress-6-name\" class=\"tablepress-table-name tablepress-table-name-id-6\"><span id=\"brick-mayoral-vote-unofficial\">Brick Mayoral Vote (Unofficial)<\/span><\/h2>\n<span id=\"tablepress-6-description\" class=\"tablepress-table-description tablepress-table-description-id-6\">57\/57 Districts Reporting<\/span>\n\n<table id=\"tablepress-6\" class=\"tablepress tablepress-id-6\" aria-labelledby=\"tablepress-6-name\" aria-describedby=\"tablepress-6-description\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"row-1\">\n\t<th class=\"column-1\">Lisa Crate (D)<\/th><th class=\"column-2\">11,054<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody class=\"row-striping row-hover\">\n<tr class=\"row-2\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">John Catalano (R)<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">7,701<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<!-- #tablepress-6 from cache -->\n<h2 id=\"tablepress-7-name\" class=\"tablepress-table-name tablepress-table-name-id-7\"><span id=\"brick-township-council-unofficial\">Brick Township Council (Unofficial)<\/span><\/h2>\n<span id=\"tablepress-7-description\" class=\"tablepress-table-description tablepress-table-description-id-7\">57\/57 Districts Reporter<\/span>\n\n<table id=\"tablepress-7\" class=\"tablepress tablepress-id-7\" aria-labelledby=\"tablepress-7-name\" aria-describedby=\"tablepress-7-description\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"row-1\">\n\t<th class=\"column-1\">Vincent Minicino (D)<\/th><th class=\"column-2\">9,412<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody class=\"row-striping row-hover\">\n<tr class=\"row-2\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Derrick Ambrosino (D)<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">9,384<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-3\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Steve Feinman (D)<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">9,103<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-4\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Melissa Travers (D)<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">9,460<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-5\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Mary Buckley (R)<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">8,651<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-6\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Theresa Gallagher (R)<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">8,892<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-7\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">James Palmisano (R)<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">8,698<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-8\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Rocco Palmieri (R)<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">8,628<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<!-- #tablepress-7 from cache -->\n<p>Democrats will retain control of Brick Township government following a resounding victory that marked the end of a bitterly-fought campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans, last year, picked up their first seat in municipal government in more than a decade with the election of Perry Albanese to the council. Tuesday night, the man he defeated last year, Derrick Ambrosino, gained his own seat on council. With the unexpected exit of popular Democratic Mayor John Ducsey upon his appointment as a Superior Court judge earlier this year, a mayoral race materialized at the same time enough open council seats put the entirety of Brick Township\u2019s municipal government up for grabs. Assemblyman John Catalano quickly emerged as a challenger to Councilwoman Lisa Crate, who was selected by her party to fill Ducey\u2019s chair and run for the remainder of his term.<\/p>\n<p>The campaign was visceral and personal \u2013 including \u201cfake newspapers\u201d being mailed out to residents on behalf of the Democratic campaign, attempts by Republicans to link Crate to controversial policies on crime and parental rights supported by many in her party (forcing Crate to take a position counter to the powerful NJEA union, where she serves in a leadership position), and similar attempts to link Catalano to a tax increase approved by voters in a 2011 referendum which occurred months before he was appointed to temporarily fill a seat on the council the same year.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, however, Ducey\u2019s popularity doubtlessly carried over in the form of support to his former party colleagues, with the GOP campaign largely failing to connect Democrat-linked state and national policies deemed unpopular in conservative-leaning Brick Township to local government.<\/p>\n<p>Crate\u2019s win was resounding, collecting 58 percent of the vote compared to Catalano\u2019s 41 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Council races were closer, however both incumbents and newcomers on the Democratic side bested their GOP rivals. No Republicans emerged victorious from Tuesday\u2019s races. The top vote-getter among council candidates was Melissa Travers, who won her first race after being appointed to the council earlier this year to fill Crate\u2019s unexpired term following her elevation to the mayor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fb-share-button fcbkbttn_large_button \" data-href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2023\/11\/crate-democrats-sweep-brick-municipal-elections-retain-control-of-government\/\" data-type=\"button_count\" data-size=\"large\"><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Election Results: Democrats will retain control of Brick Township government following a resounding victory that marked the end of a bitterly-fought campaign. Republicans, last year, picked up their first seat in municipal government in more than a decade with the election of Perry Albanese to the council. Tuesday night, the man he defeated last year, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23145,"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":[4893,4901,4484,3588,1599],"class_list":["post-23140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brick-elections","category-government","tag-2023-mayoral-election","tag-election-2023","tag-featured","tag-john-catalano","tag-lisa-crate"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/crate_catalano.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-61e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23140","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=23140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}