Laforet 'Humbled' by Easy Reelection, Focuses on Continued Storm Recovery
See all Mahwah's local election results - DiGiulio and Roth win reelection to the council; two candidates separated by only 37 votes for the third council seat
While Mahwah’s mayor-elect Bill Laforet said he was “honored and humbled” to accept the top job in the township for four more years Tuesday night, his focus Wednesday will not be celebrating his victory, he said.
“The town is in crisis mode right now, and my work [on Hurricane Sandy relief] won’t be done until every resident’s power is restored,” Laforet said at a victory party Tuesday night. “I’m back on the job first thing [Wednesday] morning.”
Orange & Rockland is reporting over 1,400 Mahwah residents are still without power over a week after Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast. More than 9,000 lost power during last Monday's storm.
Laforet easily won reelection to a four-year term as mayor, according to unofficial results counted at Mahwah’s town hall Tuesday night. He was elected last year to finish the final year of a term Richard Martel, who died last March, was originally elected to serve.
Tuesday night, Laforet won about 63.4% of the vote, beating challenger Ed Sinclair 5,610 votes to 3,233.
"It is the most humbling honor to win by this large a margin twice in one year," Laforet said. "I am so proud of the type of campaign we ran. It lived up to what I believe the community expected from a mayor."
The five-way race for three seats on Mahwah’s township council was much closer.
The top two vote-getters, incumbents Lisa DiGiulio and John Roth, were easily reelected to their seats.
But, political newcomers Steve Sbarra and Jonathan Marcus fought over the third seat, with only 37 votes separating the two candidates, according to unofficial results. Tuesday night, Sbarra was ahead 1,904 to 1,867 votes. However, provisional and absentee ballots have yet to be calculated by the county.
According to Mahwah township clerk Kathy Coletta all results, including the close race between Sbarra and Marcus for the third open seat on the council, will not be official until after the those votes are certified by the county. Coletta said she did not know when those votes would be counted.
The three school board candidates who ran unopposed - current board members John Dolan and Christine Davis and newcomer John Ebanietti - were also elected to the Board of Education in Mahwah.
There were 16,348 registered voters in Mahwah in 2012. 11,150 voted in Tuesday’s election, at a rate of 68.2 percent. Last year, 41.6 percent of registered voters turned out to the polls.
Here’s a breakdown of how each district in Mahwah voted:
Mayor:
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
|
Laforet |
597 |
454 |
304 |
418 |
302 |
381 |
522 |
553 |
99 |
|
Sinclair |
299 |
305 |
428 |
172 |
204 |
254 |
257 |
162 |
143
|
|
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
TOTAL |
|
506 |
555 |
290 |
339 |
290 |
5,610 |
|
246 |
294 |
90 |
174 |
205 |
3,233 |
Township Council:
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
|
DiGiulio |
484 |
408 |
423 |
291 |
264 |
369 |
410 |
356 |
122 |
|
Roth |
327 |
320 |
335 |
209 |
189 |
225 |
310 |
182 |
103 |
|
Marcus |
176 |
180 |
155 |
114 |
121 |
112 |
213 |
149 |
38 |
|
VanDuren |
113 |
110 |
98 |
69 |
91 |
102 |
164 |
103 |
17 |
|
Sbarra |
197 |
211 |
228 |
92 |
143 |
121 |
153 |
124 |
71 |
|
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
TOTAL |
|
390 |
441 |
214 |
249 |
263 |
4,684 |
|
276 |
297 |
107 |
183 |
189 |
3,252 |
|
164 |
184 |
61 |
90 |
110 |
1,867 |
|
94 |
119 |
28 |
54 |
68 |
1,230 |
|
151 |
178 |
55 |
95 |
85 |
1,904 |
--
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Leaking Ink
12:06 am on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Congratulations, Bill!
Intimidated Citizen
2:05 am on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Hey Bill, congratulations on the victory By the way, I'm still waiting for you to return the infamous 26% tax increase you were so critical of last time around, yet you enjoyed the benefit from (and actually increased). I also did not feel comfortable seeing you standing outside my polling site like a mafia wise guy as I was going to vote nor did I appreciate your constant campaign calls to my home disguised as "updates" on the storm/ power outages. Your tactics are at best, disturbing.
Perhaps you are indeed a nice guy, but from what I have seen, your pattern of intimidation combined with your relationship with our police chief makes some of us uncomfortable openly criticizing you. Man I hope I am wrong. In any case, time will tell. Best of luck.
DB
7:43 pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
My husband didn't like Larofet there at the polling place giving snacks to the election officials. I don't think that is even allowed, and if it is it is completely inappropriate.
David Bagatelle
2:05 am on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Congratulations Mr. Mayor....very proud to be part of Team Laforet!
GRNM
8:38 am on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Great, now see what you can do about getting power restored to Eileen Dr. 10 days and counting.
hsr
10:29 am on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
congrats Mayor Laforet hard work on storm paid off. Keep up good work for residents. You out did other towns around here.
John Reiter
10:51 am on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Congrats on your win and thanks for your continued efforts to restore power to the township. Your communications during the storm's aftermath were welcome as were your attempts to maintain a safe halloween for the kids. It can be tough to manage multiple balls in the air at the same time - you did good Bill ... thanks!
AA
2:07 pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Congratulations Mayor!
JoeRobertson
5:16 pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
How in the world was John Roth re-elected? It is thanks to him that we will most likely be cursed with that mall monstrosity.
Andy Schmidt
5:44 pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Joe - the majority of voters don't follow events close enough to connect people to their role in certain township events. Mr. Roth wisely did not draw attention to the Crossroads history in his own campaign ads - and for the council seats there was no negative campaigning by his opponents (e.g., making that connection for the voters).
The only persistent mud slinging had been against the mayor, in the form of false rumors, innuendos, distortion of facts, attacks on the person, attacks on his perceived political affiliation, attacks on his business, etc. Of course, as those actors now found for the second time in 12 months, Mahwah's residents feel offended in their intelligence by all that negative compaigning - and punish the candidates who were intended to benefit from it.
David Bagatelle
10:37 pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Amen Andy....great summary.
A true Mahwah Resident
10:22 am on Thursday, November 8, 2012
Way to go Lisa!!!!! You should have run for mayor!