Politics & Government
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 during last Monday's storm.
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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.
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"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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