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.

Find out what's happening in Mahwahwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

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.

Find out what's happening in Mahwahwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"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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Text news tips to 201-706-1984, or email jessica.mazzola@patch.com. Get updates on the Mahwah Patch Facebook and Mahwah Patch Twitter.


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