North Arlington – Republicans enjoyed a complete sweep in North Arlington Tuesday by carrying all offices led by a local surge that will result in a 7-0 GOP Monopoly come January 1st.
Incumbent Democratic State Legislators and county freeholders all lost North Arlington in what was a strong performance by the GOP.
Democrats will lose the two seats they held since 2017 and Republicans will enjoy a 6-0 majority with a Republican Mayor in Daniel Pronti (click here for the results).
It was a strange election cycle as no side campaigned for these expensive school questions while the two trustees seeking reelection, incumbents Michele Higgins and Heather Gilgallon received 929 and 789 votes respectively.
Both ran unopposed and either did little or nothing to make a case for these defeated school questions.
“Neither candidate made a case for these questions. That was apparent. It was if they knew they never had a chance,” offered on local observer.
“Dan Pronti, Kirk Del Russo, Lynette Cavadas and Donna Bocchino supported those questions and were able to escape any electoral responsibility. It was a political high wire act that worked.”
And the ballot questions they authored (NA BOE) and endorsed with the support of local Republicans were easily vanquished not once, but three times!
Question #1 was defeated by a count of 815-1,798, Questions #2 was defeated 747-1,841 and Question #3 was defeated 719-1,873.
The overwhelming opposition was obvious and there seems to be little if any appetite for higher school taxes and this should send the school board back to the financial drawing board given so little support they received on Election Day.
“The December referendum looks like it will be dead on arrival after this landslide loss at the polls. While those on the ballot did little, if nothing at all to protect taxpayers and homeowners, NA voters had no interest in this multi-million transformation of North Arlington’s public schools,” observed one former school trustee when asked to comment.
LOCAL GOP SWEEP
Despite their support of these school tax hikes, local Republicans Kirk Del Russo and newcomers Lynette Cavadas and Donna Bocchino were victorious.
Del Russo, who was making his second run for a council seat after being appointed last January led the field with 1,827 votes. Lynette Cavadas was second with 1,675 votes followed by Democrats Frank Marfino (1,249) and Thomas Hurley (1,215).
Incumbent Democratic Councilman Mark Yampaglia who has served for more than a decade was defeated in his bid for the unexpired term by newcomer Donna Bocchino, the daughter of longtime GOP operative Donna Bocchino by a tally of 1679-1314 or 365 votes.
Bocchino will assume office immediately while Del Russo will leave the Borough Council temporarily and be sworn to a new term of office on January 1st.
UPHILL BATTLE
Local Democrats had an uphill battle locally with Municipal Taxes remaining virtually the same while the majority was able to make numerous infrastructure improvements that made a competitive contest difficult.
“They took credit for everything,” offered one Democrat.
“North Arlington is a swing town that is trending from purple to red. The good news for Democrats is that there will be a council race next year and presidential years bode well for the locals,” said one observer when asked to comment.