Decisions await Florham Park voters June 5

Two three-year seats are up for election on the Borough Council this year, currently held by Republican Council President Carmen Cefolo-Pane of First Street and Councilman Scott Carpenter of Circle Road.

Republican Council President Cefolo-Pane and Councilman Carpenter are running for re-election on the Republican ticket, and the Democratic candidates are Peter Nicolas of Townsend Drive and first-time candidate Scott Orlovsky of Beechwood Road.

Both incumbents are seeking their third full terms on the dais. Carpenter joined the council in 2012 to fill the unexpired term of former Councilman Fred Boy and was elected to his first term on the dais in November of that year. He was re-elected to his second term in the November 2015 general election.

He is the Florham Park Volunteer Fire Department chief and has co-chaired the borough’s Environmental Commission and Recreation Committee. He also has served as a vice president on the Florham Park Little League baseball team for five years. This year, he is the borough council’s liaison to the Department of Public Works (DPW), fire department, police department, the Florham Park Memorial First Aid Squad, the borough’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM), engineering department and engineering.

Cefolo-Pane was first appointed to the council in 2011 to fill the term vacated by former Councilwoman and Borough Clerk Judy Beecher, who resigned in August 2011. She later ran in that year’s general election to fill out the remainder of Beecher’s year-long term. She was elected to her second three-year term on the dais alongside Carpenter and Mayor Mark Taylor in 2015.

She is this year’s Borough Council liaison to the borough’s Planning Board, Board of Adjustment, Town Center Task Force, Florham Park Senior Citizens’ Club, the Florham Park Chapter of the AARP, the Gazebo Committee and the Community television.

Democratic candidate Nicolas is running for the sixth time for a seat on the Borough Council. He has been active in the borough as president of the Florham Park Rotary Club, membership chairman for the Florham Park American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Chapter No. 5109 and lead docent for the Little Red Schoolhouse museum. Orlovsky is a a first-time candidate.

Where to Vote

The polling places, open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 5, are:

• District 1 and 6: Ridgedale Middle School at 71 Ridgedale Ave.

• Districts 2 and 3: Florham Park Community Center at 111 Ridgedale Ave.

• District 4: Briarwood Elementary School at 137 Briarwood Road

• Districts 5 and 8: Florham Park Memorial First Aid Squad headquarters at 60 Felch Road

• Districts 7 and 9: Florham Park Public Library at 107 Ridgedale Ave.

U.S. Senate

There will be a contested primary on the Democratic and Republican tickets for one six-year U.S. Senate seat  held by Sen. Robert Menendez.

The incumbent senator is being challenged for the Democratic nomination by Rahway newspaper publisher Lisa McCormick.

Running on the Republican ticket are former Celgene Corporation executive Bob Hugin of Summit and businessman Brian Goldberg of Livingston.

Menendez, first appointed to the Senate in 2006 and re-elected in 2012, is a ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

The senator was indicted in February 2015 on federal corruption charges. The trial ended in a mistrial in November 2017, and prosecutors have decided not to retry.

His Democratic challenger McCormick owns CMD Media, which publishes the NJ Today community news website.

Republican Goldberg served on the Essex County Republican Committee in 2004, and served on the West Orange Municipal Budget Advisory Committee from 2009 to 2011.

He founded The Empowerment PAC in 2010, and in 2011, served as the Joseph Chiusolo for Freeholder campaign’s treasurer.

Golberg, who manages his family’s small business in the decorative concrete industry, ran in 2014 for the U.S. Senate from New Jersey, but was defeated by Jeff Bell in the primary.

His rival in the Republican primary, Hugin has served as chairman and CEO of the Celgene Corporation for 19 years and has been a trustee for Atlantic Health System for more than a decade.

U.S. Congress

With the retirement of Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-11 on Jan. 29, slates of five Democrats and five Republicans have emerged to succeed the longtime congressman in the 11th Congressional District, which includes Florham Park.

Seeking the Democratic nomination are Mitchell Cobert, Tamara Harris, Alison Heslin, Mikie Sherrill and Mark Washburne. The Republican candidates are Patrick Allocco, Peter DeNeufville, Anthony Ghee, Martin Hewitt and Assemblyman Jay Webber, R-26.

Democratic candidate Cobert of Morristown is a former federal prosecutor in New York and chaired the earliest Fall Festivals in Morristown. He has served as counsel to the business owners who formed the Morristown Partnership, a Special Improvement District.

He also has helped protect the rights of the disabled, working with Community Hope and as a member of an ethics committee at ARC of Morris County.

Verona resident Harris, also seeking the Democratic nomination, runs a social work practice where she advocates for children and families going through crisis and life transitions.

Democratic candidate Heslin of Sparta is a scientist who studies and teaches about how climate change and environmental degradation affect communities.

Fellow Democratic candidate Sherrill has emerged as the front-runner in the Democratic primary. The Montclair resident is a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor.

Democratic candidate Washburne of Mendham is a noted long-distance runner and a history and political professor at the County College of Morris in Randolph Township.

Republican candidate Allocco of Denville has had a career as a concert promoter, regional director for the New Jersey Lottery and business representative for the state Department of Labor.

Fellow Republican candidate DeNeufville of Mendham Township is an adjunct fellow at the Center for a New American Security, specializing in Middle East security. He also is the managing partner of the private equity firm, DeNeufville and Company.

Totowa resident Ghee, also seeking the GOP nomination, served in the Army Reserves and holds the rank of major and is currently headquarters commander of the Army Reserve Legal Command in Gaithersburg, Md.

Republican candidate Hewitt is a lawyer from Morristown who has worked to support small businesses and advised members of Congress during the drafting of the Dodd-Frank Act to ensure that financial institutions don’t prey on investors.

State Assemblyman Webber of Morris Plains serves the state’s 26th Legislative District in the Assembly. He was elected to the Assembly in 2007 and is in his fifth term in office.

The 11th District includes the Morris County towns of Boonton, Boonton Township, Butler, Chatham, Chatham Township, Denville, East Hanover, Florham Park, Hanover, Harding, Jefferson Township, Kinnelon, Lincoln Park, Madison, Mendham, Mendham Township, Montville, Morris Plains, Morris Township, Morristown, Mountain Lakes, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Pequannock, Randolph Township, Riverdale, Rockaway, Rockaway Township and Victory Gardens.

Morris Freeholders

Three seats, each for three-year terms, on the seven-member Morris County Board of Freeholders are up for election. They currently are held by Freeholders John Cesaro of Parsippany, Deborah Smith of Denville and Christine Myers of Mendham Township, all Republicans. Myers declined to seek re-election, having accepted a job with the federal Small Business Administration.

The June 5 primaries will see five Republicans and four Democrats running for their party’s three nominations.

The five Republicans have organized two tickets — Smith running with former Freeholder John Krickus of Washington Township and Stephen Shaw of Mountain Lakes, and Cesaro running alongside Aura Dunn of Mendham.

The candidates in the Democratic primary are Mary Dougherty of Morristown, Rupande Mehta of Denville and Richard Corcoran of Boonton, running as a team, and Vanessa Brown of Mendham Township.

Incumbent Republican Cesaro has been a freeholder since 2012 and previously served on the Parsippany Township Council. His running-mate, Dunn, is the district director for the 11th Congressional District.

Fellow Republican incumbent Smith, a former Denville Township council president and councilwoman for 20 years, was first elected to the Board of Freeholders in November 2015, having worked for more than 25 years in private sector management.

Her GOP running-mate Krickus spent 12 years on the Washington Township Committee and served as mayor. A product manager, he also served six years in the Marine Corps and was a member of the freeholder board from 2012 to 2015.

Republican candidate Shaw, who sat on the Mountain Lakes Council for 12 years as well as its Planning Board, has been a small business owner for 25 years, working as a home builder.

In the Democratic primary, candidate Brown is broker-owner of Brown Executive Realty for the past 10 years and is on the Grievance Committee for the North Central Jersey Board Of Realtors.

Corcoran, another Democratic candidate, works for O’Connor Davies, a large regional accounting firm as a senior manager in the Litigation and Forensic Department.

His running-mate Dougherty, a Re/Max real estate agent, is the former head of the Morris County Democratic Committee and the wife of Morristown Mayor Timothy Dougherty.

Originally from India, Democratic candidate Mehta has worked for more than a decade as a market researcher/competitive intelligence professional.

The polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Primary Day, Tuesday, June 5.