Voters in North Bergen and Guttenberg cast their ballots on Election Day, with their governor, state senator, Assembly representatives, and county sheriff all being reelected.
Also, Guttenberg sent back to office their mayor and council members (who were running unopposed), as well as two of their three sitting Board of Education members who were up for reelection. The third seat was won by a parent with three kids in the school district, who edged out an incumbent.
For governor, Gov. Chris Christie, the Republican, won his second term, by a 60 to 39 percent margin, over State Sen. Barbara Buono, the Democrat. The results were a surprise to very few.
North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco retained his state Senate seat by a wide margin against his Republican challenger. He won 70 percent of the vote.
County
Democratic incumbent Hudson County Sheriff Frank X. Schillari won reelection by an overwhelming margin, receiving 53,447 votes countywide, or 71 percent. His challenger, Republican Fernando F. Villar Jr. of West New York, finished with 18,780 votes or 25 percent. Herbert H. Shaw of North Bergen was one of three others in the field.
State Senate and Assembly
As noted, in the 32nd District race, incumbent Democratic State Sen. Sacco easily warded off a challenge by Republican Paul Castelli of Kearny for the Senate seat, 17,968 votes, or 70 percent, to Castelli’s 7,586 votes, or 30 percent.
In the 32nd District lower house contest, Assemblyman Vincent Prieto of Secaucus and Assemblywoman Angelica Jimenez of West New York, both Democrats and running on the Sacco line, were granted their tickets back to Trenton by defeating their Republican opponents Maria Malavasi-Quartello and Lee Marie Gomez, both of West New York, who were running with Castelli.
Prieto topped the ballots, with 17,833 votes, while his running mate, Jimenez, had 17,230. Gomez and Malavasi-Quartello had 7,034 and 6,974 votes, respectively.
The 32nd District includes the Hudson County towns of East Newark, Guttenberg, Harrison, Kearny, North Bergen, Secaucus, and West New York.
Guttenberg
Mayor Gerald Drasheff and his Democratic council slate were returned to office in Tuesday’s voting. The ticket was running unopposed.
Drasheff received 848 votes, or 99 percent of the vote.
Council member totals were: Monica Fundora 801; John Habermann, 795; and Efrain Velez, 787.
“We’re obviously all feeling pretty good about the way the people are responding to the job we are doing,” said Drasheff, “and we’re going to continue doing what we’re doing.”
In the Board of Education election, Elsa Schwarz and Sari Zukerman retained their seats with 387 and 378, respectively. But newcomer Marisol Montanez-Acosta edged out incumbent Nadine Schneider for the third seat, 323 to 292. Montanez-Acosta is a parent with three kids in the school district.
Joseph Passantino may be reached at JoePass@hudsonreporter.com.