JACKSON TOWNSHIP, NJ – There’s a new sheriff in town in Jackson Township after an organized effort by Orthodox Jewish residents in town was successful in removing key members of the Jackson Republican Club from the powerful Ocean County Republican Municipal Committee.
That committee controls Republican politics in town, which in turn controls township government as the committee chooses who runs for office and who runs the local Jackson Republican Club. That effort was organized by Jackson Township Orthodox Jewish community leaders Mordechai Burnstein, Tzvi Herman and Yehuda Tomar. It has been fully endorsed by Mayor Michael Reina.
Here are how some of the key races turned out:
Todd Porter, the Jackson Republican Club president and his wife Jamie Chau were soundly defeated by Justin Flancbaum and Kerianne Flancbaum. Porter has been removed from the county committee and will likely be replaced as club president in Jackson by the “Republicans for Jackson”.
In District 7, Burnstein and his wife Hadassah Burnstein won their election unopposed as the official candidate of the Jackson Republican Club. Tzvi Herman and Moshe Suissa both also ran unopposed in the 8th District.
Jackson Township Councilman Andy Kern and his running mate Carol Scull, both longtime Jackson residents, were defeated by Avraham Dov Auerbach and Michael Goode 66% to 34%.
Jackson Township Republican Municipal Chairwoman Clara Glory, owner of Glory’s Market and Council President Martin Flemming, owner of County Line Hardware, also both longtime and lifelong Jackson residents were soundly ousted by Meir Tesser and Tzvi Bruckenstein.
Mayor Michael Reina and his wife Laura ran without “Republicans for Jackson” opposition and won their uncontested election.
Longtime township residents and Republicans David Ossowski and Jennifer Ossowski lost 65% to 35% in their district to Yedidya Danziger and Yakov Saposh.
Longtime Jackson Township Republican leader Stephen Costanzo and his wife Kathleen Costanzo were defeated 75%-25% by Aryeh Skorski and Uriel Davoudi.
Michael Stern and Eiliyou Klein won their unopposed election in district 27. In District 28, Seriah Rein won her unopposed election.
In District 30, Aryeh Greenspan and Shaindel Friedman defeated Jill Farrington.
Former Jackson Township Councilman Barry Calogero and his wife Gina Calogero won their unopposed election in District 34.
Jackson business leader Anthony Canderozzi and Noah Canderozzi lost to Shimshon Heller and Rafael Englard 63% to 37% in the 11th district.
Yitzchok Weiss won the district 12 election and his running mate Yitzchok Weinberg tied Emily Arent with 44 votes.
In the 15th district, David Wolin and Iya Sokolin soundly defeated Christine Cromwell and Lonnie Cromwell.
In District 21, Jackson business owners Laura and Stephen Chisolm fought off and defeated Chaim Birnbaum and Moshe Moshel.