Toms River, NJ—The Toms River Democrats have replaced Susan Payne Gato on the November ballot for the Ward 2 election with a far more progressive liberal candidate. The move comes after Gato, according to party insiders, was seen as too moderate by Democrats aligned with former Mayor Maurice Hill, Terrance Turnbach, and Laurie Hawryk.
All three of those politicians no longer serve in office after residents rallied against their plans to turn downtown Toms River into a small city.
The announcement was made days after Rodrick announced he had killed that team’s plan to build a massive downtown apartment hi-rise project.
A former intern of U.S. Senator Cory Booker, Zachary Dougherty, was named as Gato’s replacement, even though Gato won the party’s June primary election and after seeing that Gato had polled poorly against William Byrne, Democrats, like those at the national level, pulled the plug on Gato’s campaign.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Dougherty works as a community organizer at the League of Women Voters of New Jersey. He previously interned for New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker until last May. He previously interned for U.S. Democrat Congressman Andy Kim.
He served as vice chair and president of the New Jersey High School Democrats and was a county recruiter for Governor Phil Murphy’s campaign.
Last month, Doughtery and his organization pushed to register 600 new citizens to vote after a historic immigrant citizenship ceremony in Trenton.
