With incumbents not running, there will be multiple candidates vying to reshape leadership
By BILL BARLOW/Special to the Sentinel
UPPER TOWNSHIP – Already shaping up to be an unusual election year – with the decision by longtime Mayor Rich Palombo not to seek another term after more than two decades in leadership – the 2021 race for Township Committee has become more complicated.
Months before the June primary vote, the November election now looks set to pit three slates against each other. That’s enough to reshape the balance of power on the all-Republican five-person board.
Three Democrats plan to run this year, and there is a three-person slate of independent candidates also set to run. What’s more, Palombo’s longtime running mate Ed Barr withdrew from the race too late to be replaced on the primary ballot.
“I decided that it’s time for someone else to take the reins and run with it,” Barr said. He said he enjoyed his time on Township Committee, but expressed frustration with what he described as behind-the-scenes politics. “I’m an elected official. I’m a public servant. I’m not a politician.”
A retired police officer who spend 30 years working in Hamilton Township, he said he is proud of what he and other committee members have accomplished, including getting ready for what may come.
“We’ve laid a lot of groundwork for the future that doesn’t get to ink,” Barr said.
Former committee member Jay Newman, the chief of the Marmora Volunteer Fire Company, has launched a write-in campaign for the seat for the June primary, to complete the Republican ticket.
That leaves Kim Hayes as the lone incumbent seeking re-election. She is the only woman on the governing body, appointed last year to fill Hobie Young’s seat after his resignation from committee.
Young stepped down after an outcry over social media posts including altered images of Kamala Harris, then a candidate and now the vice president. The posts were widely decried as misogynist, including by Palombo and other members of Township Committee. Young later sought to rescind his resignation, but committee members held the resignation was valid and appointed Hayes.
This year, Hayes is seeking a full three-year term on the governing body, with Mark Pancoast running for the year remaining on Young’s term. Pancoast is a sergeant with the Ocean City Police Department, serves on the township Zoning Board and works with the Upper Township Football Association.
Three women will make up the Democratic ticket this year, with Christina “Cricket” Denton Brennan and Lenora Boninfante Kodytek on the ballot for the two three-year terms and Shawna Mulford seeking the one-year term. Boninfante Kodytek had served as the spokesperson for Cape May County and now works with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension.
There is also a slate of independent candidates working to gather enough signatures to appear on the ballot this November. They have until the day of the primary vote, June 8. Anthony Inserra, a former member of Township Committee, described the slate as “independent Republicans.” He said the team will easily make the deadline for a spot on the ballot.
Inserra won a seat on committee in 2012, serving one term. He said he is joined in the independent run by Andrew Shawl, currently a member on the township Zoning Board, and local businessman Jack Griffin, the former president of the Upper Township Business Association who had also served on the Planning Board.
That would not preclude other independent candidates from running, and there is a chance another candidate could also launch a write-in campaign for the Republican nomination.
