Maureen Holtje, a former councilwoman, and Jose Luis Vidal are running against incumbent independent Councilman Denis Gallagher and Michael Trachtenberg for the Democrat nomination.

Ayelet Weiss and Bart Talamini are running as the Republican nominees.

Gallagher and Councilwoman Beatrice Robbio’s three-year terms expire this year.

Gallagher was elected an independent candidate in 2006 with support of the Independent Coalition for a Better Edgewater (ICBE), a non-partisan group that isn’t an official political party. He and Trachtenberg were endorsed by the ICBE this year and aligned with State Senator Loretta Weinberg’s "Real Bergen Democrats."

Holtje and Vidal were endorsed by the Edgewater Democratic Organization and are aligned with the Bergen County Democratic Organization.

Holtje previously served threes year on the council, including one as council president. She owns a consulting company specializing in government purchasing.

"Traffic is a major issue," she said. "We hope to work with the county on that since River Road is a county-owned road."

She said there are some important projects that she and Vidal want to see happen if elected, including completion of the new municipal complex.

"We also want to get the zoning under control," Holtje said. "We get a lot of complaints about heights and side yards so we want to stay within the zoning laws."

They would also like to see additional ferry services.

"We want to try to get some downtown routes added and maybe some weekend service," Holtje said.

Overall she and Vidal want to see a big voter turnout.

"We hope the people recognize that the other candidates are putting on a masquerade to steal the Democratic Party in town," Holtje said.

Gallagher and Trachtenberg said they are both concerned with how the borough is being developed.

"There’s a failure by the zoning and planning boards to enforce zoning ordinances," Trachetnberg said. "Immense structures out of scale are overwhelming the neighborhoods."

Gallagher said it’s very rare to see the zoning board deny an application and when it is it’s not usually because of a lack of merit.

"We have a master plan that is being ignored," he said.

Trachtenberg also said the borough is ignoring its affordable housing responsibilities and harming the Palisades.

Gallagher said another issue is "pay to play" with appointments in the borough.

"We’d like to do away with that," Trachtenberg said. "We want to base appointments on price, qualifications, and merit."

Weiss ran for council last year. She was the only Republican to run on the ticket was last year. Weiss said her issues for the race this year are the same as last year because "nothing has changed, unfortunately."

"There needs to be an authentic two-party government in Edgewater," she said. "Without it there’s a continuous obstruction of justice."

Weiss said she has been rooted in Edgewater for 32 years and is concerned for the borough she calls home.

She called ICBE’s actions "disgraceful."

"They need to be removed from office," she said. "They have no place in public office."

Vidal and Talamini could not be reached for comment.