An independent incumbent and her running mate will try and defeat two Democrats and two Republicans this year to try to get three independents back on the Council for only the second time in borough history.
Democrats Maureen Holtje and Jose Luis Vidal and Republicans Ayelet Weiss and Bart Talamini won the June 3 primary election and will be joined on the ballot by independents Beatrice Robbio, an incumbent, and Christina Zitis. The deadline for independent candidates to file for the November ballot was June 3.
Holtje, a former councilwoman, and Vidal received 458 and 452 votes, respectively, to defeat incumbent Councilman Denis Gallagher and Michael Trachtenberg, who had 370 and 342, respectively. Gallagher and Trachtenberg ran in affiliation with the Real Bergen Democrats. Weiss and Talamini ran unopposed and received 42 votes each.
Council President Neda Rose, a Democrat, said the Party was thrilled with the results.
"The public spoke loud and clear," Rose said. "And I think they said they're pleased with the direction the borough is going in."
Talamini, who has worked on family members’ political campaigns in Fairview, said he wants to focus on getting more police hired and give more support to the borough’s fire department and volunteer ambulance corps.
"We need that," he said.
Vidal, who served on the Palisades Park Borough Council in the mid-1990s, said he will focus on issues like traffic, taxes, and responsible growth if elected.
"We want to continue to see Edgewater prosper the way it has in the last 10 to 15 years," he said. "Edgewater is definitely a success story."
Gallagher and Robbio were previously elected as independents with the support of the Independent Coalition for a Better Edgewater, a non-partisan group of citizens who many consider to be the rival of the Edgewater Democratic Organization (EDO), in 2005.
Members of the EDO criticized Gallagher and Trachtenberg for running as Democrats, but they defended themselves by saying the EDO does not serve the public’s interests.
"Frankly, I’m disappointed with the results," Gallagher said.
Gallagher hasn’t decided if he will run for Council again.
Robbio said the biggest point for her running is to "lift the cover" on a culture of corruption. She said two former mayors have gone to jail and that the borough hired a grant attorney headed by two former felons.
"We have a Zoning Board attorney [Dennis Oury] under federal investigation and a borough attorney [Phil Boggia] who displayed a serious breach of ethics by not informing the Council of major lawsuit," Robbio said.
