NEWS

Rockaway Twp. mayor pushes back challenge

LORRAINE ASH @LorraineVAsh

It was mostly a good night for incumbents Tuesday in 14 contested municipal primary races in Morris County.

In Rockaway Twp., incumbent Republican Mayor Michael G. Dachisen, with 1,103 votes, handily pushed back a challenge by Tucker Kelley, who tallied 886.

The top vote-getter in a field of seven GOP contenders for three Rockaway Township Council seats was challenger Michael Puzio, with 909 votes. A sergeant with the Morris County Sheriff's Department, Puzio told the public during a May 11 candidates' night that his day job gives him a unique perspective on a seminal budgetary topic of the day—shared services.

"I come from the agency that is the epitome of shared services, the sheriff's department," he said. "They're an assisting agency and, in my 20 years, I have watched my agency assist all 39 municipalities when they had a crime, motor vehicle accidents, bomb calls."

However, incumbent council members Paul Minenna and Max Rogers, teamed together on the ballot with Puzio, were not triumphant. Placing second was incumbent council member Jeremy Jedynak with 897 votes and Patricia Abrahamsen with 877.

In the GOP Rockaway Borough mayoral primary, incumbent Mayor Russell Greuter, with 193 votes, and incumbent council member Joseph Vicente, with 156, trounced GOP challenger Tracy Casiano, with 59 votes. A three-way GOP race for two council seats saw Patrick McDonald winning with 254 votes, trailed by incumbent council member John Willer, Jr., with 227 votes, and challenger Louis Spadafora with 171.

Other notable highlights include Ward 3 tallies in Roxbury, where Republican GOP council member Fred Hall gained 124 votes, while, on the Democratic side, Aaron Markworth, a member of the Roxbury Environmental Action CoaliTion (REACT), tallied 31. The result is notable, given Markworth's activism. REACT is a grassroots group active in issues surrounding the 104-acre Fenimore Landfill, capped by the state Department of Environmental Protection to prevent the emission of bad-smelling hydrogen sulfide.

In the Chatham Township Republican mayoral contest, challenger Katherine Abbott did not upset incumbent Mayor Kevin Sullivan, who got 721 votes to Abbott's 553.

Similarly, in Florham Park, GOP incumbent Mayor Mark Taylor outpaced a challenge from former council member Charles Germershausen, 478 to 412.

There was an upset in Montville where Frank Cooney beat incumbent Donald Kostka in the GOP race for a committee seat, 1,057 to 675.

Five towns — Jefferson, Lincoln Park, Mountain Lakes, Pequannock, and Randolph — had no candidate races.

Lorraine Ash: 973-428-6660; lash@gannettnj.com