East Brunswick voters elect GOP's Ferraro

East Brunswick voters
elect GOP’s Ferraro
EAST BRUNSWICK — The Republicans have gained a voice on the Township Council.
On Nov. 3, residents elected Camille Ferraro, who challenged incumbent Councilman Matthew Korten for a one-year term on the five-member council. Korten was appointed to the seat in January after David Stahl resigned to become mayor.
Ferraro, who received 7,458 votes to Korten’s 5,921, admitted she was surprised with the margin of victory. She acknowledged however that, like many Republican candidates around the state, she benefited from voters’ push to elect Chris Christie for governor over Democrat incumbent Jon Corzine.
Ferraro will be the first Republican to sit on council since Christi Calvano last served in 2007. Calvano had been the only GOP member of the governing body this decade.
“I didn’t think I had the name recognition,” said Ferraro, who recently retired from a 30-year career with the U.S. Customs Service.
Korten said that in the days leading to the election he began to grow worried about the outcome. He recalled that when he first ran for council in the early 1990s, he lost an election in which voters turned out in force against then-Democratic Governor James Florio. This time, there was a great deal of anti-Democrat sentiment due to Corzine, he noted.
“I sensed in the last few days of the campaign something big would happen, and it did,” he said.
Ferraro will take the council seat on Jan. 1 and will have to run again next year to secure a full four-year term.