Brick Elects Ducey as Mayor

by Denise Di Stephan and Colleen Platt

When John Ducey walked in the door at the Democratic headquarters at Knights of Columbus Hall on Cedarbridge Avenue in Brick this evening, he was met with applause and cheers.

He told the crowd, "This is a great day for Brick. Brick is better off than it was just a few hours ago."

Brick voters selected Democrat Ducey as mayor in the election today over Republican challenger Joseph Sangiovanni.

When asked why he thinks he won, Ducey told Patch, "I think the issues were on our side. [Sangiovanni] was part of the team that raised our taxes 61 percent over four years. He was part of the team that threatened our services such as police and public works. He was part of the team that hired friends and family to work in Town Hall. He wasted $1 million of Sandy relief money to give to his campaign contributors."

When asked to elaborate on that, Ducey said his opponent and his team had three engineering firms go door-to-door to do surveys post-Sandy and that Brick was the only affected municipality to pay for that type of service.

"And all three of those engineering firms made maximum contributions to his campaign," Ducey said.

Ducey's running mates, Marianna Pontoriero, Paul Mummolo, and Heather deJong also bested Republican challengers Domenick Brando, and John Ciocco and Victoria Chadwick.

Pontoriero, Mummolo and deJong were celebrating on Tuesday night at the Knights of Columbus with Ducey after they all won election.

Pontoriero, when asked if she expected her entire slate to have the success they had, said, "I was hopeful the voters would know that we needed a major change. We needed a change for all the people, not a select few. And the voters recognized that, that's why we were successful. The voters benefit from this election."

deJong said she's looking forward to working with Ducey and her Democratic colleagues.

She said Ducey has priorities he wants to quickly put into place, including cutting eight deputy director positions in the township that were created in 2008. That move alone, deJong said, will save about $1 million.

"Those positions weren't needed," she added. "We're going to bring fiscal responsibility to Brick."

Mummolo said, "I'm looking forward to working with John on keeping taxes under control. That's what we ran on. We'll cut wasteful spending. We're going to look at everything to make Brick more efficient. We're here for the people, not like the last administration who was there for themselves and their friends and families."

Karyn Cusanelli and John Talty, defeated challengers John Barton and David Fischer for two, three-year seats on the Board of Education.

With 99.4% of the districts reporting, Ducey received 13,764 votes, Sangiovanni 8,446 votes, Pontoriero 11,136 votes, Mummolo 10,816 votes, deJong, 10,772 votes, Brando, 9,870 votes, Ciocco 9,985 votes, and Chadwick, 10,107 votes.

Cusanelli received 7,527 votes, Talty, 5,780, Barton, 5,043, and Fischer, 5,048.

For more information on the candidates, click here.