MANCHESTER – Ken Seda put his hat back into the ring as a mayoral candidate having run against two Republican candidates four years ago. That race resulted in a run-off election. This year, he’s in another field of three.
Seda said that it has been an active campaign season already and he’s been listening to residents “who have had a lot to say.”
“I wasn’t sure if I’d be running but I decided to pick up the petitions and start walking and talking to people and as I did, I saw the brokenness in people. I said ‘I have to run,’” he told The Manchester Times.
“There are too many people who are just hurting and nobody is listening and no one is doing anything for the people who really need the help. That was my big motivator,” Seda said. “I’ve been a person of service all my life with a lot of organizations and government.”
“We want to get all the county, state and federal help we can get and not that we would stop doing that but we need a change in thinking. We need to take care of ourselves instead of relying on other people to take care of us. We need to start thinking outside the box, (seeing how) we can help the senior citizens who are living at poverty levels and facing eviction and having enough food to eat along with our senior veterans,” he added.
“It is the same thing for families who are raising their children and having to pay the mortgage and all these costs that are just skyrocketing as their incomes dwindle and jobs are lost,” Seda said. “We need to look at the resources we have from within. How do we help the business community? How do we help the senior community and the families and we need to think outside the box.”
Seda said one of the priority issues of Manchester is the high-density variances given out in Pine Lake. There are special interest groups “in bed with the MAGA Republicans and they don’t really care about Manchester. They have money and they are using their money and influence to buy whatever they need to buy to keep growing – which I have no problems with as long as they comply with the laws and not expecting the laws to be changed just because they have money.”
He said he reached out to a local leader and asked to talk to them and was refused. He added that the response he received was that the leader was a Republican and was working with the Republicans in town. “There has to be a reason why. It has to be about something they are getting. Those kinds of deals and actions will not help Manchester.”
“If they want something they should come to the table, the government and ask for it like any other person in town,” Seda said. As to future development in the community the candidate said, “what I would do immediately as mayor would be to replace the zoning and planning boards with people who would reflect the wants and needs of this town.”
“These people on the planning and zoning boards are selling out. They are giving these variances out left and right. The mayor and council are not the mayor and council in this town. The real mayor is George Gilmore and the real council is George Gilmore and nobody is holding this guy accountable,” Seda said about the head of the county Republicans.
He expressed his view that the members of the Ocean County Board of Commissioners were “puppets and the Board of Trustees for the Ocean County College is run by George Gilmore who is a MAGA Republican who was pardoned (on tax evasion charges by President Donald) Trump on the last day of his first term as president.”
“If the people of this town want more of the same and throw their hands up and say ‘we can’t do anything about it’ then they will have more of the same,” Seda added.
Regarding the township’s infrastructure Seda said he suspects there is a corrupt deal in the making to generate more building in the township. “I’m looking into it. I’m digging,” he said. “Somebody has their hand in the till.”
As to the idea of attracting a health care village and building a youth/senior center in the community Seda responded to the ideas as “very much needed but I think these are the things they do that sound good to get the voters to vote for them but in reality, these ideas are a way for the people who have money to make more money and have more influence.”
Seda talked about campaigning noting, “the Republicans in Manchester love the Democrats because they allow people to run unopposed. They don’t put up candidates. Both parties use a non-partisan form of government for their own benefit. It is very partisan but what makes it non-partisan is that anyone can put themselves on the ballot. They don’t need a party to do that. The Democratic Club hasn’t fielded a candidate since the club was formed so why do we exist? I met very nice and good people in the Democratic Club but the question I have is why haven’t you fielded a candidate?”
The Manchester Democrats have not currently endorsed his candidacy. He said that when he ran last time his parents were on hospice and he had limited time to campaign. “This time is different. I will be hitting every business, going door to door, visiting all the church pastors. It is a different campaign. It is door to door. It is people to people and I want them to know: I’m going to be your voice. I will be listening to you. If you want more of the same I’m not your guy.”
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