MANCHESTER – Mayor Robert Arace recently told The Manchester Times that his decision to accept the nomination of becoming a county commissioner, was “one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make.”
This was in response to a political upset that occurred when the Ocean County Republican screening committee endorsed him and Berkeley Township Board of Education President Jennifer Bacchione rather than incumbent Commissioners Gary Quinn and Bobbi Jo Crea.
Originally it appeared they would be facing a challenge during this week’s Ocean County GOP convention. Quinn and Crea however decided to drop their bids for reelection this year, and are therefore expected to be replaced on the GOP ticket by Arace and Bacchione who are both closely allied with County GOP Chairman George Gilmore.
Gilmore reclaimed his party boss position in 2023. He had been pardoned by former President Donald Trump for his conviction for tax evasion.
Arace is 30 years old and has just completed serving his second month of his second year as mayor. He is the youngest candidate for such a county position. He ran in three elections to win the mayor’s seat and won it in 2022 from incumbent and fellow Republican Robert Hudak. Hudak had been appointed to serve the unexpired term of Mayor Ken Palmer who became a judge in the summer of 2022.
Manchester had a run-off election when three mayoral contenders, Hudak, Arace and Democrat challenger Ken Seda vied for the position but none received the plurality of votes required. When the two Republicans faced off a month after the general election, Arace came out on top.
Arace told The Manchester Times about his path to becoming a commissioner, “I was surprised. It all came about very quickly. I had some reservations about it because I actually love Manchester (serving as mayor) and there is a lot of work to be done here.” He works as a business and marketing consultant and works with mid-size to large companies on business strategies.
He said he and his wife Deanna sat down and discussed the idea when it was first presented weeks ago and considered what would be best for the town “and because of the team we built here and having the ability to have the representation at a county level that the town hasn’t had in a long time, after a long deliberation that it was at least worth a shot.”
The Ocean County Administration Building. (Photo by Micromedia Publications)
The mayor explained to residents during a February 26 council meeting, prior to learning that he wouldn’t be facing a floor fight for the nomination, that if he were chosen and won, he would be representing the interests of the township on a broader scale through serving as a county commissioner.
“It has always been this balance of how to continue to provide critical services that are necessary, keep the township quality insomuch as open space but also keep the township affordable. What I have found in the last two years is that the town hasn’t had representation regionally in a really long time whether it be on any county boards or for the Board of Commissioners for that matter,” the mayor said.
He noted in his prior interview, “I feel like some of the big issues of Manchester Township go unmet and I don’t always necessarily feel the county is distributing its resources fairly. So, in being presented the opportunity and trying to decide, with the team I have here and speaking with all of them I have decided it is the best for the town to fight for those resources for us.”
Bacchione, 52, has been on the Board of Health since 2018, and chairs the Housing Authority in Berkeley. She is also the coordinator of the Municipal Alliance. She has been on the Berkeley Township Board of Education since 2017, serving as its president since 2019. She ran for re-election last year and, during the same election that her husband, John, won election as mayor.
The two incumbents have years of experience within Ocean County politics. Quinn, a former mayor of Lacey, is in his second term as a commissioner. He joined in 2018 to succeed the late John Bartlett. Crea, 75, was elected in 2021 and previously served as the mayor of Little Egg Harbor. She beat John Bacchione among others in a screening committee decision that year.
This latest turn of events represents a continuing change of members on the Board of Commissioners. Last year the longest serving Freeholder/ Commissioner in the state, Joseph H. Vicari, retired from the board after 42 years in office. Vicari was succeeded in January by Gilmore ally Frank Sadeghi.
Quinn, 67, of Lacey, noted the rapid growth of Ocean County and has expressed that he no longer has the time required to do the job properly. He also wishes to spend more time with his family.
The Ocean County Republican convention will be held on February 29 and if Quinn and Crea had decided to run, various delegates from municipalities in the county would have cast votes for who they would want their nominee to be.
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