MANCHESTER – With three mayoral candidates and six council candidates seeking four-year terms each, this year’s township election was a bit crowded and out of the ordinary.
When all the dust cleared, incumbent Mayor Robert Hudak won, receiving 7,570 votes in the unofficial vote tally representing 44.26% to challenger Robert Arace’s 5,354 votes at 31.19%. They were both running against a third candidate in the form of Ken Seda who received 4,186 votes and 24.4% of the vote.
Hudak’s team also won the two council seats. Incumbent Council President Joan Brush received 7,019 votes (21.9% of the vote) and her council running mate Timothy Poss earned 6,690 votes (20.87% of the vote).
This served as a political rematch between Hudak and Arace. Both are Republicans but Manchester has a non-partisan form of government that does not include a primary race but does employ petitions to get on the ballot and slogans to run on.
Hudak ran with the slogan of “Manchester First-Continued Good Government” with Brush who first came into office in 2017 after winning a special election to replace Brendan Weiner on the council. Poss is a member of the Township Planning Board and a Pemberton police sergeant.
Arace’s slogan was “The Right Choice for Manchester” and his team of Roxanne Conniff received 5,054 votes and her running mate Joseph T. Hankins received 5,105 votes in this year’s election.
Seda’s team ran on the slogan of “Manchester Deserves Better” and included Gloria E. Adkinson who received 4,198 votes and Karen Sugden who received 3,966.
Hudak, 45, a former aide to State Senator Diane Allen (R-Edgewater Park) defeated Arace by 14 percentage points last year, 57%-43% which represents a plurality of 2,100 votes. While he wasn’t serving as GOP County Chairman, George Gilmore backed Arace and Hankins, a former fire chief and 25-year police officer in last year’s race. Hudak’s council running mate was Michele Zolezi. She won by 1,305 votes 54%-46%
Despite Manchester’s form of government, political affiliation played a role in this year’s election as Gilmore backed Arace once again along with his two council candidates.
Township Councilman Republican Craig Wallis served on the council for 18 years and chose not to run for re-election. He and Republican Councilman James Vaccaro backed Arace in last year’s election.
Gilmore resigned from his leadership role in 2019 after a federal indictment and later conviction on charges of tax fraud. He had been pardoned by former President Donald Trump in 2020 and returned to his position as GOP party boss following a party vote on July 7.
Hudak backed Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy in the county chairman race against Gilmore who won by 13 votes, regaining the position he first held in 1996.
Despite Manchester traditionally being a Republican stronghold, members of the Manchester Democrats began revitalizing their dormant organization this year. They started holding monthly meetings, invited the mayor as a guest speaker, brought awareness of their existence during Manchester Day and held both a mayoral and council candidate forum that was open to each of the three slates and attendance by all residents.
They also got another slate of candidates into the race. Seda and his fellow council candidates are members of the Manchester Democrats. Arace and his running mates are members of the Manchester Republicans, a group that did not endorse Hudak earlier this year.
This race also divided sides in the form of Republican Assemblyman Brandon Umba of Medford who is in his freshman term and who was hired last year to serve as the township’s business administrator. Jesse Estlow, a former executive director of the Burlington County Republican organization was also hired by Hudak to serve as the mayor’s top aide.
Radio talk show personality Bill Spadea of 101.5 FM supported Arace on his morning show during the campaign and made several campaign visits for him in Manchester Township.
County Clerk Scott Colabella said that the results are preliminary and likely to change for a few weeks after election night as provisional ballots and last-minute mail-in votes are counted.
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