Democratic municipal officials were in a celebratory mood Tuesday evening as they awaited the news of this year’s Borough Council and mayoral races.
The big winner of the night was Mayor Gayle Brill Mittler, who beat off two challengers for her post. Republican Herbert Gross was joined by independent candidate Bruno Oriti in an unsuccessful attempt to unseat the mayor. Mayor Brill Mittler’s resounding victory totaled 2,269 votes to 565 votes for Mr Gross and 337 votes for Mr Oriti.
The Save Our Schools slate of candidates were victorious over the Unite Highland Park candidates in Highland Park’s other hotly contested election. In the school board race, a total of seven candidates ran for three seats. Anne Gowen, Michelle McFadden-DiNicola and Rob Roslewicz ran under the banner of Support Our Schools Highland Park; and Don Corr, Jordan Siegel and incumbent Ashley Wharton ran as Unite Highland Park. The seventh candidate, Michael Greenberg, fielded his own candidacy. Ms. Gowen was the big vote getter with a nearly two to one margin over the leading candidate in the other slate.
As the victor in the three-way race, Mayor Brill Mittler will fill the lone year remaining in the term of former Mayor Gary Minkoff. Mr. Minkoff resigned unexpectedly from his seat earlier this year; and Brill Mittler, who had been on the council, was appointed mayor until the election.
The mayor’s elevation to that spot created a vacancy on the Borough Council. Councilman Philip George also was appointed to that spot until the election; with the election now behind him, Mr. George will fill the remaining year of Mayor Brill Mittler’s former council term.
Also on the Democratic slate for council were Councilwoman Elsie Foster-Dublin and newcomer Josh Fine. The three candidates ran without opposition.
Full results are below. To download a PDF version of the chart below for easier reading CLICK HERE.
This story will be updated to include candidate reactions when they become available.
Next time can you please make the table something that can be enlarged when it is clicked upon. Also, the total votes value is confusing. It looks like every single vote cast was counted. Shouldn’t it be “voters” (number of people who cast a vote)?
Thanks for your comment. This is exactly how the table came to us from the government. We agree the “total votes cast” number is basically meaningless. The total number of voters was around 3,300.
The chart can be opened in another window, and larger, by clicking on the PDF link that appears right above the chart that is embedded in the article.
Could you add absentee and provisional ballots once they are counted? These tables from the county include only machine votes.