Politics & Government

Tobin Beats Keyes for Twp. Committee Seat

Three-year position being vacated by James Harmon.

Republican Tracy Tobin will rejoin Washington Township's governing body, as he beat out Democrat Joseph Keyes in Tuesday's election.

Tobin, who previously served as Washington Township committeeman for 27 years–four of those as mayor–garnered 1,761 votes vs. Keyes' 810 votes. He will take over for James Harmon, who decided not to run for re-election prior to the June primary.

"I'm going to start working tomorrow," Tobin said after the results came in Tuesday night. "We need to begin talking about things that need to be considered, first and foremost the situation with JCP&L. They dropped the ball on the tree-cutting work they promised in 2010, and that's why we had the mess we did last week."

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That was a reference to lengthy power outages and several road closures caused by a freak October snowstorm. Snow weighed down tree branches that still had leaves on them; trees and power lines fell throughout the area.

Despite nearly three decades of prior experience on the committee, Tobin said he would not be ready to take on duties as mayor if his fellow committeemen chose to elect him during the January reorganization meeting.

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"I'm not willing to be mayor right away," the four-time head of the committee said. "I'd like to get working and consider it in year two or three."

Tobin said that despite the loss, he encourages Joe Keyes to stay involved in local issues.

"I think [Keyes] made a decent case, especially for his first try at running," Tobin said. "Joe should certainly stay involved in some capacity."

Keyes, while hoping for a victory, lamented that his opponent's experience was hard to overcome.

"My opponent is top-notch," Keyes said. "It was certainly a learning experience, being my first foray into this. I'd definitely like to stay involved and have my ideas seen and heard in the public sector."

Keyes mentioned ideas on that he felt could be looked at, and possibly be addressed more efficiently.

"It was a privilege to be in a race for government," Keyes said. "It's something you have to go through to really understand."

Town favors GOP

Washington Township threw its support behind Morris County Freeholder Margaret Nordstrom, giving the incumbent 1,701 votes. Democrat Truscha Quatrone received just 843 votes in the municipality. Nordstrom, a Washington Township resident, won the overall race as well.

Republican State Sen. Anthony Bucco received 1,654 votes in Washington Township. Democrat Rick Thoeni received 909 votes. The township also favored both Republican assemblyman, Anthony Bucco (the senator's son) and Michael Patrick Carroll in the 25th district.

Bucco received 1,598 votes and Carroll received 1,663 votes in Washington Township. Their challengers, Democrats George Stafford and Gale Heiss-Colucci garnered 895 and 910 votes respectively.

Those results all mirrored the overall races.


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