A closer election than expected 1993
A mere handful of votes separated victory from defeat in
this year's mayoral race, leaving both the Democrats and Secaucus Independent
Alliance in near breathless anticipation.
Both groups gathered within eye sight of each other after
the poles were closed, the bridge over the six lanes of route 3 like a metaphor
for the deep divisions the election has created, dividing the town into a new
political reality that may last for years.
``The wounds from this election aren't going to heal for a
long, long time,'' said one election volunteer outside the polling station at
the Plaza, red ribbon marking him as a Democrat.
Yet white ribboned volunteers from the SIA said the same at
other voting places, pacing back and forth at the legally required fifty feet
from the door.
``Dirty campaign'' was the catchword for both sides.
A last minute drive
for votes came on Monday and Tuesday, as advertisements, flyers and even hate
letters made the rounds.
Sal Manente, who
still hopes to make up the six vote gap that overturned his incumbency said a
misleading flyer putting a $30 million price tag on his ideas for the DPW,
library and eventual bus service did him great harm.
``It scared people,''
he said. ``Even though it was all lies.''
Democratic supporters
said signs had been torn up from people's lawns throughout the town or covered
over with signs from the Elwell camp.
``That's never
happened in Secaucus before,'' said one campaign worker.
At the Huber Street
school, supporters from Mayor Just said a nine-year-old girl had campaign
literature ripped out of her pocket, echoing accusations made a week earlier by
Elwell campaigners who said the mayor and sworn at a nine-year old boy.
Yet despite the
anger, or perhaps because of it, this year's election electrified the town,
sending people flowing to the poles. While several veterans of the political
circuit said the turnout wasn't the biggest ever, many said the emotional
rhetoric drew people that would have otherwise stayed away.
Well before the polls closed and gave him a six-vote win,
John Reilly stood in the cold outside Clarendon School, saying he'd been
through the waiting before. While he made no predictions, he said the heavier
than normal turnout in several voting districts could be good news for himself.
``If people come out
heavily for Just, then it's good for me,'' he said, though admitted in the
tortuous hours before the polls closed that he and others were helpless to do
anything. ``Most people have already made up their minds.''
The optimistic
Reilly, who seemed to be one of the few people in the campaign who came through
unmuddied, said voters would select the person they felt best served the
community.
Nearby First Ward
Councilman Mike Grecco had his van parked heavily laden with Campanella signs,
predicting a big win for Campanella and Just. He was half right. Campanella
rolled over new-comer Sal Barone by 452 votes. Barone said earlier that if he
lost, he would come back and run again.
``Not next year, it
wouldn't prove anything my beating Grecco in the first ward,'' he said. ``I
want to run against Campanella and beat him.''
It was Huber Street
School where the real action was, as the Elwell campaign hung high hopes on a
huge majority that would carry him into the mayor's seat. Signs for both sides
made Paterson Plank Road a battle ground of red and white lettering. While
Elwell won his home ward, he did so with slightly more than 250 votes. His
followers wore long faces as they moved down towards the VFW hall after the
poles closed, many believing the number far too small.
``We figured we'd
need at least a margin of 400 for him to win,'' one worker said. John Bueckner,
however, gave the crowd some cheer with his 284 vote win over Pat Van Es for
the Second Ward seat.
Van Es took the
defeat with grace.
``I came through the
worst campaign in Secaucus history and kept my self-respect,'' she said. ``I'm
grateful for everything everyone has done for me.''
But early returns
from the Third Ward dampened spirits further showing that Reilly had already
taken two of four polling places and people feared news from Harmon Cove which
popular belief put in Just's camp, though some believed Sal Manente could carry
it based on his record.
Then, Secaucus
Municipal Utilities Authority Chairman Morton Salkind arrived, bearing great
news for the crowd. Not only had Manente won the cove, but Elwell, too. A
letter issued and paid for by Salkind had been delivered to the whole
population of the condo development.
``Harmon Cove
responded very well,'' Salkind said, noting he had promised to bring in the
cove and he did. ``This despite the fact that Florio won there.''
Even then, Elwell
people reported the total over walkie talkies from the various polling places.
The numbers added up badly. Elwell was 73 votes short. Then suddenly, with a
shout, word came up. One of the polling places had miscounted.
``We found a hundred
votes!'' Elwell said, his long stride leading the crowd back inside the VFW
hall like an invading army, not victorious yet, but in the running. ``It's into
the absentee ballots.''
Several of the more
experienced political people moaned. Absentee ballots tended to favor the
incumbent. It more tense at the Masonic lodge, where the Democrats sat without
the electric feeling. They seemed like an army besieged, waiting for news that
the siege had ended. A victorious Assemblyman Anthony Impreveduto was the first
to arrive after news of his own campaign had proved him a huge winner in the
32nd district. He greeted the arrival of Campanella, and a nervous Mayor Just.
For hours afterwards,
the numbers rose and fell, each camp sometimes with contradictory information
as to who actually was in the lead as town hall and the county counted out the
absentee ballots one by one. By eleven
thirty, however, the election was over, and Mayor had won by a slim 21 vote
margin.
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