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Mayoral Campaign Creeping Into Council Meetings
By Catherine Galioto
With seven weeks left in the election for Brick mayor, residents and officials at Tuesday's township council meeting were nearly certain of one outcome: things will get ugly.
Both sides pointed to tactics of the other camp, and this week's township council meeting even led to residents asking if the council could consider limiting comments on the campaign.
Mayor Dan Kelly and Council President Stephen Acropolis are vying for the mayoral spot. Both candidates are sitting mere feet from each other, both with a microphone nearby, during the township's public meetings.
This week, that close proximity and the fact that it is campaign season showed. During this week's caucus meeting of the township council, both Kelly and Acropolis asked each other to resign.
"Mayor, do you have something to ask me?" said Acropolis, the Republican candidate.
"Steve, would you resign?" asked Kelly, the Democrat candidate.
"No, will you?" Acropolis said.
The mayor said no.
Earlier that week, Kelly told reporters that a lien placed on property owned by Acropolis, put in place for unpaid taxes, was cause for the council president to resign.
In Toms River, mayoral candidate and Toms River Council President Gregory P. McGuckin left the race when he, too, was revealed to have been the subject of a federal tax lien.
However, Acropolis told reporters his lien was the IRS' mistake, not his, making it a very different circumstance.
"What exactly are appropriate instances where someone should resign, mayor?" Acropolis asked. Certainly, a criminal matter or using a racial slur, Acropolis asked, but what about unpaid child support?
The mayor said that not paying child support should not be a reason to resign.
The debate did not sit well with some residents, who said they'd rather hear debate centered on the issues that affect the town. Resident Dominic Rappoccio said some of these matters were personal; he'd rather hear about more public matters.
"I feel we are going into a bad campaign," he said. "The negativity turns people off," Rappoccio said. "People don't want to come out and vote."
Other residents asked if the campaign talk could outright be barred from the meetings. Township Attorney Jean Cipriani said no, that would be a violation of the First Amendment, However, she said the council could request, but not require, comments to be kept at a minimum.
Acropolis said he'd like it if there was more questioning and debate. Drowning out the facts of campaigns are things like widely distributed but often slanted or false information in advertisements, he claimed, and letters written from supporters published in newspapers.
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