Bernards Township Election

Looking ahead to November’s elections, the Basking Ridge Patch will bring local readers the information they need about every race in town. Here's our start on the races and candidates we'll be covering as November draws near. Bookmark this page for updates.

• Township Committee: Republican incumbents on the all-GOP Township Committee, John Malay and Carolyn Gaziano, who is serving as this year's deputy mayor, will face two Democratic challengers, Michael Komondy and David Ferdinand. Ferdinand won a spot on the November ballot as a write-in candidate on the primary ballot.
• : The Bernards Township election for candidates has moved from April to November, but this year, as last year, there's competition for seats on the board. Incumbents Robin McKeon and Audrey Cohen Sherwyn are seeking to keep their seats in a four-way race for three three-year seats. Meanwhile, former board member Beverly Darvin Cwerner, who in last year's crowded school board race , was on June 11 appointed to an unexpired spot on the board that lasts through December 2012. The other applicant for that short-term unexpired term for the next six and a half months, Louis D'Autorio, a former volunteer with the, is the fourth candidate for school board who will be listed on the November election.
• Somerset County Freeholders: Voters will fill two three-year terms, with Republican incumbents Mark Caliguire, of Montgomery, and Patrick Scaglione, of Bridgewater, facing Democrats Anthony Pranzatelli, of Bound Brook, and Somerset resident William Galtieri. Caliguire was appointed last year to complete the term of Jack Ciattarelli, who stepped into the New Jersey Assembly seat after the death of Peter Biondi.
• Incumbent Leonard Lance (R), who has been in office since 2009 and held off a primary challenge from Tewksbury Township businessman David Larsen, will take on Democratic challenger Upendra Chivukula. Chivukula is a state Assemblyman who represents 17th district.
  
• U.S. Senate: U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D), the junior United States Senator from New Jersey who was first appointed in 2006 to fill Jon Corzine's seat, takes on Republican challenger Joe Kyrillos, who easily defeated three opponents in the primary. Kyrillos, a state Senator representing District 13, got a boost in the Somerset Hills when the Republican candidate for U.S. Presidential, Mitt Romney, stopped by a fundraiser for Kyrillos' campaign held in April in a private home on Bernardsville mountain. Kyrillos expressed gratitude for support from Romney, for whom he previously had campaigned in New Jersey during the previous U.S. election.
• U.S. President: Democratic President Barack Obama will face the presumptive Republican candidate for president, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, in a campaign that has already focused heavily on the economy and job growth. Romney made an appearance at the , which actually was a fundraiser for Sen. Joe Kyrillos' campaign against U.S. Senator Bob Menendez. A few years earlier, Romney had a relatively short but significant encounter with another Central Jersey resident — a Tewksbury Township man and his family,

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