Pavlini, Carpenter Re-Elected to Township Committee

The two Republican incumbents in Tuesday's race won a four-way race for two seats on the Township Committee. Township voters uniformly supported incumbent Republican candidates for Somerset County freeholder and state representatives as well.

Deputy Mayor Mary Pavlini received 2,617 votes and Township Committeeman John Carpenter was top votegetter with 2,832 votes, according to unofficial votes from the township clerk's office.

Democrats Michael Komondy collected 1,606 votes, and his running mate, Bonnie Diehl, received 1,569 votes.

The results mean that Carpenter and Pavlini each are re-elected to their third three-year terms on the Township Committee.

The votes counted in the township clerk's office include absentee votes already counted by the Somerset County Board of Elections, but do not include paper provisional votes filed at polling locations in the township. Overall, 4,192 — or 22.27 percent — of the township's 18,826 voters cast a ballot.

"I think the voters are paying attention to fiscal matters," Carpenter said after results were in. "For Mary and I and the rest of the Township Committee, this is a priority for us," he said.

"What we think is important is what's important to the voters," Carpenter said. He said voters were aware that the tax levy for the municipal budget had been kept lower than it in 2005, the year before both Republicans took office.

Both Carpenter and Pavlini said they are grateful to voters for giving them three more years on the Township Committee.

Pavlini said she believed the voters chose the two Republicans because of "what we have done over the last six years."

She said the two had fulfilled their earlier campaign promises to be fiscally conservative, to try to cut taxes and to reduce spending at the municipal level.

Voters support Republicans in other elected positions to represent Bernards

With Bernards Township being switched from the 16th to the 21st district next year, township voters considered candidates for two state Assembly members and state Senate. State Sen. Tom Kean, Jr., Assemblyman Jon Bramnick and Nancy Munoz, all Republicans incumbents, each received more than 2-1 support in Bernards.

Kean received 3,211 votes from Bernards residents; compared with 1,182 for Democrat Paul Swanicke, in the race for state Senate representative for district 21.

In a choice for two state Assembly representatives, Bramnick received 2,951 votes and Munoz received 3,019 votes. Their Democratic opponents, Bruce H. Bergen and Norman W. Albert, received 1,263 and 1,209 votes apiece. Candidate Darren Young received 170 votes in Bernards Township.

Township voters also voted to re-elect Republican County Freeholders Peter Palmer and Bob Zaborowski to the freeholder board, over Democratic candidates Christian Mastondrea and Wes Ifan.

Palmer, a Bernardsville resident, received the most support from Bernards Township voters, with 3,056 votes; Zaborowski received 3,017 votes.

Ifan received 1,243 votes, while Mastondrea received 1,267 votes in the township.

Township voters also approved by 2,120 to 1,657 a statewide measure to change the state constitution to enable the legalization of gambling on professional and certain college sporting events that would go into effect if a federal ban is overturned. The measure also reportedly was approved on a statewide level.