Joyce, Jerry, Or Teddy?

.... Sunny.... high of 70.... One of the top 10 days of the year!!!....

Wait. The election. Right.

I voted at 8am at Watchung School (Ward 2 Rules!!!).

Empty!

I asked how many voters showed up and I got a smile and a laugh. "Not too many..."

Oh, well. I wonder what the % will be?

Isn't this the "most important election of my/our lifetime"?

I voted real early at Northeast. I was the only voter there. Granted it was 6:25 am, but you'd think at least a few other voters would be stopping by before heading off to work. Then, after I went home and took a shower, I headed over to Watchung School and voted there. Turnout was a little better, but still just two other people besides me. I'm now off to vote in the third ward. Who knew voting in a municpal election could be so time consuming! Anyone with a good recommendation for where I can vote in the third ward--ideally, not too far from Tierney's?

You must be a member of the Thrive slate. Will you be voting for dead people and shut ins too?

Held my nose tightly -- very tightly -- and voted for Joyce. I think Ted would be nothing short of a disaster and Jerry, while he seems like a swell guy, needs a little more ooomph than I'm the environmental friendly guy. We have some real problems to deal with here and they aren't recycling and bike riding. While there is always a real temptation to take a "throw the bums out and let's elect people who are pure as the new fallen winter snow mentality, there is also a lot to be said for voting for the people you've heard around town doing things the last 5, 10, 15 years. I'm a smart lawyer who is a good family person. OK, sounds good. What have you been doing in town other than working 12 hours a day, six days a week since you moved to town?

To insure change, I still believe that we, as voters, must take the best candidates from all the quality challengers or the entrenched Joyce Michaelson Partnership will continue running Montclair like in the past.

The old style politics is just killing this town.

The CONSOLIDATED CHANGE (a.k.a. CLEAN) slate:?

Mayor-Jerry Fried (Unity) ?
At-Large-Starr Daniels (Thrive) ?
At-Large-Kathryn Weller (Unity) ?
First Ward- Roger Plawker (Thrive) ?
Second Ward-Cary Africk (Unity) ?
Third Ward-Nick Lewis (Unity) ?
Fourth Ward-Dr. Renee Baskerville (Independent) ?

Support of any of these candidates will help the cause.

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

Sorry for not posting more during the weekend. We had a new addition to our family over here.

thomas

bradford school 8:30am , i was #31..

No, vote for the people I want you to vote for!

Joyce Micaelson
Sumana Rangachar
Katherine Weller
Roger Plawker
Mark Reynolds
tossup in 3rd
Renee Baskerville

I've chosen these as they have the longest names, which I think is important (though I'm not sure if I spelled them correctly, and, well, I got tired of counting near the end and just guessed).

But I'm sure you should vote for these people or it could me disaster for Montclair.

You've picked the only Thrive candidates that may have actually run a clean campaign.

I'm not interested in slates nor have I posted them...only the length of their names is important.

I voted at 7:30am - it looked like about 30-40 had voted before me. I was only asked for my name, and my ID was not checked. So, if you know the names and wards of other registered voters, get out there and vote early and vote often!!!

Congratulations on the addition Paine.

(And I love how you apologized for not posting over the weekend. Next time you have a new addition, please have your iphone with you..;))

(btw, thanks Baristanet for the candidate interviews. They helped confirm my thoughts.)

Thanks profwilliams

No iphone here yet. I would have liked to have gotten all my research into the discussion. That's how things go sometimes.

The candidate interviews were good. I thought all them did better than I expected. I also was glad my question was asked. We have Joyce a little bit on the record for something she would have awarded a supporter. And, I thought Mattox hit a home run with my question on the downtown hotel (what a scam by Plofker).

I think most Baristanet readers understood my logic on the split change vote. And, we did get a little support in that suspect poll the other day. At least enough support to possibly make a difference.

I think we were all getting a little tired of the push for each candidate.

It's a good thing election day is today.

Now I'll turn most of my focus to diapers for the next few years.

Unless Michaelson wins. Then, of course, it will be my duty to carry on.

thomas

I think you may be quite surprised if Mattox wins.

He's known for his vendettas and dirty in-fighting and is disruptive in his relationships with others.

If he wins I predict another dysfunctional town council where nothing gets done but we hear how wonderful Teddy is.

Oy, 8 election-related recorded calls yesterday alone! I can only imagine how many more I've gotten today.

Michaelson and Maddox haven't done enough good things in my view to outweigh the bad, thus I voted for Jerry Fried.

At my polling station here in the 4th ward, I was #11 at 7:30 AM. I usually vote earlier than that, and have been #1 on occasion! Also, I don't believe they are legally allowed to ask for ID - they're just supposed to see if the signature matches the one on file.

Ted keeps calling my number over and over again. Do you think he's confused my number with one of his groupies.

Maybe that Leeta person who is so obviously besotted with him.

Teddy, stop calling, I wouldn't vote for you you if you paid me.

Joyce seems to be very inconsistent in her positions and does not seem to understand enough about the Town's finances to address our tax problems now, or in the future.

Inconsistent: last Fall, voted specifically to allow demolition of the historic house on the corner of Upper Mountain and Claremont and construction of condos there, while simultaneously pushing to re-zone the rest of Claremont Ave. to limit subdivisions. The logic escapes me...

Finance: argued in favor of bond re-funding proposal last Fall that was basically a two-year gimmick with greater costs to the Town for many years to come. Also, sale of Deron and South Mountain Ave. schools was very short-sighted (Town could have leased them out, retaining ownership and option to use in future, if we didn't need them all at the time).

I don't know about Jerry F. I'm voting for Ted: knows the Town government, passionate about doing the right things for the Town, not afraid to make the tough decisions.

I'm voting after work and will probably go strait down the "Unity" line (I don't live in the 1st ward, so I can maintain my not-voting for incumbents as Tobin won't be an option for me!).

Then it's off to see Speed Racer so I can be grossly disappointed twice in one day. :-)

Voting for Ted is a big mistake, as evidenced by his campaign finances all he knows is spend spend spend.

Jerry has actually raised money for the town, Ted couldn't even attend the committee meetings that he was assigned as a liason to.

They call him "no meeting Ted".

Sounding desperate!

#72 at 9:15am.

Tobin IS an option for everyone--now he's running for at-large, not 1st ward. Check your ballot.

Jerry and Joyce called for my vote, but not Ted. Not yet, anyway.

My concern is that Joyce and Jerry split the sane rational vote and Mattox wins with something like 35.7% of the vote.

I have news for you. The fact that we are up shizz creek without a paddle is that we have few ratables and really expensive schools. Exactly why people want to live here in the first place and not in Wayne or Parsippany. No shipping malls. No Target. No Chili's. Not because of anything else.

Mattox is a much more dire future than either Jerry or Joyce.

Vote your concious. Vote for Ethics. Vote for Jerry.

Anyone care to wager on the voter turnout today? My bookie has the over/under at 6200.

I just got a call from Ted. He convinced me, I'm going to vote for him.

Uh oh, he said the polls close at 7pm and I won't get off of one of thosse loud trains until 7:05 pm. What's that man sitting in cubicle next to me, the polls close at 8 pm and Ted got it wrong?

My mind is twirling and swirling, so close to voting for Ted but now I'm confused. How can I vote for Ted when he doesn't even know when the polls will close. What should I do?

I think I'll vote for Jerry.

If that's o.k with you Paine.

mets2008, other reasons we are in bad shape financially:

1) spending $35MM to build a new school after we sold the old one for $1MM.

2) uncontrolled overdevelopment, including condos, pushing up Town spending.

3) Failure to plan and develop businesses (e.g. tax rateables) around the transportation hubs we are blessed with (e.g. Bay St. train station). Instead we are building ....condos! (btw..what's the plan for developing the Pathmark parking lot? Last I heard it was....more condos!)

4) Wasteful Town spending in setting up separate sewer and parking authorities with extra staff.

5) Too many Town-paid vehicles for employees.

6) Board of Education that spends $ like it's Monopoly Money. (It's fun spending other people's money!)

7) it's too nice a day to keep going with this list!

Rubber Chicken - I don't disagree with any of what you've said. But the schools are the big issue. Our schools provide more special ed to more kids for more god dang reasons (some totally legit but a lot very iffy) than any school district I have ever seen. I don't care if little Max or Noah or Sam or Sarah has a tactile integration sensation dysfunction secondary to a moderate case of situational performance stress related anxiety. I don't think he needs an aide and I don't think I should be paying for it.

1. Do not underestimate Ted. In his desire to "get" someone the town's business will fall by the wayside. He's vindictive.

2. WHAT HAS TED DONE FOR THE TOWN? And don't give me that "he stopped the Wayfinding" project! By his own admission over 300 people
(including Africk) signed the petition. Pegi Adam and the other signers of the lawsuit had as much or more to do with "stopping" the
project as anyone.

3. Ideally, I'd love to have Jerry for Mayor! He'd bring in a new era of inspiration and collaboration. But if we can't have Jerry, then I hope it's Joyce. She has some good people, and with Africk (who is sure to win) at least the town would move forward. With Ted?

Pack your bags now! In 4 years we'll be one of the worst run towns in NJ!

4. I can just see Ted as Mayor. It comes time to take a vote on one of his "pet" projects. Anyone on the council who doesn't vote his way is subject to his "dirty tricks." Or maybe he'll just sue them!

5. It's a good thing he has all those lawyers on his slate! He'll need them!

You're not paying attention, we are already one of the worst run towns in NJ and it is because of the Town Manager and the council's inability to reign him in.

The petition didn't stop wayfinding...they dropped it 3 weeks after the petition. They stopped it 2 days after the lawsuit. The lawsuit stopped wayfinding. Even cary Africk has posted that this is the case on the watercooler...just search Caryaf2002 and wayfinding.

If Ted doesn't win, I hope Jerry does...either is better than what we'll get with Joyce. 4 more years of the same policies.

PREDICTION

Ted loses and by this time tomorrow has filed a lawsuit. Or two. David Herron his attorney (natch).

As my mother would say, MARK MY WORDS!!!

A guy who has to file a lawsuit because he didn't like the grade his kid got at Glenfield is not going easily into the night.

FYI, Herron with Renee Baskerville, sued and WON the redistricting of the 4th ward residents to the 3rd ward...so the question is, why does David know more about the law than our town attorney or the essex county attornies? Sucks getting sued. Sucks worth losing because you don't know the law or did something wrong.

I agree, you do suck- BIGTIME

Hey -- Brand New -- please don't blame Joe Hartnett for the mess we are currently in. Our current woes can be traced back to several previous administrations -- not Joe's three year term.

Wow, that hurts!

Good to see Cary's toadies are out in full force today!

Brand New: Seriously, list the top ten things that Joe has done to piss you off?

TED is the only clear choice. Controversial perhaps, but the only one (by far) with the guts and a plan to actually get taxes under control and get our town back on track. You may not agree with his tough style, but you're not voting for "most popular" here, you're voting for someone who can make tough decisions, CUT TAXES, and move Montclair forward. I hope that anyone who hasn't yet voted will give their vote to someone who will actually DO SOMETHING.

ZSMITH,

It can be argued that Jerry has accomplished more as a private citizen than Ted has as an elected official and there's no arguing that Cary has done more than any other person currently running for Town Council (because it would be a stupid argument for the anti-Carry person to try and make).

"Brand New: Seriously, list the top ten things that Joe has done to piss you off?"

What is this, David Letterman?

Good luck, Montclair residents, may the best man/woman/bullfrog win.

{{{Can't wait until it's over.}}}}

"Brand New: Seriously, list the top ten things that Joe has done to piss you off?"

What is this, David Letterman?

Good luck, Montclair residents, may the best man/woman/bullfrog win.

{{{Can't wait until it's over.}}}}

"Cary's toadies "

Cary doesn't have any toadies dear.

Could you please give Ted Leeta's number, he keeps calling my house and whispering things that I don't understand.

I'm sure he really wants to talk to her, after all she's GAGA for him (see her posts on the Watercooler- oh my).

He just called my number again and actually sang a song into my answering machine.

Leeta, Leeta, in the night I call your name

at least that's what it sounded like.

What's with this guy?