South Orange 2013 Takes South Orange Election

Sheena Collum, Stephen Schnall and Walter Clarke will serve on the South Orange Board of Trustees.  The three took the vote on Tuesday after several weeks of active campaigning. They replace Janine Bauer, Michael Goldberg, and Nancy Gould, who announced earlier this year that they would not seek re-election.

Unofficial results from the South Orange Village Clerk are as follows (a chart with voting tallies by district is attached to this article as a PDF):

Vote Count Joseph John Kika 771 Geraldine Mehu 936 Kelly M. Sullivan 958 Sheena Collum 1295 Stephen Schnall 1144 Walter Clarke 1107 Robert Sandow 610 Write-In 24 Total 6,845

 

"We are excited and humbled by the voters' faith in us," said Collum. "We ran a practical, not a populist, campaign. We recognize South Orange's challenges -- it's not perfect -- but neither is it awful. We will address not only the next four years and look for success, but plan so residents 20 years from now will look back at 2013. We hope to serve the present and future residents of South Orange."

"It's quite a relief and an honor," said Clarke. "I'm looking forward to doing the work." He continued, "We worked to run a positive campaign about the future of South Orange, not about the negative aspects."

Schnall said he was humbled and thrilled. "After all the hard work of the last two months, we were voted in by the community and given the opportunity to perform on their behalf, to make the town even better than it already is."

Village President Alex Torpey said, "I'd like to thank and tip my hat to everyone who ran. I am particularly excited to get to work with Sheena Collum, Steve Schnall and Walter Clarke, I know them as amazing volunteers and people, and can't wait to get to work!"

"I'm excited to work with a team that brings positive energy and no negativity to the table," said Trustee Deborah Davis Ford. "In the next two years, South Orange will continue to become a model community, one that others will want to emulate."

Sandow congratulated the South Orange first candidates for "a well-run and successful campaign."

The 2013 campaign saw a total of seven candidates running as two slates, and an independent candidate.

The slates were: "Village First": 

and "South Orange 2013",  

Running independently was Robert Sandow.

The seven candidates debated once. A link to a video of the debate is here.

The candidates scored many local endorsements.  A list of the "Line B" endorsements is here.

"Line A" was endorsed by Ian Miller and Leslie Pogany in Patch letters. 

Michael Goldberg, among others, threw his support to Sandow. 

Total turnout figures are from the County Clerk's website. They include mail-in ballots.