Dems sweep council race

BY CAROL FLETCHER
Staff Writer
Suburban Trends

RINGWOOD The tides of change have come to Ringwood, as they have just voted onto the Borough Council the first Democratic majority in decades.
It's been so long since the Democrats have controlled the council that no one even remembers when the last time was, if ever.
Ronnie Nochimson, the Passaic County Clerk, says she hasn't seen a Democratic majority since she started in the county office more than 20 years ago.
Kelley Rohde, borough clerk confirms that it's been at least a decade since more than one Democrat has sat on the council.
It seems the four winning Democratic candidates are equally surprised at their across the board victory, but say there were some early hints along the campaign trail.
Bill O'Hearn, upcoming Borough Councilman, who has won a seat along with Joanne Atlas, Tom MacAllen and incumbent Councilwoman Wenke Taule, says he himself was surprised on election night.
"We were kind of stunned," said O'Hearn. "All along we felt pretty good about our chances, I can't explain that, we had a real good mix, having Wenke as an incumbent we understood a lot more of what was going on and that was a great advantage for us."
Rich Falco, president of the Ringwood Democratic Organization, also said the flill victory was unexpected, but felt positive from early in the campaign. "I was shocked," Falco said.
"We worked so hard on this, but our message resonated with people. The tone was set with the first mailing. It was a lot of reaching out to Ringwood residents from candidates, and the problems they see with the current administration and what we want to do, and people really responded. We got a lot of volunteers and contributions"
Falco explains that the success in this year's campaign had to do with the extensive support from Ringwood residents and others who volunteered, between 30 and 35 people, and who made financial contributions to help them run a traditional grassroots campaign without seeking outside assistance.
The other indicator Falco says, of the campaign's potential success was from the large number of residents who wanted to have Democrat signs on their lawns. Falco said that of the 500 signs that the party put out this year, more than 200 were put on people's lawns.
The monetary contributions, Falco said, were small individually, but together enabled the club to spend about $21,000 on the campaign that went to six different resident mailings and a small fee to volunteers who helped them count supporter votes on Election Day in the "get out the vote" aspect
One reason this victory was so startling to many was that Ringwood has such a strong of Republican voter base. According to Rohde, out of Ringwood's 7,620 registered voters, there are only 909 registered Democrats compared to 2,385 Republicans, while the majority of the remaining residents are undeclared.
Aside from having greater amounts of campaign volunteers and money on their side this year, the four Democrats felt that they were on the same side as the majority of residents. On key issues of open space, responsible development, a desire for open and honest government and steering clear of negative campaigns, the Democrats felt residents agreed with their position, which was affirmed at the polls. -
"I think (we won) because we ran a campaign of issues that the residents really cared about" says Taule, "such as clean water, open space, and open and honest government" Taule adds that her personal goals include revamping the water department and instituting a Coffee House for teens.
MacAllen, a licensed civil engineer and former Planning Board member, has his sights set on the Planning Board once again as well as the council. "Of the first things we'd like to do is continue Wenke's (type of) government by expanding one of our early goals of making sure council meetings are televised," says MacAllen, "and that the information is in library. And I plan to look very closely at borough land use ordinances and hopefully we'll be able to work with the Planning Board and Board of Adjustment's people to bring that about."
Atlas, who had run once before for council where she says she lost by 32 votes, says she had been trying to change the politics in the borough for the past 10 years.
"Our campaign, I think, empowered people," says Atlas. "I think we convinced people that change was going to be good and there were a couple of issues that demonstrated the clear difference between us and the Republicans. One was clean water and the other was open space."
Atlas also says that she wants to see the borough monitor and enforce residents to pump their septic tanks every three years and that she welcomes certain types of local business.
"We think it's important to diversity the business economic base of the community~' says Atlas. "We believe the economy right now is dominated by real estate and it's not sustainable, it's a diminishing commodity~ There's only so much land. We're looking at industries that will contribute to the ratables but not pollute or use up our resources"
Even with all the hard work from the campaigners and their volunteers, Falco already is looking past the recent win to the winners' first year together on council.
"This is historic, a historic election, and now we have to come through." says Falco. "All this work is the easy part; now the hard part is coming. They have to come through. These are four people who are smart and compassionate. I really, truly, trust them"