Deluca, Larrier and Navlen....What now?

I got buried.

My first time running for public office and I get 400 votes. Vic Deluca and India Larrier received 1300 votes or so each. I was trounced, pounced, punched, kicked, drop kicked, you name it. My friend Louis Toledo at Maplewood Karate could come up with some additional terminology to describe the KO that I received. Bottom line,  it was a lesson, call it "Running For Office 101" but I will be back, that I promise you!

There's no shame in losing if you give it your all and in this case, I did just that. After making the decision to throw my hat into the ring just weeks before the primary, it was full speed ahead. Running without the endorsement of the Maplewood Democratic Committee made it even tougher. That's a well oiled machine with some smart people calling the shots. Add, an incumbent Mayor and an impressive running mate in India Larrier,  and I had my hands full.

Despite the insurmountable odds, I did the right thing. I was able to make property taxes and shared services a public discussion during an election and I'm very proud of that. During the Hilton Association debate that most of you missed, I was impressed with the Mayor's desire to perhaps entertain the thought of somehow merging fire with South Orange. That's the right conversation to have and I look forward to learning more about how Mayor De Luca plans to pursue this goal.

 I'm also happy that Mayor De Luca is interested in discussing a shared services agreement involving our libraries now that director Jane E. Kennedy is retiring. This creates an excellent opportunity to explore the possibility of sharing library management with another town. Moving forward, we'll watch this one closely because Maplewood needs to get this one right.

I just want to say one more thing before closing my inaugural   blog . I hope this blog turns out to be an informative, fun filled exercise for all of us here in Maplewood. I'll certainly do my best to make that happen!

So stick around, more to come!

Lee