Mayor Kathy Leventhal and the Maplewood Township Committee

I was having breakfast this morning at the Village Coffee Shop when Kiki asked me if I wanted another cup of coffee. As she was refilling me, she told me she heard I had lost the primary for Maplewood Township Committee and she was sorry. She also told me that if she lived in Maplewood, she would have voted for me. That's not the first time I have heard that, as a matter of fact, I've heard that so much I wonder if perhaps It would have been wiser to just run for Governor!

But seriously, now that the campaign and election is over, I have had some time to reflect. I'm proud that I made the decision to contest the Maplewood Democratic Committee's nomination of Mayor Vic De Luca and India Larrier. I'm proud that I ran an intelligent, clean campaign where key issues such as property taxes and shared services became part of the conversation.

Mayor De Luca and some of his supporters will tell you it was actually a dirty campaign, one that included plenty of mud-slinging on my part. I reject that notion because it wasn't, it was actually democracy, and I'm very sorry Mayor De Luca doesn't agree.

Since the election, India Larrier and I have discussed what went down and like myself she understands even at the local level, politics is a tough business. I am quite impressed with India and as I told her, if there's anything I can do to help her in November,I will do so. She will be a very strong addition to the Township Committee because for starters, she's bringing a much needed fresh voice, something the TC desperately needs.

I want to add one more point regarding Ms. Larrier and I hope Mayor De Luca is reading this. I was outspoken regarding my belief that the Mayor is looking for a rubber stamp government. Let's face it, Jerry Ryan and Vic De Luca are a two headed monster and certainly adding a third head to the equation would have worked out nicely for Mr. De Luca.  However, it's become quite clear to me that India will not be that third voice. Marlon Brownlee is not that third voice as well. 

Of course there's also Kathy Leventhal who for the most part has been aligned with Fred Profeta all these years.Now that Fred is retiring,  let's hope Kathy can become a bit of a free agent and not take sides because we need independent thinkers, not teams on the local level because that's what makes our government work.

So in other words, Kathy Leventhal has a chance to stand out and become the voice that represents all of us. The pressure is on Kathy, no doubt about it, but  for the sake of Maplewood, let's hope she can do it. I'm certainly rooting for her.

It's also why I am asking Kathy to not only ask for it, but to demand that come January 1, she become Maplewood's next Mayor. It's time for Kathy to step up to the plate.