4 Candidates For Middletown Township Committee; 4 For BOE

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Nov. 2 is Election Day and mail-in ballots already started arriving in homes last week.

In Middletown, there will be a Township Committee race and a school board race.

There are two seats up for election on the Middletown Township Committee:

• Current Mayor Tony Perry (Republican) is being challenged by Democrat Rocky Rios.
• Kimberly Kratz is the Republican running alongside Perry, and she is running against Democrat Nicholas Babcock.

As Pat Snell moved out of Middletown and therefore had to resign her seat on the Township Committee, Kimberly Kratz was appointed in September to fill her vacant seat. She is now asking residents to vote her in. Kratz currently serves as the chairperson of the Middletown Municipal Drug Alliance after being a board member for several years. Who Is Middletown's Kim Kratz? Learn More (Sept. 8, 2021)

While Middletown is a majority Republican town, Rios is earnest about this race. He has a website: https://middletownstrong.org/ and is backed by Middletown Democrats. He is running to unseat Perry because he says Middletown is being overdeveloped and mismanaged.

"Suddenly our beaches are too crowded and we have to charge even residents to go?" said Rios in this June Patch profile. "We're closing schools, but adding housing? These things do not add up. It would appear that some common sense is needed on the committee."

Perry is the son-in-law of current Monmouth County Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger (R), leading Rios to accuse him of nepotism.

"It's a little tough to argue that the Township Committee can appropriately govern on behalf of the residents when you can get onto it just by marrying into the right family," said Rios.

Keep reading more about all the candidates: Rocky Rios Challenges Tony Perry For Middletown Township Committee Seat (June 11, 2021)

On the Middletown school board:

• Current BOE member Deborah Wright seeks re-election
• Current BOE president Joan Minnuies seek re-election
• Kate Farley and Jaime Sanacore are running as a slate. They are running generally on a platform of keeping schools open in the pandemic. Brian Mason was running as well, but he dropped out and threw his support behind Farley/Sanacore Read: Brian Mason: Why I Dropped Out Of The Middletown BOE Race
• Lauren Anderson is running as a write-in candidate

Also, a brand-new state law passed in NJ earlier this year means you can machine vote early from Oct. 23 - Oct. 31 at these 10 polling places:

• Colts Neck Township – Colts Neck Library, 1 Winthrop Drive
• Hazlet Township – James J. Cullen Center, 1776 Union Avenue
• Howell Township – Adelphia Fire Company Station No. 2, 993 State Route 33, Freehold
• Little Silver Borough – The Women's Club of Little Silver, 111 Church Street
• Long Branch City – Arts and Cultural Center, 577 Broadway
• Manalapan Township – Monmouth County Library Headquarters, 125 Symmes Drive
• Middletown Township – Croydon Hall, 900 Leonardville Road, Leonardo
• Neptune Township – Neptune Senior Center, 1607 Corlies Avenue
• Spring Lake Heights Borough – Cornelius V. Kelly Community Center, 902 Ocean Road
• Upper Freehold Township – Upper Freehold Township Municipal Building, 314 Route 539, Cream Ridge

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