No Primary Fights in Race for Berkeley Mayor, Council Seats

Both the Democratic and Republican slates for mayor and council are running unopposed in today's primary election. The deadline for independent candidates to file to run in the November election is also today.

The polls are open from 6 am. to 8 p.m.

Democratic Mayor Jason J. Varano, 38, is seeking his fourth term as mayor. Varano was only 26 when he was first appointed mayor in 1998, after the sudden death of Mayor Bill Zimmermann Jr. He was elected to his first full term in 1999.

Varano will square off against Republican Township Council Vice-President Carmen F. Amato Jr., 42, in the race for the four-year mayor's seat. Amato was first elected to the Berkeley Township Council in 2005 for the Ward 2 seat, when he defeated incumbent Council President Peter Mustardo and broke a 7-0 Democratic monopoly. Amato was re-elected to a second term in 2009.

Both men have pledged to run an issues-oriented campaign.

The Democratic slate for the three at-large council seats up this year includes Anthony R. Mazzella, Bayview Avenue, James L. Egan, Northumberland Drive, and Edward Olsen. Mazzella has served on the township Planning Board since 2002.  Egan is vice-president of the Democratic Club. Olsen, a chiropracter,  is a commissioner on the Berkeley Township Municipal Utilities Authority.

The Berkeley Republican Club announced their council candidates earlier this year. Amato's running mates for the three council-at-large seats include John Bacchione, the current vice-president of the Berkeley Township Board of Education; Thomas Grosse, a current member of the Berkeley Township Board of Education; and Robert Ray, a current member of the Central Regional Board of Education and former president of Holiday City West.

There are also no primary contests in the race for the one available seat on the Ocean County Board of Freeholders.

Only longtime Republican incumbent Joseph H. Vicari of Toms River, and Democrat Michelle Rosen of Waretown filed nominating petitions for the backing of their parties, according to County Clerk Scott M. Colabella.

Both candidates are former members of the Dover Township Committee. Rosen served one term after being elected in 1977. Vicari served on the Committee from 1980 to 1994. He was elected a freeholder in 1981.

Vicari, who returned in April as schools superintendent in Berkeley Township after a nearly two-year absence,  has never lost a primary or general election.

Rosen, who teaches public speaking at Ocean County College, was elected to a seat on the Charter Study Commission in Barnegat in 2004 when she lived there. She ran unsuccessfully for the Assembly in the 9th District in 2007 and for Ocean County Clerk last year.