Life of the Party: Should Howell Be?
Photo by Think Howell Of.
A Facebook post recently left me disillusioned. It was written and published by Evelyn O’Donnell, the Republican councilwoman, on her campaign’s Facebook page. On September 30th, the day of the post, I coincidentally spoke to O’Donnell on the phone in an attempt to interview her for a potential article on her re-election campaign for council. When we spoke, O’Donnell mentioned two current Howell candidates that troubled her due to their lack of party affiliations: the Republican candidate for mayor John Leggio and the Independent candidate for council Betty Lou Velez-Gimbel.
“John Leggio wants to run for mayor on his own ‘No Strings Attached.’ For some reason, he thinks that if he is associated with the Republican party…that’s somehow problematic for him.” And this sentiment has been confirmed by Leggio himself. In a previous talk Think Howell Of had with Leggio, he was quoted saying, “Do not try to tie me to the establishment Republicans in town. I am not one of them.”
This has troubled O’Donnell as a firm Republican: “I don’t know what he sees that no one else is seeing…It’s just concerning that I don’t know where his alignment is.”
Democratic candidate John Hughes also has much to say about the Republicans in town, stating in an August Instagram post, “For 22 years the Republican majority has held control of the Howell Council. 22 years of appointing friends and allies to the Zoning Board and giving away the farm.” Is it not jarring that both of our mayoral candidates disapprove of the Republican party of Howell, despite one of them being a Republican?
But back to the original Facebook post at hand. It centered another candidate that is choosing not to affiliate with Republicans or Democrats in this race: Betty Lou Velez-Gimbel. The post was a video in the style of Family Feud, with an AI sounding Steve Harvey reading off, “Betty Lou Velez-Gimbel is running as an Independent for council. Some days she says she is a Republican, some days she says she is an Independent and other days she’s affiliated with hard left radicals. Can Betty Lou be trusted on who she really is?” What came next was a response in typical Family Feud style: “Survey says,” the sound of a disapproving buzzer, and a giant red ‘X’ on the screen. This post continued for a couple more rounds, but let’s focus on the original face-off.
What left me downcasted is a couple of things: One, the attempt at some sort of political showdown that involves a tactic seemingly ripped from a page of our federal race’s playbooks. Two, the notion that someone ungrounded in political affiliation makes them a worse candidate. The appropriate response to this post is a ruffled question: How does this help Howell?
The answer seems clear that it doesn’t. However, in the current state of our politically charged country, it is no surprise that the heated armor of political identity has trickled its way down into our local elections. But political identity doesn’t feel at the heart of Howell’s issues and pestling out our politicians for their own personal political ideologies feels misplaced. It doesn’t help our farmers maintain a fruitful living, or keep our taxes down, or our small businesses thriving. It doesn’t help the fact that Howell needs a serious brush-up on governmental ethics (or so each candidate has alleged to on their Facebook pages) or that most citizens find Howell too expensive to live in anymore.
Howell is also a relatively Independent based town. We are a part of New Jersey’s Legislative Voting District #30, which also includes Avon, Belmar, Farmingdale, Lake Como, and Wall. For October, the Statewide Voter Registration Summary shows that more people registered as Unaffiliated (55,747) than Republican (55,392) or Democrat (24,790). For the past several months, this has been the case. Clearly, there is a theme that lacks political affiliation – so why should our candidates be hounded to be dyed-in-the-wool Republicans or Democrats? In a previous conversation Think Howell Of had with Democrat John Hughes, he even stated, “I don’t think any party has all the right ideas,” urging for collaboration between parties for the benefit of the town. I think we can honestly learn from each mayoral candidate’s approach to this race and find the lesson in straying from party lines when necessary. This obviously isn’t an endorsement for Independents, nor is it a hit on Republicans or Democrats. After all, party affiliation brings community and a feeling of being a part of something. It can most definitely shape someone’s identity in a positive manner. But can it also be somewhat fluid? There is a sharp dissonance between Howell politics and federal politics. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. We can still identify as Democrats or Republicans federally and act more openly at the local level; in this race especially, where both mayoral candidates have the similar goal in mind to make Howell a better place despite their party affiliations.
Local politics are important. They should be focused with the type of monocle that we often omit to use when we are voting for our president. In local politics, and most importantly in Howell politics, our identities should be rooted in being a Howell citizen, and voting for whomever we feel can genuinely create the most change. We definitely need it.
