Election 2023: Freehold Township Committee Republican Primary

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, NJ — There are three Republican candidates running for two spots on the Freehold Township Committee in the GOP primary on Tuesday.

The candidates include two incumbents, including the mayor and deputy mayor, and a newcomer to politics. There is no Democrat who filed to run in the primary election.

Here are the candidates, as presented on the ballot:

Township Committee: Full term, vote for two:

• Lester A. Preston, Jr. (R) Monmouth County Republican Organization
• Alan C. Walker (R) Monmouth County Republican Organization
• Deborah A. Madge (R) Eager To Work For Our Families
• No Petition Filed (D)
• No Petition Filed (D)

Deputy Mayor Lester A. Preston, Jr. began serving his first term on Township Committee in 2015, according to his township biography. In 2017, he served as mayor. In 2012, he retired from D.L. Ryan Companies, Ltd., where he served as treasurer/chief financial officer. He is a Life Member of the Freehold Fire Department, serving 27 years as a member of Engine Hose and Company No. 1.

He is a co-founder and director of The Graeme Preston Foundation for Life.

In addition to serving on the Freehold Township Recreation Commission, Lester is a former coach for the Freehold Soccer League as well as a coach in other local youth sports.

Mayor Alan Walker has been a nearly lifelong resident of Freehold Township, moving to the township in 1970. He has volunteered his time to several different local organizations, his bio says, including coaching in the Freehold Township Little League in both softball and baseball. Most recently, he served as a Parks and Recreation Commissioner from January 2011 through January of 2020, the last two years as Commission Chairman.

In his 2023 mayor's letter to residents, Walker cited several accomplishments of the committee, including shared service agreements with other governmental entities; road improvements; hiring of more police officers; reusing the long defunct Lone Pine Landfill as a solar energy facility; and acquiring a 150-acre tract for open space.

Deborah A. Madge acknowledges she is new to politics and township government involement, but says she did volunteer on the parent/teacher organization and was president of the Football Parents club at Freehold Township High School, which her children attended.

Madge is a Realtor with Keller Williams Western Monmouth, and said in addition she has been a school bus driver for the past 23 years, 19 years with Freehold Township Elementary, and the past four years with the Freehold Regional High School District.

She said her husband and his family as well as their sons are lifetime farmers in the community as well as working full-time jobs. "Without preventing needed progress, I would work toward keeping Freehold Township as family oriented," she said.