Portman, Red Bank's Ready Team Sweep Borough Council Election

RED BANK, NJ — Mayor Billy Portman and the Red Bank's Ready team won all seats on the Borough Council in its first nonpartisan election Tuesday, according to unofficial results.

Portman defeated Tim Hogan of the Red Bank Together team in the mayor's race by 1,218 to 780 votes, with all nine districts reporting as of 9 p.m. last night.

The council race saw similarly wide vote margins, with Councilmember Kate Triggiano leading the vote totals as of last night with 1,133 votes.

Other members of the Red Bank's Ready team also outperformed the Red Bank Together council candidates, including incumbents Michael Ballard, John Jackson and Jacqueline Sturdivant, who were defeated. They were part of the council majority often at odds with the mayor and Triggiano.

Independent candidate Sue Viscomi received 665 votes.

Vote totals are unofficial and won't be certified until May 18, according to Borough Clerk Laura Reinertsen, as mail-in and other ballots are counted.

But the vote Tuesday saw wide margins of support for the Red Bank's Ready team, and Portman said he is looking forward to the future:

"I really hope we can live up to our promises. We want to be more transparent, listen to the residents and be responsive," he said.

He said the team the residents elected are "already doing the work," serving in public positions such as school board and Planning Board and on the Charter Study Commission.

Tim Hogan and the Red Bank Together team, defeated in the unofficial vote totals, said in a statement: "We look forward to the final vote count. Thank you, Red Bank; we are better when we work together!"

There was not a concession call given to Portman by Hogan as of 10 p.m. Tuesday.

The mayor and council positions - seven in all - were up for election as part of the borough's charter change to a nonpartisan Council/Manager form of government, approved by a wide margin of voters in last November's election.

The new government will be seated in July. Council terms are for four years, but staggered elections will be phased in in a separate process.

The election came after a year of often bitter divisions. The regular Red Bank Democratic party was split last year, with the former chairman Ed Zipprich (currently a councilmember) supporting Ballard for mayor rather than longtime incumbent Mayor Pat Menna.

Portman came in as a political newcomer to run for mayor in the primary in 2022. He said at the time he was running because Menna's treatment by his party didn't seem right to him.

Portman was also a proponent of a change of government to a nonpartisan form - the opposite of Ballard's position.

Just last June, he easily defeated Ballard in the primary and ran unopposed for mayor in November.

And residents by a wide percentage in November voted to move to a nonpartisan government, requiring Tuesday's election for the mayor and council seats.

Now Portman will be mayor with a complete team of like-minded council members when the governing body is sworn in in July.

The Red Bank's Ready team's approaches to cannabis regulation and short-term rental rules all differed significantly from the majority now on council. Many changes can be expected in that and other areas that Portman sees as priorities, such as affordable housing and other issues.

In a recent profile in Patch, Portman said of the Red Bank's Ready agenda that, if victorious:

"We can reject the business as usual politics of the current majority, and really get things done. Marine Park, the DPW, complete streets, there are so many issues we can tackle just by having a council of selfless individuals who are willing to work as a team," he said in the profile.

Here is a list of the candidates and their unofficial vote totals as of Tuesday night. Winners are marked in bold lettering.

Mayoral candidates:

• Billy Portman: Red Bank’s Ready - 1,218
• Tim Hogan: Red Bank Together - 780

Borough Council candidates:

Red Bank's Ready:

• Kate L. Triggiano - 1,133
• Ben Forest - 1,092
• Nancy Facey-Blackwood - 1,083
• Laura Jannone -1,017
• David Cassidy - 1,046
• Kristina Bonatakis -1,022

Red Bank Together:

• Jacqueline M. Sturdivant - 756
• Sean Murphy - 812
• John L. Jackson - 667
• Linda Hill - 647
• Erin K. Fleming - 688
• Michael K. Ballard - 639

Dedicated to Representing Red Bank:

• Suzanne "Sue" Viscomi - 665