Woodbridge Republican Candidates Want Less Development And An End To One-Party Rule

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — Six members of the nine-person Woodbridge town Council seek re-election this November, and they will be challenged by local residents.

The six Woodbridge Council reps are all Democrats, and their challengers are all Republican. It's a partisan election in Woodbridge this year, and election day is Nov. 4, although there is early voting and mail-in voting.

The Republicans say they are running on a platform of three main issues: Stop the apartment-building boom happening under Mayor John McCormac (a Democrat); reduce the number of tax abatement, or PILOTs, Woodbridge Township gives to developers; and finally — but perhaps most importantly — end one-party rule in Woodbridge.

"There is no democracy in Woodbridge," said Ken Gardner, running for the First Ward seat against Councilwoman Sharon McAuliffe, who owns Knot Just Bagels on Main Street.

"The council votes 100 percent of the time with the mayor," he continued. "How can a town council possibly vote 'yes' on every single thing that comes up? There is no transparency. No discussion. Government is supposed to be a system of checks and balances; the council is there to check the power of the mayor."

"That is not happening right now in Woodbridge."

In the Second Ward (Fords/Hopelawn), Republican Paul Lund is challenging Councilman Harold Bauer, Jr. In Avenel, Republican Bruce Banko will challenge Cory Spillar for the Third Ward seat. In the Fourth Ward, Republican woman Gnanarani "Rani" Devaraj will challenge Councilman Virbhadra Patel, a Democrat. In the Fifth Ward (Colonia), Sam Raval challenges Councilwoman Debbie Meehan. And for the at-large seat, Republican Kristi Hanson challenges Councilman Daniel Harris, a Democrat and also an elected member of the Woodbridge school board.

Over-development in Woodbridge

Devaraj, running to represent Iselin, said Woodbridge over-development is one of the biggest reasons why she decided to run.

"Iselin has become overbuilt, with several new apartment buildings going up. I am all for growth, but once it gets beyond control it becomes cancerous to society," she said. "It takes 30 minutes to get to MetroPark train station now due to traffic. And they have not adjusted the traffic signals to adjust for all the new traffic. At some cross intersections in Iselin you are sitting there forever; we need smarter traffic signals in various parts of town. Issues like traffic are going to permanently impact our quality of life in Woodbridge."

"The overarching issue is they don't consider quality of life for people who already live here," said Lund of Mayor McCormac and the Council. "They are always, always pushing new development."

"The town has been doing a lot of building without doing the infrastructure improvements to keep up with it," agreed Raval, who seeks to represent Colonia. "For example, we are not maintaining the internal roads of Woodbridge. There are no street lights on some of the streets; kids have gotten hurt in the dark. One of the top complaints I hear from residents is property taxes are too high and there is too much traffic."

All the building is causing flooding, he added.

"Our infrastructure, such as our sewerage pipes, is overwhelmed," said Raval. "We now have water not draining correctly in some parts of town and water is backing up into streets and backyards. On some streets in Colonia, over-development is even causing sewage to back up into peoples' homes. The sewerage pipes are overwhelmed and they don't put new lines in. The system can't handle all the new buildings."

"They've tried to develop every vacant piece of property in town," said Gardner, who is also a volunteer firefighter in town. "When you build, you are displacing the water. There's been so much development we now have to do water rescues on Woodbridge Center Drive."

Candidates criticize McCormac on PILOTs

Much of the new construction in town — from apartment buildings to warehouses — has been granted PILOTs (“Payments in Lieu of Taxes”) or tax-abatement incentives.

Under traditional property taxes, the largest portion of a property tax bill goes to the public school district; then the Township and finally the county. But under a PILOT, apartment building developers pay 95 percent directly to the town, giving only a little bit to the county and bypassing the school district entirely.

McCormac contends he's been able to allot hundreds of millions to the Woodbridge school district using PILOT money, including that a PILOT is funding construction of the new elementary school in Hopelawn. Since 2018, Woodbridge has provided nearly $200 million to its school district all directly from PILOT payments, the mayor said in his 2025 State of the Township address.

But Gardner argues PILOTs give too much spending power to one person: The mayor, backed by a Council that votes exactly the way he tells them to.

"Under a PILOT, 95 percent goes directly to the town. It's become like a personal slush fund for the mayor," said Gardner.

"Let's say they are putting up a new five- or six-story apartment building and they gave them a PILOT," said Woodbridge Republican Party chairman John Vratric. "These PILOTed buildings don't pay school tax or fire tax. Yet these monstrosities require fire protection; they send kids to the schools."

"The mayor always says these new buildings will have 'no kids, no cars." But they do have kids and cars, look at the traffic," said Gardner.

"We need to scrutinize all these PILOT programs," said Devaraj. "For example, the new (apartment) building in front of MetroPark will pay a $100-million PILOT over 30 years. So the town is able to take that money and put $40 million into building a new school in Hopelawn. Why can't that money be used to fix School 18, School 26 in Iselin? If the people in the Fourth Ward are suffering all this traffic for the new buildings, then the tax money should be spent in Ward Four schools, rather than building a new school in Ward Two."

"And I have concerns about opening another government school in Hopelawn," said Lund, who is himself a New Jersey public schoolteacher. "Government schools are failing; they are doing very well at indoctrination and very poorly at education. I don't want to see another government school with gender-neutral bathrooms that is getting such poor returns. I want school choice. If we really need that school in Hopelawn I think it should be a charter school ... As long as there's competition around it. Government schools are epic failures."

Lund added:

"With all this PILOT money, is it ever going to bring tax relief? No."

More transparency needed, end one-party rule in Woodbridge, candidates say

All six Republicans running also think Woodbridge residents deserve a variety of opinions.

McCormac, a Democrat, has been Woodbridge mayor for nearly 20 years, since 2006. The Council is all Democrat. And one of the highest-ranked Democrats in the state, New Jersey Assembly speaker Craig Coughlin, represents Woodbridge in the state Legislature and is also paid to work as Woodbridge's council attorney.

"(McCormac's) been recorded saying, 'I own everything in Woodbridge, everything's mine,'" said Lund, referring to this secretly-recorded clash between Gardner and McCormac in 2021.

They also said Council members should not have voted to give themselves a raise; a Woodbridge Council person is now paid $25,000 yearly for the job.

"It's a part-time position. If all nine of them agree on everything, then eight of them are unnecessary," said Lund. "I just want to put a monkey wrench in McCormac's Democrat machine. Let them be true public servants."

Said Devaraj:

"I've worked in IT in banking for the past two decades and I want to put my skills from the banking sector to use in Woodbridge; I want to see how the municipal budget is getting used. But there is no transparency around the budget. Every time someone from the public asks something, we are told, 'You have to go through OPRA.' 'Oh, you can't see this; this is a private matter.'"

"We need transparency," she said.

Mail-in ballots will start arriving in homes soon.

Council at large seat, vote for one:

• Daniel Harris, Democrat, current Councilman
• Kristi Hanson, Republican

Ward 1 seat (Woodbridge proper):

• Sharon McAuliffe Democrat, current Councilwoman, seeks re-election
• Ken Gardner, Republican

Ward 2 seat (Fords/Hopelawn):

• Harold Bauer, Jr. Democrat, current Councilman, seeks re-election
• Paul Lund Republican

Ward 3 seat (Avenel):

• Cory Spillar Democrat, current Councilman, seeks re-election
• Bruce Banko Republican

Ward 4 seat (Iselin):

• Virbhadra Patel Democrat, current Councilman, seeks re-election
• Gnanarani Devaraj Republican

Ward 5 seat (Colonia):

• Debbie Meehan Democrat, current Councilwoman, seeks re-election
• Sam Raval Republican