Verona voters returned President Barack Obama to office by a margin of just 51 votes. The unofficial vote count compiled in Town Hall shows 3,373 votes for Obama and 3,322 votes for Romney. The total turnout was 65.7%, down more than 10 percentage points from the 2008 general election.
Sen. Robert Menendez carried Verona with a slim 246-vote lead, 3,072 to 2,726 votes for Republican challenger Joe Kyrillos. The margin was similarly narrow for Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, who had Verona added to his 11th congressional district in December 2011. The vote in Verona was 2,914 for Frelinghuysen and 2,660 for Democrat John Arvanites. Rep. Betty Lou DeCroce won election to the state Assembly, by a 2,822 to 2,644 margin over Joseph R. Raich.
Verona voted Yes on state public question 1, dubbed the Building Our Future bond act. If approved by the rest of the state, New Jersey will be authorized to issue $750 million in bonds to provide matching grants to public and private universities in the state for expansion. The vote in Verona was 3,101 for and 2,037 against.
Verona voted overwhelmingly for state public question 2, which will mandate that Supreme Court and Superior Court judges contribute to their employee benefits, something that public employees in other field have also been required to do. The vote here was 4,038 for and 1,052 against.
The local public question, to institute a full-day kindergarten program, was defeated by just 169 votes. For more about that vote, see this story.
Definition of forward: situated in advance; notably developed;moving toward a position in front; advocating an advanced policy in the direction of what is considered progress.
As a local business owner I value the economic policies our elected officials put in place. The recent years have not been easy for any of us so lets just say forward better mean what I think it does. The change that I have experienced over the last years is not kind I’d like to repeat.