Franklin Lakes couple wins seats on Council, school board with 'rights' campaign

Marsha A. Stoltz, NorthJersey.com
·4 min read

FRANKLIN LAKES — The wife and husband team of Kim and Joel Ansh won seats on the high school board of education and borough Council on Tuesday with an unorthodox joint campaign promoting parents' rights.

Their campaign overshadowed the election of Joel Ansh's running mates.

Four-term Councilman Charles Kahwaty was elected mayor and will succeed Frank Bivona, who did not seek reelection after 11 years in office.

Ardith Cardenas was elected to the Council after some back and forth. She tried to drop out of the primary race, but later rescinded her withdrawal and eventually won.

Charles Kahwaty was elected mayor of Franklin Lakes Nov. 8.
Charles Kahwaty was elected mayor of Franklin Lakes Nov. 8.

Also overshadowed was the election of grade school board incumbent Elisa Billis to a new term with running mates Lisa Cardella and Robert Spiotti.

Kim and Joel Ansh and Cardenas were already active attendees at Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School board meetings when Joel Ansh and Ardith were tapped by the borough's GOP committee to run on the party line with Kahwaty in the June primary, unexpectedly passing over four-term incumbent Council members Ann Swist and Joseph Cadicina.

Kim Ansh filed in July to run a second time for a seat on the Ramapo board, which also serves students from Wyckoff and Franklin Lakes. She had lost her 2021 bid for that post to incumbent Helen Koulikourdis.

Kim Ansh, Franklin Lakes candidate for Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School Board of Education in 2022.
Kim Ansh, Franklin Lakes candidate for Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School Board of Education in 2022.

The party-line designation is considered a virtual guarantee of November election success in this GOP-dominated borough. Kahwaty and Cardenas campaigned conservatively, if at all. However, Kim and Joel Ansh continued speaking at high school board meetings, questioning policies on COVID, curriculum and fiscal issues. Joel Ansh's campaign flyer promised to "challenge discriminatory school taxes" even though the Council has no jurisdiction over school budgets.

The Anshes were the only Franklin Lakes candidates invited to participate in an October "meet and greet" including some Wyckoff school board candidates with GOP county and district nominees by Women United for a Stronger New Jersey Its founders include Mae Bogdansky, wife of Wyckoff board candidate Tom Bogdansky, and Cynthia Phillips, who runs the Board Buzz biweekly YouTube critique of the high school board with former Ramapo board President Filomena Laforgia.

Joel Ansh, 2022 candidates for Franklin Lakes Council
Joel Ansh, 2022 candidates for Franklin Lakes Council

Comments and questions from Ansh, Phillips, Laforgia and Oakland parent Deborah Mutterer about a district dishwasher purchase from the owners of Yudin's Appliance Store while their daughter, Vivian King, a store employee and member of the school board, led to a lawsuit against the four by store owners Sue and Bob Yudin, who said the four made "defamatory" remarks, inferring the purchase was made illegally in violation of district codes despite repeated assurances from board officials that King had been excluded from the decision-making process.

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Charges are pending against Laforgia and Phillips, but were dismissed against Ansh and Mutterer. Ansh promptly devised a website and handbill urging voters to "stand up for parental rights and freedom of speech" which the couple distributed door to door with campaign flyers, despite the Council's autonomy from the school board.

Kahwaty declined to comment on Ansh's campaign Thursday, instead saying "the people of Franklin Lakes have accorded me one of the greatest honors of my life in electing me as their mayor."

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"Mayor Bivona has left a tremendous legacy of accomplishment, which represents both a challenge and an opportunity for both myself and the incoming council," Kahwaty said. "I will do my best to justify the voters' confidence in me, whatever lies ahead."

Kim Ansh gave "a special thanks to the many Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff volunteers who helped me with my campaign."

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"My gratitude is beyond measure," Kim Ansh said. "I'm also grateful for the outpouring of support from the Franklin Lakes community.  You have my complete commitment to fulfill my campaign promise to put our students first."

Joel Ansh also thanked his supporters.

"I'm honored and humbled to have been elected and I look forward to serving the constituents of Franklin Lakes on the Town Council," Joel Ansh said.

Franklin Lakes mayoral vote:

  • 3,253 - Charles Kahwaty (R)

  • 891 - Michael Strauss (D)

Ardith Cardenas, 2022 candidate for Franklin Lakes council.
Ardith Cardenas, 2022 candidate for Franklin Lakes council.

Franklin Lakes Council vote:

  • 2,727 - Joel Ansh (R)

  • 2,603 - Ardith Cardenas (R)

  • 1,180 - Fernando Saenz (D)

  • 717 - Susan McGowan

  • 640 - Gary Sheppard

Franklin Lakes regional high school vote:

  • 1,858 - Kim Ansh

  • 1,607 - Maria "Amparo" Underfer

Franklin Lakes grade school board vote (three seats):

  • 2,228 - Lisa Cardella

  • 1,990 - Elisa Billis

  • 1,758 - Robert Spiotti

  • 987 - Sarah Mourad

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Franklin Lakes elects new mayor, school board members