Toms River election results 2023: Republicans win big, new mayor taking over

TOMS RIVER - Republican Councilman Daniel Rodrick rode a wave of anger about development in the township to a resounding victory in the mayor's race, beating Democrat Ben Giovine in an election that will reshape Toms River's future.

Rodrick received 13,701 votes — nearly 70% — while Giovine trailed with 5,715. Rodrick's GOP running mates, Craig Coleman, Thomas Nivison and Lynne O'Toole, also won big, defeating Democrats Ruby Franco, Rhetta Jackson-Fair and Michele Williams, along with write-in candidates Dana Tormollan and Paul C. Williams.

O'Toole received 13,281 votes; Nivison, 13,220; and Coleman, 13,089. Williams received 5,553 votes; Franco, 5,276; and Jackson-Fair, 5,061. There were 519 write-in ballots cast.

Nivison owns Silverton Farm. O'Toole is president of Phase II of the Holiday City Silverton adult community. Coleman is a retired Ocean County Vocational School District administrator. They will serve four-year at-large terms.

"I believe tonight's vote is a referendum on the downtown redevelopment plan," Rodrick said, speaking at the Ocean County GOP victory party at the Clarion Hotel in Toms River. "No one wants to live in a city. We moved to Toms River to get away from cities."

Rodrick vowed again last night to find a way to halt Capodagli Property Co.'s controversial plan to build a pair of six-story apartment towers with 281 apartments on land located at Main and Water streets in the downtown. The proposal — reduced in size from the initial 10-story towers previously approved for the land — received the green light from the township's Planning Board earlier this month.

To some, the apartment towers have become a symbol of the "overdevelopment" of Toms River.

Rodrick also said he will repeal the ambitious redevelopment proposal crafted for the downtown in 2018, which would allow hundreds of units of housing, along with retail and restaurants, to be built in the area. That plan was supported by Downtown Toms River, the township's business improvement district, and the Greater Toms River Chamber of Commerce.

"I called Councilman Rodrick and congratulated him on the race," Giovine said. "I think there are still a lot of challenges in our community that we are going to have to face. I wish him and the council members a lot of luck."

Rodrick's campaign focused on "stopping development," in a town where there has been backlash against the large-scale building that's happened along the Route 9 corridor in the formerly rural North Dover and Pleasant Plains sections, particularly in the past 10 years.

Toms River's population was estimated at 98,326 by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2022, up about 3% — or nearly 3,000 people — from 2020.

Ocean County election results 2023: Live county, municipal and school board results

He said Toms River residents showed their distaste for more development, including the apartment towers, when they voted for him in the June GOP primary, in which he defeated Mayor Maurice B. "Mo" Hill Jr., Geri Ambrosio and Robert Bianchini to be the Republican nominee for mayor by large margins. His victory followed a bitter primary campaign that divided Toms River's two Republican clubs.

Rodrick first ran for mayor in 2019, when Hill defeated him and former Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato in a three-way GOP primary.

Rodrick said Tuesday night that he believes Toms River's two GOP clubs should unite.

"I think it's really important we we bring the two clubs together," he said. "We are stronger when we are united."

Rodrick, 47, has been a councilman representing the township's Ward 2 since he was first elected in 2017 as a Democrat. Democrats won three council seats that year, in an election dominated by concerns about overdevelopment, but in July 2018, Rodrick switched to the GOP. He said Democrats were "out of touch" with middle-class voters and taxpayers.

Giovine, a former president of the Toms River Regional Board of Education and a senior aide to U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., ran a truncated 10-week campaign after the initial Democratic candidate for mayor, John Furey, dropped out of the race in mid-August. Giovine mostly targeted Independents in a door-knocking campaign that he had hoped might help to tighten the race.

Toms River Regional Board of Education results

Ashley Lamb, Paola Pascarella and James Capone won three-year terms representing Toms River on the regional board as voters selected candidates from two separate tickets to fill the three available board seats.

Ashley Lamb was the only incumbent to seek re-election in the race; Lisa Contessa chose not to seek re-election, while Michele Williams chose to seek a council seat on Giovine's ticket.

Lamb won her second, three-year term with 9,073 votes; Pascarella received 8,528, and Capone, 8,101.

Lamb, 37, a small business owner, ran on the "Vote Common Sense" slate with Diane Oxley, 69, a kindergarten teacher at Ocean Academy Charter School in Lakewood, and Pascarella, 43, a veterinary technician at Northstar Animal Hospital.

Capone, 46, who owns Capone's Gourmet Pizza and Pasta House in downtown Toms River, and LeRoy Marshall, 43, a Lakewood police captain, ran on the "For the Students" slate. School board races are nonpartisan.

Oxley received 7,556 votes, and Marshall got 6,410.

All results are unofficial and do not include provisional ballots.

Jean Mikle covers Toms River and several other Ocean County towns, and has been writing about local government and politics at the Jersey Shore for nearly 40 years. She's also passionate about the Shore's storied music scene. Contact her: @jeanmikle, jmikle@gannettnj.com.

Staff Writer Erik Larsen contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ election 2023: New Toms River mayor, Repubilcans sweep seats