Glen Gilmore

Hamilton Mayor John BencivengoStrengthened by what he described as a "shared vision with my people, a cause to be accomplished and a dream come true," John Bencivengo officially became mayor of Hamilton today as he was sworn in by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith in the ballroom of the Nottingham Firehouse in front of a crowd of 350 people.

"I wish that I could have given a more cheerful address today," said Bencivengo in a nod to the town’s $10 million budget deficit. "But even if our fiscal circumstances had been better, even if we had ample surplus, I’d be saying the same things. It should be our goal, no matter the circumstances, to do more with less."

The former Republican Party municipal chairman and fired government worker ran and won on a platform of restoring common sense and accountability to government. Today Bencivengo swore always to remember that working families fund the town, and promised to present the 2009 budget on time in July.

He made the second of these vows in defiance of the record of his predecessor, Glen Gilmore, who sat on the document last year until a judge ruled he had to release it to the Township Council prior to the November election. The release of the 2008 budget, which initially showed a $5 million shortfall, helped propel the Republican Bencivengo to victory over Gilmore by fewer than 500 votes.

Manville Mayor Angelo Corradino lost his bid for re-election to a fifth termA bowling alley named Tenpin Lanes stands in the center of Manville, between a pair of Superfund sites that are the remnants of the town’s bulldozed factory era.

The alley for years has been a source of entertainment and relaxation for the hard luck blue collar work force here, and for Angelo Corradino, the borough’s longest serving mayor who straddled the transition Manville made from factories to shopping malls, and who earlier this month lost by 78 votes in his bid for a fifth term in office.

An old high school linebacker and longsuffering Jets and Mets fan who spent 19 years as an elected official in Manville, the past 16 of those as mayor, Corradino says rumors that he wanted to go full time with an annual salary of $95,000 sank his chances of re-election.

Hamilton Mayor Glen Gilmore today said he was disappointed but not shocked by the results of an election he lost earlier this month by 51 to 49%, and wouldn't speculate on the details of a comeback.

Asked about rumors that he would challenge Rep. Christopher Smith in 2008, Gilmore left the door open.

Slapped on Election Day with a front page headline notifying voters in Hamilton Township that there is a $5 million shortfall in the budget, Mayor Glen Gilmore said he is confident Hamiltonians will judge him on his full body of work as mayor.

"They came in at the last minute but we have laid the foundation to withstand that," said Gilmore in the Colonial Firehouse, addressing the Republican Township Council's successful efforts yesterday to release the town's financial assessment in the hours before Election Day.

Republican mayoral candidate John Bencivengo peruses the town's financial assessment statement in Hamilton.

It’s all politics in Hamilton a day before Election Day as Republican mayoral candidate John Bencivengo climbs out of his sport utility vehicle and walks into the office of Council President Dave Kenny.

Kenny and the Republican Council have been fighting with Democratic Mayor Glen Gilmore over the town’s budget and pressuring the mayor through the courts to release details of Hamilton’s financial health before, and not after, the mayoral election.

Moments earlier, the appellate division of the state Superior Court upheld Kenny’s appeal, and denied Gilmore’s motion to issue a stay in the release of the town’s annual financial statement. Now Bencivengo watches as Kenny receives by fax the financial statement from Bowman and Company, the company charged with preparing the information.

On the day before a critical mayoral election, Republicans chalked up a key victory in Hamilton today.

Following a state judge's ruling against Mayor Glen Gilmore's request for a stay on the town's municipal budget, Bowman & Co. released the township's annual financial statement to Republican Township Council President David J. Kenny.

Gilmore is in a close race with John Bencivengo, who has complained since August about the mayor's unwillingness to release details of the budget.

Kenny said that the budget contains a $4 million deficit on the revenue side, and a $1 million deficit on the expenditures side.

Dismissing the protocol that says the champion needs to enter the ring last, Hamilton Mayor Glen Gilmore sat on stage before GOP challenger, John Bencivengo, made his entrance today in the ballroom of the Nottingham Fire House.

General election politics in most towns gets ugly come October. In the politically charged Hamilton, where everything hits a little earlier, the candidates have been trading freely and often. Months ago, Bencivengo went after Gilmore on gangs and the mayor’s open space plan. Gilmore’s camp in turn hit Bencivengo on the latter’s attempts to sell anthrax-proof hand lotion to terror-spooked postal workers, and floated a rumor that an overwrought Bencivengo would soon be exiting the race.

"We’re going to sweep in the 14th," boasts Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, of the GOP ticket comprised of Assemblyman/State Senate candidate Bill Baroni and running mates Tom Goodwin and Adam Bushman.

The prediction assumes that Baroni’s star power will be sufficient to catapult Goodwin and Bushman into the State Assembly -- a bold statement given Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein’s reputation as a worker bee, and her four consecutive wins in a politically competitive district.

The GOP-controlled Hamilton City Council today lashed out at Mayor Glen Gilmore, charging the Democrat with sitting on the town’s budget and riding out the election before notifying taxpayers of a 25 % tax hike.

"Under law the budget was supposed to be produced by August 10th, but he wants to put it off," complained Council President Dave Kenny, who said the most obvious preliminary numbers to jump out at him were from a recent auditor’s findings showing $4 million in increased spending and $2 million in decreased revenues, among other add-ons.

In response to Republican challenger John Bencivengo's call for ten debates, Hamilton Mayor Glen Gilmore said he would settle for three engagements.

"Mayor Gilmore's not doing ten debates," said Gilmore spokesman Doug Suessegger. "The mayor's got a town to run."

The candidates already had one debate at Steinert High School. Suessegger said the mayor would be available to do two more prior to the election on Nov. 6.