Voters exit the Hook & Ladder Fire House on Mechanic Street, site of the district 1 polling station, after casting their ballots Tuesday.

Long an island of aqua in a red county, Red Bank went inky blue this year, throwing itself behind the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama and taking away from Republicans the only two seats they held on the borough council.

According to the Monmouth County Clerk’s office, the county overall went for McCain/Palin by a margin of 51.3 percent to 47.4 percent over Obama/Biden.

But separate data provided by the borough campaigns showed all nine Red Bank districts lining up behind the president-elect, giving the Dems a 2,889 to 1,556 victory.

That’s nearly 65 percent of the total. District 9, in the southwest corner of town along Newman Springs Road, was most emphatic in rejecting McCain, going for Obama by a 440-to-37 vote majority. (Click map to enlarge)

At the local-race level, the sweep was nearly as thorough.

A voter signs in at the 8th district polling station at the Red Bank Housing Authority Tuesday afternoon.

Republican Grace Cangemi — an incumbent running her third campaign in three years — was the top vote-getter in districts 2, 4 and 5, eking out marginal if clear wins. But her running mate, John Tyler Jr., failed to come out on top in any district.

In fact, Cangemi and Tyler were trounced on their home West Side, despite Tyler’s high profile over quality-of-life issues arising from his efforts to put Best Liquors out of business for repeated law infractions. The 8th district, in which they reside, went for the Democratic pairing of Juanita Lewis and Ed Zipprich by 619 to 305.

District 9, where overall top vote-getter Lewis resides, went with the Democrats 685 to 136. Zipprich eked out a two-vote margin over Cangemi to finish second in his home 1st district.

For the next year at least, Democrats hold all six council seats and the mayoralty. Up for grabs next November are the seats held by Art Murphy and Mike DuPont.

Here are the council race results in a Word document: Download red_bank_council.doc

And here’s the focus on POTUS, sliced and diced: Download POTUS.doc

Have at it, data mavens…

Email this story