Incumbent Dems breeze through June 5 primary

GOP's Struben & Curcic get enough signatures

to be on ballot

BY KATHY CHANG

Staff Writer

The four, four-year council-at-large Democratic incumbents defeated newcomer Frederick "Fred" T. Fry in the Woodbridge Township Democratic primary last week and will run in the November election.

Councilwoman Patricia Osborne, who has been on the council since 1996, was the top vote-getter with 1,801 votes, council President Brenda Velasco, who has been on council since 1996, received 1,772 votes, Councilman James Carroll, who has been on the council since 1994, received 1,755 votes, and Councilman Gregg Ficarra, who replaced former Councilwoman Caroline Ehrlich, received 1,738 votes. Fry received 130 votes.

The four candidates will run with Mayor John E. McCormac, who received 1,942 votes.

The Republicans have a full slate for November with John Vrtaric, the township Republican Organization chairman, running for the four-year mayoral term. Magdalena Curcic of Woodbridge, Paul Lund Jr. of Hopelawn, Christopher Struben of Colonia, and John E. Vieira of Colonia are seeking the four, four-year council-at-large seats.

Vrtaric received 349 votes, Lund received 334 votes, and Vieira received 322 votes.

In April, Municipal Clerk John Mitch made the decision to take Curcic and Struben off the primary ballot due to a lack of the required 50 signatures that each candidate must provide with their submitted application.

Struben and Curcic submitted a joint petition by the April 9 deadline with their fellow Republicans Lund and Vieira, seeking the four-year council-at-large terms.

Mitch said the majority of the signatures on the petition appeared to be for Lund and Vieira. The cover sheet had all four candidates' names on the top with 11 signatures, which all the candidates shared.

Struben's and Curcic's names were not on the primary ballot; however, they received the 50 signatures they needed to receive on Primary Election Day (June 5) to have their names on the ballot for the November election.

"The votes they received at the polls and on absentee ballots totaled over 50, making them eligible to run in the November election," said Mitch.