Politics & Government

Council Candidate Drops Out of Race, Backs Independent

Anthony Contey Jr. will work to get Jacqueline Pisatowski elected to represent the 1st Ward.

A potential candidate for the 1st Ward council seat has withdrawn from the election.

Anthony Contey Jr., the brother-in-law of former 1st Ward Councilman Alan Purcell, will instead back independent candidate Jacqueline Pisatowski.

“I entered this race… to affect change in our ward. After realizing that your priorities are [in] common with mine I am honored to join your campaign rather than run for council myself,” Contey wrote in a letter to Pisatowski. “[The 1st Ward] needs hard working people like you to lead us.”

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The winner will serve the rest of Purcell’s term, which is set to end in 2015.

Contey said recently that he wanted to run but hadn’t made a decision yet.

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Purcell resigned from the council in June. He’s been battling emphysema since 2004.

Pisatowski is running against Democrat Gary Marchese and incumbent Republican Richard Jasterzbski.

Pisatowski is one of the founders of the Wayne Republican Party for the People, a grassroots political organization that is working against the Wayne Regular Republican Organization.

Pisatowski said she wants to get justice for the flood victims people who live in her ward.

“Every time it floods you have people who say that they’re going to stay here as long as they get their insurance money,” Pisatowski said. “There has to be a better solution. Every time it floods down there that’s more police and medical service personnel going down there.”

Pisatowski said she in favor of buying out homes and letting the area “go back to the nature” as the township already is by buying out dozens of homes in the Hoffman Grove section of town.

“There’s a lot of people down there who would like to get out,” Pisatowski said. “They’ve had it.”

Pisatowski said she was inspired to run after Tropical Storm Irene struck North Jersey. She said she spoke to a lot of residents that week who were not happy.

“People said that no one was helping them,” she said. “I had an oil tank in front of my house and it was just ignored. We’re in the 1st Ward but sometimes it feels as if we’re treated like we are in the last ward. You wouldn’t see that in Packanack Lake.”

— Have a question or news tip? Contact editor Daniel Hubbard at Daniel.Hubbard@patch.com or find us on Facebook and Twitter. For news straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.


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