Politics & Government

Howard Effron Running As Independent in Committee Race

Local blogger and former Democratic primary candidate running for one of two open seats in November

A longtime Barnegat resident and former Democratic primary candidate has entered the race for two open Township Committee seats as an independent.

Howard Effron, 54, a 24-year resident of the township, collected the required resident signatures to allow his name to be added to the ballot in November.

Effron, who is married with a son and is a chef at Kubel’s and Kubel’s Too on Long Beach Island, previously made an unsuccessful bid for a Democratic candidacy in the 2009 primary. This time, he said, he wanted to give voters a choice beyond the same two parties they’re used to seeing run the township.

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When it comes to Republicans and Democrats, “I believe they’re now one and the same,” he said. “It’s more or less one club.”

Effron writes a local blog, Let's Talk Barnegat, and also posts his blog entries on Barnegat Patch.

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If elected, he said, he’ll push for more transparency in local governance, in part through use of the Internet.

“I’m very interested in trying to get the website revamped with more pertinent information as to contracts,” he said. “I’d like every resolution on every agenda (posted on the Web) to have a link to it,” so residents could read over the text of what would be voted on ahead of each meeting.

“We have the technology, and it’s been done before by the township, but it’s very inconsistent,” Effron said.

In addition, he’d like to see the town meetings televised. “It’s been talked about for two years now,” he said, “but nothing has come of it. That’s the big problem I have with government, is how slow it works.”

Effron also said that if elected, he’d make a priority of responding to resident’s email queries – something he said those currently on the dais aren’t committed to. Too often, they allow the township administrator to handle correspondence he thinks they should be responsible for.

“If you send me an email, believe me, you’ll get a response personally from me,” he said.

Effron said he’s not planning an aggressive early campaign, but that he’d likely spend more time getting the word out about his candidacy in the fall, and he plans to debate his opponents – Democrats Leonard Morano and Michael P. Howard and Republicans Martin Lisella and Maxine Blumenthal.

“Right now, I’ve done what I wanted to do, and that’s get on the ballot,” Effron said. Hopefully, he said, people will see his run the way he does – as an opportunity to bring fresh ideas and perspective to the Committee.

“Most people don’t care, because they don’t think anything will change,” he said. He hopes his presence on the ballot will change that. “It will give them an alternative,” he said.


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