In the mailbox

Fall means getting ready to vote in the November general election. With that, comes the candidates’ pitch to support them.

In the cyber era, it’s fair to wonder how many people search their mailbox for voting guidance. One old-time political custom that is still not dead and buried is the mailing of campaign flyers.

Though unopposed, the 2023 Middlesex Republican team of mayoral candidate Jack Mikolajczyk and council running mates Mike Conahan and Kevin Dotey have continued the tradition.

On some items, the GOP trio’s mailer gives a straight-forward portrayal. Infrastructure work progressed this summer and steps have been taken to save on a sewage bill charged by Piscataway.

Llke pretty much any other smalltown political flyer, theirs sticks a few items in a “Recent Accomplishments” section that are open to interpretation.

“2021 and 2022 – $0 municipal tax increase.” The GOP trio avoids talking about 2023 and with good reason. The municipal tax levy rose 7.55% this year. Many residential property owners didn’t notice, however, because the recent revaluation recalculated property values.

“Increased police staffing.” Yes, the all-Republican council has done that, but only after a prior, GOP-hired borough administrator tried to bleed the PBA dry in contract talks.

“Restored depleted municipal surplus.” Yeah, but this one is particularly tricky to sort out. From 2014-19 combined, more than $10 million in surplus was used to plug holes in budgets. The final year in that span, Republicans controlled the council by a 4-2 margin.

During the earlier years, Democrat-controlled councils readily spent surplus. All but one of those years, the governing body included a then-Democratic councilman named Kevin Dotey.

While the current GOP candidate team ballyhoos the Republicans’ surplus restoration, their mailing ignores that Dotey was one of the culprits who drained it. They also ignore that their own party siphoned off a bit of it in 2019.

The Mikolajczyk/Conahan/Dotey team is unopposed in the election. That being the case, their mailing throws no shade at opponents. During the administration of former Democratic Mayor Ron DiMura, campaign mailings from the two political sides routinely featured boasts and counterclaims.

The golden years for campaign literature disses were 2018-19. Middlesex Borough Republicans won two seats to gain the council majority in 2018. The following year, the GOP won two more seats, gaining complete council control, and ousted DiMura a month before his indictment.

Both years featured entertaining political mailings.

In 2018, one Doug Rex-Jason Carr flyer featured an unnamed character who can be referred to as the Skeptical Guy (lead photo). The classic piece shows the Skeptical Guy pointing to the boasts on a Democratic flyer while laughing hysterically. The word “deceit” is spelled out in red letters above him.

No single campaign flyer will ever sum up an election as well as that one. Who knew the Skeptical Guy would prove prophetic as the state Attorney General’s crew came to town asking questions the next fall?

The Rex-Carr PR machine cranked out another memorable flyer containing a word scramble. It appealed to the game-players among the Middlesex electorate while attempting to make the case that something was amiss at borough hall.

The Democratic response in those years was weak and that’s being polite. In 2018, one Democratic flyer erroneously claimed the borough was enrolled in a federal flood insurance premium reduction program. It’s the flyer that the Skeptical Guy points at.

DiMura supposedly oversaw creation of the Democratic flyers during those years but does not appear to have put in much effort.

In 2017, one Dem flyer contained “A Plan for the Future.” It included: Maintain Sound Financial Management; Provide the Best Public Safety for our Residents; Provide the Highest Standards of Municipal Services for Less; Continue to Improve our Borough’s Infrastructure.

In 2018, one Dem flyer contained a future plan. It included: Maintain sound Financial Management; Provide the Best Public Safety for our Residents; Provide the Highest Standards of Municipal Services for less; Continue to Improve our Borough’s Infrastructure.

Voters either noticed that the Democrats had plagiarized themselves or weren’t fond of the plan. All four Democratic candidates lost over that two-year period.

Those years also featured the appearance of a Stacey Keach look-alike in flyers from two different Democratic campaigns. Presumably, no other celebrity doppelgängers were available to portray Middlesex firefighters.

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