Higher office

Middlesex Mist, a new lemon-lime soda manufactured by an Edison firm, was hyped by Middlesex County officials during the recent State of the County address at Middlesex College in Edison.

The roll-out wasn’t intended to entice constituents to increase their caloric intake. Instead, the largely promotional beverage carried a message: county government is business-friendly, in an era when some locales are not.

Middlesex Borough Mayor Jack Mikolajczyk was among those in attendance. Mikolajczyk endured a difficult municipal budget preparation this spring, trimming costs while scraping for tax dollars and attempting to rein in the coming increase.

He was not pleased to see county politicos involved with a promotional soft drink while he and officials in other towns are not filling open staff positions. Mikolajczyk offered his thoughts when the Middlesex Borough Council introduced its budget the following week.

“It left me disenchanted,” he told those attending the council session at the Ronald S, Dobies municipal building. “It tells me they’re spending your money.” Mikolajczyk noted there was also talk of promotional trading cards during the county address. He pointed out the county piece of the borough property tax bill now stands at 16% when it was barely in double-digits only a few years ago.

Mikołajczyk will have the chance to share his opinions on county spending and other related topics this fall, to a wide audience. He and Spotswood Council President Andrew Zaborney are the Republican candidates for two seats on the Board of County Commissioners that will be decided by voters in the general election.

The GOP duo are unopposed in the coming June primary. They will square-off against Democratic incumbent commissioners Charles Tomaro and Leslie Koppell this November.

The mayor and his running mate are attempting to buck decades of county electoral history. No Republican has won a countywide election since 1991. The Board of Commissioners was known as the Board of Freeholders prior to 2021.

The county campaign is the next step in Mikolajczyk’s two-decades-long career in elected office. He served seven years on the Middlesex Borough Board of Education, nine years as a councilman, and is in the third year of the four-year mayoral term to which he was elected in 2023. If elected to a county commissioner seat, by law, Mikolajczyk would be required to step down from his mayoral position.

Mikołajczyk said he was approached by the Middlesex County Republican Organization about running for commissioner. He screened and was endorsed by the county GOP. Candidate petitions needed to be submitted by late March. The mayor feels his county candidacy is a plus for the borough. “It’s good PR for Middlesex, win, lose or draw,” he said. “It can only help the town with positive press.”

“I’m going to run on my record as a fiscal conservative,” Mikolajczyk added. “I think I can make a difference.”

While at the State of the County event, Mikolajczyk got to see the expansion that’s occurring at Middlesex College, formerly Middlesex County College. It’s another example that county officials are not afraid to spend money, he said.

Middlesex County comprises 25 municipalities and contains more than 863,000 people according to the 2020 U.S. Census. The Board of Commissioners has seven members who each serve three-year terms. They oversee a county government that has six main departments, which report to the county administrator and are supported by various offices, boards and commissions.

Mikołajczyk commented that the commissioners “have a lot of mouths to feed,” meaning that various departments and offices all seek funding. He questioned whether the most persistent voices tend to get it or if the commissioners “are really in touch with their constituents.”

The escalating tax bill percentage being paid to the county has consequences in real dollars, Mikolajczyk noted. Some Middlesex Borough homeowners may now be sending three-times the amount to the county as they did not many years ago.

“Nothing is getting cheaper,” he said. “I know exactly what I’m getting for my town and school taxes. The county is a little more nebulous. What do we get?”

Mikołajczyk acknowledges he and Zaborney have a “tough road” to victory given recent years’ success by Democratic county candidates. If victorious, he sees some parallels to the borough’s municipal governing body. The commissioners also operate with a committee structure. “It’s a larger version of municipal government,” he said.

“At the end of the day, the idea is to get things done,” Mikolajczyk said. “Some go into a new office and try to be a bull in a china shop. I have no hidden agenda.”

The mayor has made no decision on his political future if not victorious in November. His current mayoral term expires at year-end 2027. “I’ve been pretty open that I don’t know if I’m going to be a two-term mayor,” Mikolajczyk said. “I’m going to leave that open.”

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