Feeley, Tighe and Gibson celebrate their 2017 election victory with a champagne toast.
By Donald Wittkowski
Hardly a nail-biter, Sea Isle City held a municipal election Tuesday that proved every bit as quiet as the beach town’s sleepy off-season.
Incumbents Mary Tighe and Jack Gibson and newcomer J.B. Feeley ran unopposed for three City Council seats, guaranteeing them victory as soon as they walked into the voting booth.
“Congratulations, I assume,” Gibson said to Feeley in a bit of humor as the vote totals came in after the polls closed at 8 p.m.
“It looks good,” Feeley replied, laughing.
According to the City Clerk's Office, Feeley had 330 votes, Tighe 327 and Gibson 323. In unofficial results, a total of 21 write-in votes were cast for a number of people who did not run. Among them, former Mayor Mike McHale got one vote and local developer and businessman Christopher Glancey received two.
Council members serve four-year terms and are chosen at-large in the nonpartisan election. Tighe, Gibson and Feeley will be officially sworn in during Council’s reorganization meeting on July 1.
Tuesday’s election was the second time in the past two years that the Council candidates ran unopposed. In this race, Feeley took the place of Councilman John Divney, 76, who decided not to seek re-election after serving for 10 years.
Although the election was a low-key affair, the candidates stressed that they took nothing for granted. They used mailers, robocalls and held get-out-the-vote rallies to drum up interest in the race.
“Even though there was no opposition, we ran everything like a regular election,” Gibson said.
Gibson called the election “a vote of confidence” in the candidates and City Council. Tighe characterized it as a “mandate” that illustrated voter satisfaction with the direction the city has been heading under the current leadership.
“If things weren’t going as well as everyone liked, believe me, people would be out there and there would be opposition,” Tighe said.
