One incumbent, two newcomers win in Sea Isle election

Sea Isle City’s first contested election since 2011 produced some major surprises Tuesday night in the race for three City Council seats.

Councilwoman Mary Tighe won re-election to her fifth term, but Councilman J.B. Feeley, the other incumbent in the race, finished last in the voting in his bid for a third term.

Tighe and Feeley’s running mate, Mike Jargowsky, a retired Sea Isle police captain, was the top vote-getter in his first shot at elected politics.

Winning the third seat on Council was another newcomer, Ian Ciseck, a Sea Isle real estate agent. Ciseck’s running mate, Steve Cossaboon, finished fourth in the voting.

Unofficial results showed Jargowsky with 613 votes, Tighe with 488, Ciseck with 438, Cossaboon with 413 and Feeley with 408.

“I’m honored that the people put their trust in me,” said Jargowsky, while expressing surprise at being the top vote-getter. “I think it helps that I’m a newcomer. People wanted to see how I would do. Change in inevitable.”

Feeley seemed stunned when the results came in showing that Ciseck beat him by 30 votes for the third Council seat. However, he was relieved that Tighe and Jargowsky prevailed.

“I lost. Well, two out of three ain’t bad. Two out of three is better than it could have been,” Feeley told a crowd of supporters at the Sea Isle Inn.

    Councilman J.B. Feeley studies the vote totals.
  

Normally, Sea Isle’s elections are devoid of any drama because the incumbents routinely run without opposition. This election represented the first one since 2011 to have a contested race.

With one incumbent losing and two political novices taking wins, the results strongly suggested that voters were ready for new faces on City Council.

“The chatter was that it was time for a change. People wanted a change. That was evident in the results,” Tighe said.

The Council members will be sworn in for their new terms on July 1.

Ciseck is promising to push for even greater change on the governing body as soon as he takes office. He said he intends to serve no more than two terms and believes there should be formal term limits placed on all members of City Council in Sea Isle, as well as the mayor.

“I would hope that Mary would like to join me to champion that issue,” he said of his intention to seek Tighe’s support for term limits.

    Ian Ciseck, right, shown with running mate Steve Cossaboon, wins the third City Council seat. (Photo courtesy of the Ciseck-Cossaboon campaign)
  

Tighe is one of the five original Council members who were elected when Sea Isle switched from a Commission-style form of government to the Mayor-Council format in 2007. The win gives her fifth consecutive term on Council. She also formerly served a two-year term under the previous form of government.

City Council has five members, but William Kehner and Frank Edwardi Jr. were not up for re-election this year.

Now that the election is over, Tighe expressed confidence that all of the Council members will continue to work together for the benefit of their constituents and the city.

“It will continue to be a great place to be. We’ll have five members up there doing what’s best for Sea Isle,” she said.

Mayor Leonard Desiderio also offered assurances that Sea Isle’s elected officials will continue to collaborate with each other.

“We are Sea Isle, and we are sticking together. We will be stronger than ever,” he said.