Mike Reina announces he will run for reelection in 2009
July 5, 2009 by NJ News
Filed under Jackson News
Jackson Township mayor Mike Reina walks along the trails at the Bunker Hill Bogs Wildlife Recreation area, a newly created township eco park which reclaimed hundreds of acres of woodlands from local developers.
Jackson, NJ – Today, Jackson Township Mayor Mike Reina has announced that he will run for reelection as our town’s mayor in the November general election. Reina was appointed as Mayor by a large majority in a 4-1 vote by the town council after the departure of Mark Seda to serve as an interim Mayor until November. Mike Reina, an independent Republican who has supported non-partisan government was part of a bold mixed democrat and republican ticket in a previously unheard of bi-partisan campaign.
That bipartisan partnership however fell apart when former running mate Mike Kafton, who suggested he should be next in line for mayor, balked at Reina’s nomination by the council and cast the lone dissenting vote against Reina. Kafton’s fellow democrats disagreed with the former democrat club president and both republican and democrat council members voted yes to Reina’s appointment. The council’s confidence in Reina demonstrated he was indeed the best person for the job and his appointment was in the best interest of Jackson Township.
Mike Reina inherited a mess from former Mayor Mark Seda and vowed to work with both democrats and republicans to find solutions to many of the town’s problems. Now Reina, like any other resident who wishes to run for mayor will proceed in the first part of the process which includes gathering 350 signatures from registered Jackson voters. No longer does being Jackson’s mayor depend on past political patronage or paying dues to a party for a nomination. Any resident who can gather 350 signatures is eligible to run, just one of many forms of transparent and open government supported by Mike Reina.
Recently, Mike Reina reinstated township advisory boards which would give ordinary Jackson Residents in a position to make recommendations directly to the Mayor and empowering residents in our town’s government process. It was a decision that was applauded by the community, but opposed to by Reina’s former running mate. ”I have re-opened boards and commissions that were left by the wayside. By doing so I invited Jackson residents to participate.” explained Reina. Regarding his newly announced candidacy, Mike Reina said “It is an honor to represent this town, regardless of the length of time I have to do it.”
The winner of November’s election however, is to only serve the remaining time on former mayor Mark Seda’s term, and which will run until the May 2010 mayoral election.
Mayor Mike Reina dons a tie crafted by local Jackson Kindergartners as he takes time out of his busy schedule to celebrate Father's Day with children and dads at the Lucy N. Holman Elementary School
And we’re surprised by this? Why is this newsworthy? It’s obvious that the mayor was going to seek reelection. What will be newsworthy is who will be running against him.
I will also correct you once again – Mike Kafton is NOT the Democratic Club president. Kevin DiGesu is. You are working off of an old listing from a couple of years ago. If you need verification, come to the meetings and you will see that Kevin is the president.
It is newsworthy to those who might not have known, especially to the cowards who have been continuously threatening him, probably hoping that he wouldn’t.
Also, it was stated that Mike was the FORMER Democratic Club president; that doesn’t need correcting, because he actually was. Why so defensive?
Not defensive Stephanie, just wondering why this is newsworthy at this point in time. Also wondering why the title of democratic club president has to come into this at all. This is way too early to be concerning ourselves with who is running 5 months from now. People in Jackson still think that Seda is mayor so I’m sure they don’t care at this point in time that Mike Reina or Mike Kafton are throwing their hats in for November.
Way to go Mike! Glad you will be running for reelection. Hopefully the people of Jackson will see what a fine job you are doing! Keep up the good work
I have to clarify your statement in the above article. The vote for Mr. Reina to temporarily fill the mayor’s seat until the general election was 3 votes for (including M. Reina), 1 abstention and 1 against. As I recall, Ms. Rivere abstained and announced her reason for doing so.
This is newsworthy because our town’s mayor has sent out notice that he does intend to run in November. When Mike Kafton or anyone else announces their election, it will also be published here as it’s an important event for our town and it is a story that none of the other papers yet caught on, so for me, as a former press employee, I do enjoy beating the ‘paper’ to any Jackson related news and in the past 2 months, I have beat them to the punch MANY times. So that is the personal motivation for the article. I want to highlight the lack of interest the ‘paper’ has for Jackson, except for when something bad or stupid happens. The ‘paper’ has consistently trashed Jackson, yet never covers the good news in town unless I or somebody involved throws a brick through their window with a note on it.
For instance.. how many times have other news providers covered the Little League World Series tournament? Bunker Hill Bogs opening? Anything about our schools? In fact they miss most major accidents and the ones they have reported on was because I gave them the leads (which I have stopped doing).
There is A LOT happening in and around town, but Jackson Township does not sell papers for ‘G-nett’. I worked for the G-Word for many years and trust me. They do not care about what happens in Jackson unless it’s one of our politicians making an idiot out of themselves, a deadly accident, gypsy moths or some other %$it stirring incident that they can make the town look bad.
I think it’s great news that after all the crap Reina had to go through this year, people thinking he’s another Seda, threats, his former running mate turning on him, crap with the parks and rec., etc.
Why do I always reference Kafton as Former Democrat Club President? Because his agenda is 100% politics. The skatepark.. politics.. everything this man does is to try to attack others and as a resident, I’m sick and tired of seeing Mike Kafton make Jackson look stupid in the papers and his party cheering him on at the sidelines, so the link, in my opinion needs to be made, that yes.. he does respresent the party, even though the party seems to be trying to distance themself in the public eye from his antics.
They need to boot him like the republicans booted Seda. Our town doesn’t need people like them anymore. It’s the same reason that anytime I type the word Krakower, it will be followed by failed political campaigns and treasurer of the Democrat Club because again, the Democrat Club feels this need to also try to control the BOE.. which I will do my best to end and dedicate as much time and resources I can to rid the BOE of anyone closely associated with either party. Politics has no business in education.
So that is why. The 3-1 correction will be made. However, it doesn’t change the fact that he had strong bi-partisan support and Kafton acted like a child when Reina was appointed.
Sorry Phil, 3 Republicans voting for Mike Reina doesn’t constitute strong bipartisan support.