Hughes wins, Law and Lefkovits in near tie

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — With three candidates vying for two Glen Ridge borough council seats, incumbent Peter Hughes locked up one seat by a wide margin, but the race between challenger Rich Law and incumbent Councilman David Lefkovits for the remaining spot was too close to call, according to uncertified results released by Borough Clerk Michael Rohal. With 2,143 votes tallied, Hughes received 898 votes; Law, 636 and Lefkovits, 609.

On election night, Rohal informed The Glen Ridge Paper that mail-in votes remained to be tallied later in the evening and about 40 provisional ballots would be counted later in the week. When reached by phone, Law did not want to proclaim victory.

“There’s some provisional ballots,” he said in a brief telephone interview. “I don’t think it’s decided.”
But a celebratory Hughes was grateful to the people who had come out and voted for him.

“I think I have something to bring to the table,” he said in a telephone interview, “and I’m glad to contribute.”
Reached at Fitzgerald’s, Hughes said he was thanking people at the restaurant and would be making some phone calls, too.

“And my wife, Susan, really helped me,” he said. “She deserves credit. We’re going to be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary in a year from this coming August.”

One concern Hughes had mentioned leading up to Election Day was a solution to traffic snarls at the Bloomfield and Ridgewood avenues intersection.
“We’re going to spend some money and do a design and bring it to the county,” he said. “Otherwise, if you wait for the county to come to you, you’re in line with other intersections.”