The deadline for political parties to submit candidate petitions for this year’s municipal elections was 4 p.m. today. Although the candidates are needed for the primary election in June, Roselle Park political parties almost always have uncontested primaries, so their primary candidates are by default the partisan candidates for the general election in November. This year is no different.
The offices of mayor, second ward council, and fifth ward council are up this year and the candidates for office – as of today – are:
- Mayor: William Fahoury (R), Carl Hokanson (I), Joseph Signorello III (D)
- 2nd Ward: Richard Graves (R), Joseph E. Petrosky (D)
- 5th Ward: Robert A. Mathieu (D), Thomas ‘Thos’ Shipley (R)
26-year-old William Fahoury is the current councilman for the third ward, having been elected into office in November of 2016. He is the youngest candidate for municipal office this year.
The current mayor, Carl Hokanson, decided to run as an Independent when he realized that he would not be given the backing of the Roselle Park Democratic Committee (RPDC). Before his announcement to run, all mention of his name and that of his family were removed from the RPDC website.
The RPDC decided instead to unanimously support 30-year-old Joseph Signorello III as their mayoral candidate early last month. The fifth generation Roselle Park native – a newcomer to local politics – is the son of current Roselle Park Fire Department Fire Chief and Board Of Education member Joseph Signorello Jr.
The office of mayor is a four-year-term.
Richard Graves is the former assistant superintendent for the Roselle Park Department of Public Works (DPW). He resigned from that position in 2016. He will be running against current second ward councilman Joseph Petrosky. In 2016, Councilman Petrosky defended Mr. Graves in his position as assistant superintendent when the matter came up during a municipal budget workshop.
Councilman Petrosky will be running to keep his seat for a second full term. He was appointed in January of 2015 to fill the vacancy caused by then-councilwoman Charlene Storey winning her election for Council-At-Large in 2014 and leaving her office as second ward councilwoman. Councilman Petrosky won the November election that year for a three-year term which is up in December of this year.
36-year-old Robert Mathieu will be running as the Democratic candidate for the fifth ward against current councilman Thomas ‘Thos’ Shipley. Mr. Mathieu, who moved into Roselle Park in 2016, will face Councilman Shipley who moved into the borough in 2010 and is married to current Council-At-Large, and former mayor, Joseph DeIorio.
Although Mr. Hokanson submitted his petition today, anyone interested in running for local office as an Independent has until the Primary Election day, Tuesday, June 5th, to file a petition to be included in the November 6th General Election ballot.
School board candidates have until July 30th to file a petition to run for one of three vacant seats to be decided on by voters in the November General Election.