The June 7 New Jersey primary may seem distant now, but we’ve finally had a chance to catch our breath and tally up the numbers.
We have the final counts for Hillary, Bernie, Frank, Mike — and, yes, Leafy McBlower.
Previously, we reported that Hillary Clinton bested Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Presidential primary by a margin of about 2 to 1. It was a surprisingly rousing victory for Clinton considering the fact that the town’s lawns were blooming with a bumper crop of Bernie signs in the weeks leading up to the primary election.
But no, Maplewood went big for Hillary: The vote was 4,209 for Clinton; 1,782 for Sanders. That’s more like a 2.4 to 1 margin.
In fact, Clinton beat Sanders in every single Maplewood district. He came closest in the 1st district where Clinton won 159 to 98; Bernie got the worst whooping in the 13th where Hillary had 178 votes to his 31.
Democratic candidate for Maplewood Township Committee Frank McGehee beat them both with 4,238 votes with 95% of the vote counted (we should note that McGehee, unlike Clinton and Sanders, ran unopposed).
Republican candidate for Township Committee Mike Summersgill won his primary with 264 votes.
There were also a number of write-in votes.
Former Mayor and Township Committeeman Jerry Ryan received 10 votes via write-in. In addition, Michael Bloomberg received one vote for President. Mickey Mouse got a nod for House of Representatives, and Darth Vader received one unspecified vote.
Finally, in a nod to the great Leaf Blower Controversy of ’16, Leafy McBlower received one write-in vote for County Committee.
