5th term for Santos, 'best campaign so far'

KEARNY - Democratic incumbent Al Santos cruised to victory last night in Kearny's mayoral race, earning a fifth term on a platform that focused on taxes and affordability.

Santos handily defeated Republican challenger John Leadbeater, a former councilman who once served as president of the town's governing body, 3,632 to 2,653, earning 58 percent of the vote.

The mayor won all four wards.

"I think this is the best campaign we've run so far, and that's because it didn't unfold just a month before Election Day," Santos said at a victory party at the Arlington Players Club.

"This campaign was run over the last four years with myself and the council doing our jobs."

Santos has been an outspoken critic of New Jersey's system of taxation, which funds local, county and state government, as well as schools, through property taxes.

Santos credited his administration's conservative fiscal policies, which have included a hiring freeze and redevelopment efforts he says have generated $46 million in new ratables, as the main reasons Kearny finished its last fiscal year June 30 with a surplus.

In Kearny's only contested council race, Third Ward Democratic Councilwoman Carol Jean Doyle defeated Kearny Board of Education member John Campbell, an independent, 1,301 to 501.

Doyle pledged to support the administration's redevelopment efforts to help stabilize Kearny's tax base, as well as to continue prudent financial management on the municipal level.

"Voters are still looking for tax stability. That was the message as I went door-to-door, to lower taxes," said Doyle, who chairs the town's finance committee.

"I think we've been very conservative. We've made big changes in finances and we have to stay focused on that issue."

Kearny Democrats also ran uncontested races in the town's three other wards.

Alexa Arce (674 votes) and Albino Cardoso (683) won First Ward seats; Madeline Peyko (530) was elected in the Second Ward; and Michael Landy (978) won another term in the Fourth Ward.