OCEAN BEACH, NJ – It was standing room only Thursday night at the Channel Marker restaurant in Ocean Beach as state, county, and local Republican leaders and supporters gathered to celebrate the first-year accomplishments of Toms River Mayor Dan Rodrick.
The event was so packed that there was a line to get in the door, and many attendees parked blocks away to attend.
A Toms River Republican-based PAC, Citizens for Good Government NJ, which has honored Rodrick twice so far, has raised nearly $100,000 this year to support Republican candidates who support good government principles such as lowering taxes and fiscal responsibility in the upcoming 2025 election in Toms River.
Also in attendance were two candidates running to become the next governor of New Jersey, NJ101.5 radio host Bill Spadea and New Jersey State Senator John Bramnick who both gave motivating speeches about the successes in Toms River and the goal of turning New Jersey red in November. Jack Ciatarrelli, who was scheduled to speak at the event, got tied up at another event and could not make it in time, said Ciattarelli campaign manager Eric Arpert.
Rodrick has yet to formally endorse a candidate, but said any one of these three candidates would be a vast improvement over the current administration.
“We need to do all we can to get the state of New Jersey and our local municipalities back on the right track of fiscal responsibility and good government,” the mayor said.
“It’s been a very busy and successful year for Toms River. We were able to pull ourselves out of a very bad deal made by former Mayor Maurice Hill to build a city full of 10-plus story hi-rises downtown,” Rodrick said. “We doubled the size of our EMS staff and greatly reduced response times, especially on the barrier island. Our police department is fully staffed, we saved $6 million annually on health insurance by shopping around. We also eliminated a draconian and overreaching ordinance that forced people selling their homes to have their dreams tied up in red tape, sometimes causing them to lose their sale for work people did on those homes 40 and 50 years ago, long before they bought their homes.”
Mayor Rodrick also touted the township’s reduction in unnecessary administrative staff. That staff mainly consisted of politically appointed patronage jobs and the reduction of necessarily overstaffed departments.
Dignitaries, including New Jersey State Assemblymen Paul Kanitra, Greg McGuckin, and Senator Robert Singer. Ocean County Commissioner Robert Arace and former Ocean County Commissioner Joseph Vicari joined them, along with mayors and council members from around Ocean County. Toms River Council President Justin Lamb was joined by fellow councilmembers Craig Coleman, William Byrne, and Lynne O’Toole.
The event was also to celebrate a new era of unity within the greater Ocean County Republican party and to start bringing the party together ahead of the 2025 election cycle.