Manalapan resident quits one race, enters another
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

Joe DePasquale

MANALAPAN - Joseph DePasquale has decided to forgo his pursuit of a seat on the Monmouth County Board of Free-holders as a Republican and instead seek election to the Township Committee as an independent candidate.

DePasquale, 44, is presently a member of the Manal-apan-Englishtown Regional School District Board of Education. If he is elected to the committee in Novem-ber he will have to resign from the school board.

DePasquale an-nounced two weeks ago that he was going to run as a Republican for a seat on the board of freeholders - the county's governing body - on a ticket with Manalapan Committeeman Joseph Locricchio, who was going to mount a bid for the 12th District state Senate seat.

However, Locricchio announced last week that he was resigning from the committee on May 1 and giving up his bid for the Senate seat because of health concerns.

DePasquale said given the fact that Locricchio was bowing out of the race, he was going to have to abandon his bid for the freeholder seat because there was no longer a full ticket and because he did not have the money needed to "go head to head with the (Monmouth County) Republicans" in a primary challenge.

He said he had been planning to change his voter registration from Republican to unaffiliated a year ago and finally did so last week in order to run for the Township Committee in November as an independent candidate.

DePasquale, who owns an exterior maintenance company, said he is running for the committee because as a resident and a business owner in the township he can "bring a lot to the people of Manalapan."

He said he believes that like himself, the voters have had enough from the Democrats and the Republicans.

"I'm totally disenchanted with both sides so I think that as an independent I can bring harmony to the town," he said.

There will be two three-year terms on the committee up for grabs in the November election.

As of press time Monday, the News Transcript was aware that Republicans Andrew Lucas and Susan Cohen, and Democrats Drew Shapiro and Herbert Barrack were also in the race.

Lucas is serving as Manalapan's mayor this year and is completing his first term in office.

Shapiro served on the committee from 2001-06 and did not seek re-election last year.