By DON STINE
Two incumbents, including the current mayor, and one newcomer won four-year terms to the Deal Board of Commissioners in Tuesday’s nonpartisan election.
Winning seats were Mayor Morris Ades, incumbent Samuel M. Cohen and newcomer David Simhon.
It was the first time in decades that the three incumbent commissioners did not run on the same ticket.
“This is very unusual and I can’t remember this type of challenge since I came here in the 1970s. We never broke up a team of incumbent commissioners,” Mayor Morris Ades said during the campaign.
Ades teamed up with incumbent Commissioner Virginia S. Weiner while the other incumbent, Commissioner Cohen, teamed up with political newcomers David Simhon and Reuben Antebi. Resident Barbara Coffey also ran for a seat on the board.
Ades maintained his seat with 113 votes, or 18.65 percent but Cohen and Simhon were the top two vote-getters, with Cohen getting 122 votes, or 20.13 percent, and Simhon getting 119 votes, or 16.64 percent.
Antebi came in fourth with 102 votes, or 16.83 percent, with incumbent Weiner coming in fifth with 92 votes, or 15.18 percent. Coffey came in last with 56 votes, or 9.24 percent. There were two write-in votes, which accounts for .33 percent of votes cast.
Ades has lived in Deal for over 40 years and has served as Chairman of Deal’s Planning and Zoning Boards since 1989. He will now serve his third term on the Board of Commissioners and has been mayor since 2013.
Cohen, who has been on the board for six years, will now serve his second full term. He said he formed his own ticket because he and his running mates feel not enough is being done to beautify the borough.
