Lockwood Will Not Challenge Election

COURT HOUSE — Protected from heavy rains by the column-supported roof at the entrance of Cape May County’s main library branch here, Daniel Lockwood conceded victory to Mayor F. Nathan Doughty and announced he would not challenge the results of last week’s election for Middle Township Committee.
With all the votes counted — including Election Day, emergency, absentee and provisional ballots — Doughty defeated Lockwood by 86 votes, 4,105 to 4,019.
On Thursday, Nov. 13 with family members and Republican colleagues by his side, Lockwood read a prepared statement.
Lockwood thanked the 4,000-plus voters who supported him in the election before describing how he weighed the factors involved in a recount or an election challenge and decided instead to focus his efforts on continuing to work for the people of the township.
“I do not want to use the County Clerks’ office or Board of Elections to prolong my campaign in the way Mr. (James) Pickering (Township Solicitor) and my opponent continue to use the Township Solicitor’s and Administrator’s offices to protect their political interests and unnecessarily waste taxpayer money,” Lockwood said.
Lockwood said his campaign was not just about winning a committee seat.
“This campaign was also about the committee opening their ears and eyes to the wants and needs of our community,” he stated. “It was about the issues.”
He recalled a quote by Doughty from a Nov. 12 story in the Herald in which the mayor said, “the people have spoken.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Lockwood said. “They have spoken loud and clear and half of them are unhappy with the status quo.”
When asked if he would run again next year, Lockwood said he didn’t know yet. Lockwood, township Republican leader Ed Taylor and other party officials would decide what would be best for the party in coming months, he said.
Lockwood also confirmed that his party would again pursue an effort to collect signatures to have a measure placed on the ballot next November seeking an increase of committee seats from three to five.
The township Republican Party has unsuccessfully attempted the measure several times before and there was “very little help out of Township Hall, which has refused to look at investigating a charter study for a change of government itself,” Lockwood said.
He said the township is too big to have a governing body of only three individuals. He also said those individuals are “spread too thin.”
“When I walked door to door you don’t know how many times I heard that three-to-five question,” he said. “Middle Township is the largest municipality in Cape May County. Just Rio Grand all by itself is larger than some municipalities that already have five people.”
The three-to-five initiative is starting to get more bipartisan “non-Republican” support, Lockwood said.
He also said he had no problem with reducing the salary of committee members so as not to increase township expenses if the initiative passed.
“We have some of the highest paid committee people in the entire state,” he said noting members’ $17,500 salary plus an additional $1,500 for sitting on the Board of Health.
He noted that a personal friend of his who serves as mayor of a small town in North Jersey receives only $1,800 per year.
When asked if he was surprised by the close outcome of the election, Lockwood said he wasn’t but “Dan Lockwood on April 15 when I said I was running would have been very surprised.”
He said after knocking on 2,300 doors and receiving positive feedback like: “I’m with you, “I agree”, “We’re behind you”, and “I already voted for you,” his expectations rose.
“I knew I had a good shot,” he said.
Lockwood thinks the incredible turnout due to the national presidential election may have hurt his chances.
He noted the wild popularity of Barack Obama and the tough year for Republicans.
“If Barack Obama wasn’t on the ballot, I did win,” Lockwood said.
In fact, he would be happy to have a runoff election against the mayor with just the two of them on the ballot, he said.
The Herald was unable to reach Doughty or Pickering for comment in this story. See the Nov. 19 print edition for the complete story.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com