By MADDY VITALE
Voters have a lot of choices to make for who their federal, county and local officials will be when ballots are cast and counted on Tuesday.
Ocean City residents will choose between who they want to represent them in the U.S. House of Representatives. There are also two Cape May County Commissioner seats up, County Surrogate and four seats on the Ocean City Board of Education.
The major race is between U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2, who is running for his third, two-year term against Democratic newcomer Tim Alexander.
At the county level, Republican incumbent Cape May County Commissioner E. Marie Hayes is running with newcomer candidate Andrew J. Bulakowski for two commissioner seats. Veteran Cape May County Commissioner Director Gerald Thornton chose not to seek reelection to the three-year term.
The Democratic challengers for County Commissioner are Julia L. Hankerson and William Laffey.
Cape May County Surrogate Dean Marcolongo is running unopposed for the five-year term.
There are six candidates vying for three, three-year seats on the Ocean City Board of Education. The incumbents are Board President Dr. Patrick Kane, Gregory Whelan and Dr. Charles Roche. The challengers include Elizabeth Nicoletti, Catherine Panico and Kevin Barnes. The top three vote-getters will win the board seats.
Three candidates are running to fill an unexpired one-year term. Incumbent Ryan Leonard was appointed to fill the post in August and will try to secure the seat through the end of December. Robin Shaffer is also running along with former board member, Dale Braun. Leonard, Braun and Shaffer all ran unsuccessfully in the November 2021 School Board election.
ELECTION RUNDOWN:
For questions or concerns about the voting process, call the Ocean City Clerk's Office at 609-525-9328.
