ENGLISHTOWN – Two Republicans, one Libertarian and one independent candidate are seeking two three-year terms on the Borough Council in Englishtown this year. Voters will head to the polls on Nov. 6.
Libertarian Daniel Francisco and independent candidate William Lewis are seeking the seats that are currently held by Republicans Lori Cooke and Maryanne Krawiec.
Cooke and Krawiec are seeking re-election. They did not respond to requests for comment.
Francisco moved to Englishtown in 2017 after living in Manalapan. Noting his passion for limited government and minimizing the impact of its footprint, he said he intends to find ways to get government out of making decisions for residents and give that choice to residents with voluntary transactions in the private sector.
“Government overreach into the life of the average citizen is a travesty,” Francisco said. “Parents have zero choices regarding where to take their tax dollars to foster competition with public sector institutions like schools. Since school budgets occupy the majority of our local property tax dollars, that is certainly a key issue. Recently, I had to vote on whether to expand a local school budget by an eight-figure number. This is absolute insanity.
“I am active in the Second Amendment community and am passionate about the abuses that occur daily in this state to law-abiding citizens,” he said. “I hope that as a member of the council, I can help Englishtown become a beacon in New Jersey by following the letter of state law, which is often abridged and abused by countless municipalities across the state, particularly when it comes to issues regarding licensing.”
Currently working in the deregulated energy industry, Francisco also has experience in media and politics as an executive director for a political nonprofit organization, in addition to conducting television and radio interviews, hosting political talk shows, and working with donors and stakeholders.
He said his interest in politics began when he conceived his political philosophy of limited government at Rutgers University, which he found to be reaffirmed at the private sector jobs and nonprofit positions he held.
Francisco said the most important issue facing Englishtown is the budgets that property owners support for the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District and the Freehold Regional High School District. He said those budgets make up the majority of a resident’s tax bill.
“My wife is a former educator and I am a former student of (those school districts),” Francisco said. “I am intimately familiar with what I see as failures in school systems run by government and powerful unions.
“I find it comical that in every aspect of our lives, we feel comfortable petitioning the private sector to provide staples like car insurance, mortgage loans or cheeseburgers, but when it comes to the subject of education that is somehow the sacred cow that only the government should control and administer.
“I recently voted on an eight-figure (referendum) request from the Freehold Regional schools,” he continued. “What private sector business do you know that has a finance department repeatedly asking for additional funding to increase their budget while they produce no definable increase in value return?
“In the private sector, you are rewarded for reducing financial liabilities and increasing revenue. To do the inverse is to march toward bankruptcy, or in our case, to run a public school system.
“Unfortunately, local taxpayers get stuck with the bill year after year, under the threat of force,” Francisco said. “Getting government out of the way on many issues like education, and being a champion for school choice for parents is a fantastic step toward a system with financial accountability.”
Lewis is making his first bid for public office. He moved to Englishtown in 2011.
“I have been observing the way things are conducted since becoming a resident,” Lewis said. “As the father of five boys and being an athletic coach, I receive a lot of feedback from my neighbors and friends in town. Since I have always been interested in politics, I want to leverage my local relationships to help improve our borough.”
Professionally, Lewis has worked as an operating engineer.
“I have seven years experience in working as an operating engineer,” he said. “Leading teams in critical environments has given me the discipline and knowledge to work with people from many backgrounds.”
If elected, Lewis said the issues he intends to address are transparency, the borough’s website, bill collection, desirability for businesses and residents, and education costs.
“Transparency is very important to me,” Lewis said. “The borough’s website is habitually down, our local bill collection is difficult and antiquated, and I refuse to accept that our historic borough is just a ‘cut-through town.’ Englishtown needs to become hospitable to businesses and residents. Education costs are driving property taxes to absurd heights.”
