Editing Neptune Township, New Jersey (section)

== Government ==
=== Local government ===
Neptune Township is governed under the [[Township (New Jersey)|Township]] form of New Jersey municipal government, one of 141 municipalities (of the 564) statewide that use this form, the second-most commonly used form of government in the state.<ref>[https://njdatabook.rutgers.edu/sites/njdatabook.rutgers.edu/files/documents/inventory_of_municipal_forms_of_government_in_new_jersey.pdf ''Inventory of Municipal Forms of Government in New Jersey''], [[Rutgers University]] Center for Government Studies, July 1, 2011. Accessed June 1, 2023.</ref><ref>Cerra, Michael F. [https://www.njlm.org/809/3982/Forms-of-Govt-Magazine-Article "Forms of Government: Everything You've Always Wanted to Know, But Were Afraid to Ask"], [[New Jersey State League of Municipalities]], March 2007. Accessed January 1, 2025.</ref> The Township Committee is comprised of five members, who are elected directly by the voters [[at-large]] in partisan elections to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with either one or two seats coming up for election each year as part of the November general election in a three-year cycle.<ref name=DataBook>''2012 New Jersey Legislative District Data Book'', [[Rutgers University]] [[Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy]], March 2013, p. 58.</ref><ref>[https://njdatabook.rutgers.edu/sites/njdatabook.rutgers.edu/files/documents/forms_of_municipal_government_in_new_jersey_9220.pdf#page=7 "Forms of Municipal Government in New Jersey"], p. 7. [[Rutgers University]] Center for Government Studies. Accessed June 1, 2023.</ref> At an annual reorganization meeting the Township Committee selects one of its members to serve as Mayor and another as Deputy Mayor.

{{As of|2025}}, Members of the Neptune Township committee are [[Mayor]] Robert Lane Jr. (D, term on committee and as mayor ends December 31, 2025), Deputy Mayor Kevin McMillan (term on committee ends 2027; term as deputy mayor ends 2025), Jason A. Jones (D, 2025; appointed to serve an unexpired term), Derel M. Stroud (D, 2027) and Tassie D. York (D, 2025).<ref name=Committee>[https://neptunetownship.org/2025-neptune-township-committee Township Committee], Neptune Township. Accessed January 30, 2025.</ref><ref>[https://neptunetownship.org/sites/default/files/documents/2024Clerk/1334_adoptbudget_2024.pdf 2024 Municipal Data Sheet], Neptune Township. Accessed January 30, 2025.</ref><ref name=Monmouth2024>[https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NJ/Monmouth/122857/web.345435/#/summary November 5, 2024 General Election Official Results], [[Monmouth County, New Jersey]], updated December 16, 2024. Accessed January 1, 2025.</ref><ref name=Monmouth2023>[https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NJ/Monmouth/119047/web.317647/#/summary November 8, 2023 General Election Official Results], [[Monmouth County, New Jersey]], updated January 18, 2024. Accessed January 22, 2024.</ref><ref name=Monmouth2022>[https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NJ/Monmouth/116246/web.307039/#/summary General Election November 8, 2022 Official Results], [[Monmouth County, New Jersey]] Clerk, updated December 27, 2022. Accessed January 1, 2023.</ref>

In October 2024, after the township committee didn't make a choice from the three candidates nominated, the township's Democratic Party committee chose past Neptune Board of Education President Jason A. Jones to fill the seat expiring in December 2025 that became vacant following the resignation of Keith Cafferty the previous month.<ref>Daye, Charles. [https://www.app.com/story/news/local/neptune-wall/neptune/2024/10/24/neptune-township-committee-job-jason-jones/75807503007/ "Candidate who was skipped over twice before gets Neptune Township Committee job"], ''[[Asbury Park Press]]'', October 24, 2024. Accessed January 30, 2025. "The local Democratic Party chose to fill the vacant seat on the Township Committee with Jason Jones, who had been passed on twice before in the past year and was once fired from his job as a school business administrator.... Township Committeeman and former mayor Keith Cafferty resigned last month due to personal reasons, leaving a vacant seat on the governing body for the third time in 12 months.... Under state law, since the Township Committee did not appoint one of the three people submitted by the local Democratic Executive Committee, it went back to the Democrats, who had until Oct. 30 to choose one of the three themselves."</ref>

In April 2021, the Township Committee selected Tassie York to fill the seat expiring in December 2022 that had been held by Carol J. Rizzo until she resigned from office to move out of the county.<ref>Cervenka, Susanne. [https://www.app.com/story/news/local/communitychange/2021/04/15/neptune-township-replaces-committeewoman-carol-rizzo-tassie-york/7212541002/ "Lifelong Neptune woman joins Township Committee after previous member resigns and moves"], ''[[Asbury Park Press]]'', April 15, 2021. Accessed May 16, 2022. "The township has a new committee member after former Committeewoman Carol Rizzo moved to Ocean County. The Neptune Township Committee selected Tassie York as Rizzo's replacement Monday night."</ref> York served on an interim basis until the November 2022 general election, when she was elected to serve the balance of the term of office.<ref name=Monmouth2021>[https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NJ/Monmouth/111499/web.278093/#/summary November 2, 2021 General Election Official Results], [[Monmouth County, New Jersey]], December 13, 2021. Accessed January 1, 2022.</ref>

In January 2016, the Township Council selected Carol J. Rizzo from three candidates nominated by the Democratic municipal committee to fill the seat expiring in December 2016 which was vacated by [[Eric Houghtaling]] when he took office in the [[New Jersey General Assembly]] earlier that month.<ref>Stine, Don. [http://thecoaster.net/wordpress/new-committee-member-in-neptune/ "New Committee Member in Neptune"], ''The Coaster'', January 29, 2016. June 1, 2016. "Resident Carol J. Rizzo was appointed to the Neptune Township Committee Monday night to fill the unexpired term of Eric Houghtaling, who took office in the State Assembly earlier this month."</ref>

=== Federal, state and county representation ===
Neptune Township is located in the 6th Congressional District<ref name=PCR2022>[https://www.njredistrictingcommission.org/documents/2021/Data2021/Plan%20Components.pdf 2022 Redistricting Plan], [[New Jersey Redistricting Commission]], December 8, 2022.</ref> and is part of New Jersey's 11th state legislative district.<ref name=Districts2011>[https://www.nj.gov/state/elections/assets/pdf/2011-legislative-districts/towns-districts.pdf Municipalities Sorted by 2011-2020 Legislative District], [[New Jersey Department of State]]. Accessed February 1, 2020.</ref><ref name=LWV2019>[https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5bae63366fd2b2e5b9f87e5e/5d30f0a94a82c66427e564d2_2019_CitizensGuide.pdf ''2019 New Jersey Citizen's Guide to Government''], New Jersey [[League of Women Voters]]. Accessed October 30, 2019.</ref><ref>[https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/districts/districtnumbers.asp#11 Districts by Number for 2011-2020], [[New Jersey Legislature]]. Accessed January 6, 2013.</ref>

{{NJ Congress 06}} {{NJ Senate}}

{{NJ Legislative 11}}

{{NJ Monmouth County Commissioners}}

===Politics===
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|}
As of March 2011, there were a total of 18,093 registered voters in Neptune Township, of which 6,481 (35.8%) were registered as [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]], 2,780 (15.4%) were registered as [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] and 8,825 (48.8%) were registered as [[Unaffiliated (New Jersey)|Unaffiliated]]. There were seven voters registered as [[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarians]] or [[Green Party (United States)|Greens]].<ref>[http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/election-results/2011-monmouth-co-summary-report.pdf Voter Registration Summary - Monmouth], [[New Jersey Department of State]] Division of Elections, March 23, 2011. Accessed December 5, 2012.</ref>

In the [[United States presidential election in New Jersey, 2012|2012 presidential election]], Democrat [[Barack Obama]] received 71.8% of the vote (9,350 cast), ahead of Republican [[Mitt Romney]] with 27.3% (3,552 votes) and other candidates with 0.9% (113 votes), among the 13,109 ballots cast by the township's 18,929 registered voters (94 ballots were [[Spoilt vote|spoiled]]), for a turnout of 69.3%.<ref name=2012Elections>{{cite web |url=http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/2012-results/2012-presidential-monmouth.pdf |title=Presidential General Election Results - November 6, 2012 - Monmouth County |date=March 15, 2013 |publisher=New Jersey Department of Elections |access-date=December 24, 2014}}</ref><ref name=2012VoterReg>{{cite web |url=http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/2012-results/2012-ballotscast-monmouth.pdf |title=Number of Registered Voters and Ballots Cast - November 6, 2012 - General Election Results - Monmouth County|date=March 15, 2013 |publisher=New Jersey Department of Elections |access-date=December 24, 2014}}</ref> In the [[United States presidential election in New Jersey, 2008|2008 presidential election]], Democrat Barack Obama received 69.4% of the vote (9,900 cast), ahead of Republican [[John McCain]] with 28.7% (4,100 votes) and other candidates with 0.4% (56 votes), among the 14,265 ballots cast by the township's 19,505 registered voters, for a turnout of 73.1%.<ref>[http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/election-results/2008-gen-elect-presidential-results-monmouth.pdf 2008 Presidential General Election Results: Monmouth County], [[New Jersey Department of State]] Division of Elections, December 23, 2008. Accessed January 12, 2015.</ref> In the [[United States presidential election in New Jersey, 2004|2004 presidential election]], Democrat [[John Kerry]] received 60.0% of the vote (7,803 ballots cast), outpolling Republican [[George W. Bush]] with 38.8% (5,044 votes) and other candidates with 0.5% (100 votes), among the 13,004 ballots cast by the township's 18,444 registered voters, for a turnout percentage of 70.5.<ref>[http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/election-results/2004-presidential_monmouth_co_2004.pdf 2004 Presidential Election: Monmouth County], [[New Jersey Department of State]] Division of Elections, December 13, 2004. Accessed December 5, 2012.</ref>

In the [[New Jersey gubernatorial election, 2013|2013 gubernatorial election]], Republican [[Chris Christie]] received 50.9% of the vote (3,880 cast), ahead of Democrat [[Barbara Buono]] with 47.7% (3,637 votes) and other candidates with 1.5% (112 votes), among the 7,811 ballots cast by the township's 18,939 registered voters (182 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 41.2%.<ref name=2013Elections>{{cite web |url=http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/2013-results/2013-general-election-results-governor-monmouth.pdf |title=Governor - Monmouth County |date=January 29, 2014 |publisher=New Jersey Department of Elections |access-date=December 24, 2014}}</ref><ref name=2013VoterReg>{{cite web |url=http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/2013-results/2013-general-election-ballotscast-monmouth.pdf |title=Number of Registered Voters and Ballots Cast - November 5, 2013 - General Election Results - Monmouth County|date=January 29, 2014 |publisher=New Jersey Department of Elections |access-date=December 24, 2014}}</ref> In the [[New Jersey gubernatorial election, 2009|2009 gubernatorial election]], Democrat [[Jon Corzine]] received 51.2% of the vote (4,425 ballots cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 42.0% (3,625 votes), Independent [[Chris Daggett]] with 5.2% (447 votes) and other candidates with 0.8% (66 votes), among the 8,635 ballots cast by the township's 18,606 registered voters, yielding a 46.4% turnout.<ref>[http://www.njelections.org/election-results/2009-governor_results-monmouth.pdf 2009 Governor: Monmouth County] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017230351/http://www.njelections.org/election-results/2009-governor_results-monmouth.pdf |date=October 17, 2012 }}, [[New Jersey Department of State]] Division of Elections, December 31, 2009. Accessed December 5, 2012.</ref>