JACKSON – Democrat Brandon Rose, 57, is seeking to become the next mayor of the township. He is heading the Jackson United slate of candidates and said he offering something different from the two Republicans in the race.
He faces Republicans Mayor Jennifer Kuhn and challenger Elliott Shem-Tov who are profiled in separate articles. The election on November 3 is for a four-year term. There are also two council seats on the ballot.
Rose, who is currently retired, has been a resident of the north eastern section of Jackson off Farmingdale Road for the past 16 years and grew up around the Jersey shore area. After graduating high school, he attended Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey), graduating with a degree in Law & Justice. He first worked as a director in the dining services industry before starting a 26-year career in law enforcement with the New Jersey Division of Parole.
He told The Jackson Times, “I am running because I believe Jackson is going down the wrong path. First, the level of discord and vitriol continues to grow. I don’t believe the current administration or the other Republican ticket will do anything to resolve this. In fact, I think it is the opposite based on what happens at town council meetings and from what people are saying online.”
Rose added, “my mission would be to bring people together by talking and listening to their needs. Our ticket, Jackson United is not beholden to any one person or group. We want to apply the rules fairly and equally to the people of Jackson. Ultimately, laws need to be applied and administered as they were intended which we don’t necessarily see happening right now. It comes down to transparency and responsiveness. We believe we can offer deliverables in that regard.”
Rose explained his approach saying, “I want to be transparent, responsive. I’ve had years of training in how to deal with difficult situations and problems and resolving them in a thoughtful manner. I am trying to build something that unites people. In my law enforcement career, they constantly teach you about de-escalation and moving forward with the right approach and I think I deliver that.”
“I want to see things that are implemented in an evidence-based approach. I was the chairperson of the evidence-based practices committee when I was in my job and it was looking at what works and that is what I want to do. I want to implement policy, procedure and operations that are proven to work. That has been my focus and that is what I believe I can deliver.”
As to the many pressing issues of the community, Rose prioritized “bringing down the level of discord. We just have too many people not understanding where the other side is coming from or how we need to talk to one another. I think there has been a lack of transparency with how things are done in government. Our ticket would definitely would want to be as transparent as possible. We want to be open regarding what decisions we make. What are finances are. We want to give confidence to the people that we are doing the right job and be responsive.”
Rose noted that “people are constantly saying they are asking questions and making OPRA (Open Public Record Act) requests, phone calls and e-mails and not getting the responses. I think that is something we have to fix. That is a big part of what we want to do and to make sure that people are heard.”
“We want to enforce all the codes and ordinances equally and fairly and do what we can to support our seniors and our young families in town. We want to tackle the budget with a sense of responsibility and fairness. We want to make sure people understand where the money is going and how it is being spent and what decisions are made on why they are spent in a particular way. I honestly feel we are the best to deliver fairness, honesty and making sure people get the services they are entitled to,” Rose added.
“I want to be able to have dialogue where we aren’t shouting at each other or saying terrible things about each other or lying to each other’s faces,” the candidate said. “Taking a balanced approach and not being beholden to anyone, a particular organization or person. We have to ultimately do what is right for the people of Jackson not what benefits us personally. It is what keeps us moving forward and making sure people have faith in what we are doing.”
The morale within the community has been a matter that each candidate has weighed in on. Rose said, “sometimes after people get up to talk (at council meetings) I will follow them out and ask them what they need help with and you can see just the anger and the disappointment in what they are dealing with in that they feel that nobody is really listening to them and I think that is important.”
“When people elect an official, they want to be listened to. They want responsiveness. You can’t please all the people all of the time but you go by what the law is and you go by what you have control over and you do the best you can. There are some basic things that we can all do, being transparent, explaining the process, showing how we came to the decision, replying to people when they have concerns, making sure they understand why we do the things that we do,” the candidate added.
As to how his team’s campaign has been operating, Rose replied, “we started very grass roots. We are just picking up speed as we go along. I think social media has been a blessing and a curse because you can get your message out on a lot of the platforms to people very quickly but the flip side to that is you have a lot of keyboard warriors, people who just want to stir up discontent.”
He added, “some of the things are so hateful and clearly there are a lot of lies out there. People who are just making accusations that they can’t prove. We are trying to take the high road. We are looking at addressing the legitimate concerns and reach as many people as we can. We are engaging with people going to events, knocking on doors and talking. That is the old school stuff.”
