MANCHESTER – David Goldstein, 70, is one of three township residents seeking to serve as mayor by running in this November’s general election.
He is currently collecting signatures to be on the ballot in November along with fellow candidates Robert Hudak, 44, who was appointed by the Council in June to replace Mayor Kenneth Palmer and Robert Arace, 27, who announced his desire to run a few days after Hudak was sworn in.
Palmer resigned on June 25 after being appointed to serve as a Superior Court judge in Ocean County. He was elected as mayor in November 2014 and won re-election in November 2018.
Hudak was serving his second term on the council when he was appointed by the Manchester Council to serve as mayor until the end of 2021.
Manchester has nonpartisan elections, meaning that political party isn’t listed on the ballot. All three candidates are Republicans.
Goldstein said he wants to serve as mayor because he feels he can bring change to the township. He feels Hudak will continue to do what has already been done while Arace is too young and lacks the experience to bring about change.
When asked what he felt was the greatest challenge for the township, Goldstein said he felt the quality of education in the community needed to be improved based on data he saw in a magazine.
Goldstein has been a substitute teacher in Manchester and in other school districts in Ocean and Monmouth counties. “U.S. News and World Report didn’t hire me to write the report. It is not my fault they say only 14% of high school kids at Manchester High School are ready to go on to college.”
The magazine created a “College Readiness Index” which rated Manchester at 14.9. It’s not a percentage, as Goldstein said, but a general score based on how many kids take advanced placement and other such tests.
The Manchester Times asked Goldstein why he wasn’t running for a seat on the Township’s School Board instead to perhaps bring change to that issue. He responded, “I don’t believe that one person on a school board that is set in their ways, can make that much of a difference.”
“I have a political science degree which I am proud of,” Goldstein said. He has run several sports league organizations and wants to bring his managerial skills to the role of mayor.
He also noted that Manchester was a very Republican community and that “you would have to go a long way to find a mayor candidate a council candidate or a member of the Manchester Republicans who has voted for more Republicans for president than I have.”
