photo credit: McCarey for Warren Township

NJ21st Reached out to Mr. McCarey and Mrs. Lontai for Comment on  ‘Affordable Housing, Debate Drama, and Farm Feud Define Warren’s GOP Primary’ published on 06/03/2025.  Mr. McCarey’s response to our questions are below:

 

As to the town’s rejection of the 225 settlement and Lisa’s appeal. The reality is that the Affordable Housing obligation thrust on all NJ towns by Trenton can ONLY legally be overturned if New Jerseyans vote to elect a Republican state legislature which has the gumption to overturn the constitutionally-enshrined, onerous AH obligations. While I know the GOP candidates are bullish on their chances to do just that (as all candidates always are), realistically, the chances are very slim. I would love to be wrong on this. But either way, it doesn’t justify the costly gamble of Mayor Lontai.

Instead of settling on 225 units (a fair compromise from the 181 units  Warren proposed and the 280-something units submitted by the State), Lisa voted against it, publicly proclaiming that the number should be zero.  Now she has recalibrated after all the backlash she received to saying she wants 181 units. That is not how this works, once you reject the settlement number, that ship has sailed. Warren will never have chance to lock in 225, let alone 181 ever again. This shows that —at best — she is unqualified to lead our town because she gambled with our money and land and went against 40 years of legal precedent to try to win an unwinnable fight and, — at worst — she did this whole thing to score cheap political campaign points and a campaign slogan that she is “fighting overdevelopment.”  Either way, it is pathetic and should disqualify her from ever holding office again.

The extra units which Lisa’s improvident vote and subsequent appeal will cost Warren in terms of land and money is astronomical. The town just allotted just under 300k in its budget to fight Lontai’s Don-Quixote-esq appeal against Trenton. When we lose the appeal, we will be saddled with even more units then the 262 Trenton punitively set for us after Lisa rejected the negotiated 225 units. Trenton punishes towns who challenge the law and lose. In the 40 years since AH has been in play in NJ, there have been innumerable challenges and you can count on one hand how many of those towns have ever been successful. So what happens once we inevitably lose the appeal? More units being thrust on Warren in addition to the 262 we presently have to satisfy. That means more residents, more cars and resulting traffic on our roads, more schools needed, more infrastructure overload, more strain on emergency services, etc.  It’s a domino effect that history will show has a direct correlation to Lontai’s putting her campaign over the best interests of the people she governs.

As to the debate. In early April, my campaign manager Foster Cooper reached out to Dan Gallic requesting a debate. Lisa has never publicly stated who her campaign manager is. However, Dan Gallic is the head the Warren RMC, interviews candidates for the town Committee and is clearly Lisa’s biggest supporter online and around town. He is active each and every day on social media. It is inconceivable that he did not receive the request. He merely dismissed it out of hand, not realizing that people would start to clamor online for a debate to happen. Then, as you know, a few months ago, people started tagging Dan Gallic and Lisa on Facebook asking for a debate. They clearly saw it, and as I recall, Vic Sordillo, another Lisa acolyte said, in response, Lisa won’t debate a “liar.” So, I gave my fellow citizens what they asked for, the best I could, since Lisa would not participate, and did a Zoom town hall with Committeeman and Committeewoman Kian, where we took and answered questions from our fellow Warren residents on a wide-variety of topics.

This is all par for the course. Lisa has never been able to think quick on her feet. Hence, why she doesn’t respond to questions at meetings or respond to residents’ emails. I suppose we will see in a week whether her strategy to dodge questions from the public worked for her or not.

As to the Dealamans. It all makes sense now, especially since the old guard GOP leadership here in Warren will never forgive the Dealamans for mortal sin of  supporting candidates that don’t receive Dan Gallic’s RMC’s blessing.  First the Master Plan survey question sent by Dan Gallic to the town about eminent domain a few months ago to gauge the town’s perception on the use of same. Then Lisa’s campaign gins up lies about Dealamans intent to sell off their whole farm to nonexistent “developers.” Then Vic Sordillo posts on Facebook the other day about getting financing together to have the town buy Dealaman’s land out from under them. Then yesterday, Gallic admits that they intend to exercise eminent domain to take the land from the Dealamans (as retribution for being his political opponent). The survey question about eminent domain was, in retrospect, a pre-text to do this all along. This is third-world dictator-type-maneuvering  and it was all planned and contrived months ago as a revenge plot to stick it to the Dealamans. It is truly insane. The Dealamans are the gold-standard in terms of Warren residents who have made a difference for decades and who have given back to this town for the good without any quid-pro-quo or hat-in-hand for having done so.  They don’t publicize their good works for our community and don’t want the attention or accolades for having done so, unlike our Mayor Lisa who won’t do anything unless a camera is present to capture the moment and post on social media.

I referenced the legal costs issue above. The online censorship is despicable. First off, it violates free speech laws since it is a town-run Facebook page that the comments have been turned off on. And they were turned off the minute the residents voiced issues with the sitting mayor and the RMC.  Again, third-world type tactics to silence the voice of the people. The residents of Warren should feel free to voice their concerns with the town on the town’s Facebook page or why have the page at all. Similarly, at the last month’s town committee meeting, Dan Gallic and other Lisa supporters verbally and physically harassed residents who had the “nerve” to voice their opinions on topics germane to the town and our leaders. This led to a police report being filed. This is truly insane and all of this is occurring under Lisa’s “leadership” as Mayor. She sat silent at that last meeting and allowed the bullying to occur and didn’t say one word to dissuade or disapprove of that behavior.  Is this the type of leadership people thought they were getting when they elected Lisa 3 years ago?  I know I didn’t. It’s a vote I regret every day. I hope that people realize what is going on in our town before it is too late. There is a better, more civil, way of leading which I will bring to town hall if elected.

-Daniel J. McCarey

This statement was submitted by the candidate and does not necessarily reflect the editorial position of NJ21st.

As of the time of this  publication, Mrs. Lontai has not responded to our invitation for comment on ‘Affordable Housing, Debate Drama, and Farm Feud Define Warren’s GOP Primary’

NJ21st Email Request for Comment – Mr. McCarey

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Editors Note:  A prior version of this article incorrectly listed Mr. McCarey as a Mayoral Candidate, he and Mrs. Lontai are running for positions on the Township Committee.