Politics & Government

Dems in the Race: Set to Challenge Republican Rule

Two familiar candidates gear up to oust Republicans on committee

Two familiar Democrats are back in the Township Committee race in an attempt to break the present all-Republican hold on the five-member dais.

Democrats Alex DeSevo and James Grenafege, neither a stranger to the local governing body race, have officially filed their petitions to run uncontested by their party in the primary, according filings in the township clerk's office.

They will challenge Republicans Middletown Mayor Tony Fiore, 34, of Brasch Blvd., and newcomer Stephanie Murray, of 15 Wallace Rd., for two three-year terms on the committee in the November elections.

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Fiore is approaching the end of his first three-year term on the committee and running for his second, while Murray is running, for the first time, with him on the Republican ticket. She is stepping into the race in place of incumbent Deputy Mayor Pam Brightbill, who has opted this term.

DeSevo, of 1044 West Front St., in the River Plaza section of the township, has run for office several times and has never won a seat on the township governing body. Most recently, he ran for Township Committee in 2003.

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Raised in the township, DeSevo is a personal injury attorney with Levinson Axelrod, a law firm that has an office in the Belford section of the township.

DeSevo graduated from Christian Brothers Academy (CBA), in the Lincroft section of the township, as well as George Washington University, Washington, D.C., and Pace University School of Law, NY.

Grenafege, of 35 Red Coach Lane, in the Locust section of the township, ran unsuccessfully against Fiore in 2008. He also ran for a seat on state Assembly in 2009, challenging Republican Assemblywoman Amy Handlin, and lost.

Grenafege is a Long Island, NY native who has lived in Middletown since the late 1990s. He is a “career consultant, human resources manager, and educator in the areas of: career transition management, employee relations and staffing, labor relations, management development and training, and public education,” according to his online biographical literature.

Grenafege has a master’s degree from Montclair State University, Montclair, in counseling; and a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., in social and behavioral sciences.


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