September 11 Digital Archive

David Chong lost his third bid for Palisades Park City Council by an unexpectedly large margin

Title

David Chong lost his third bid for Palisades Park City Council by an unexpectedly large margin

Source

born-digital

Media Type

article

Original Name

Republican David Chong received a total of just 865 votes for the Palisades Park, N.J. City Council.

Created by Author

yes

Described by Author

no

Date Entered

2002-11-06

VTMBH Article: Edition

41

VTMBH Article: Article Order

4

VTMBH Article: Title

David Chong lost his third bid for Palisades Park City Council by an unexpectedly large margin

VTMBH Article: Author

Joo-Chan Kim

VTMBH Article: Publication

Korea Times New York

VTMBH Article: Original Language

Korean

VTMBH Article: Translator

Jeongwoo Han

VTMBH Article: Section

elec02

VTMBH Article: Blurb

Republican David Chong received a total of just 865 votes for the Palisades Park, N.J. City Council. Chong's campaign staff called the result shocking, since this year's total was much less than last year's.

VTMBH Article: Keywords

VTMBH Article: Body

At press time, Republican David Chong received a total of just 865 votes for Palisades Park, N.J. City Concil. This number does not include all absentee ballots, but his loss was evident regardless of the rest.

Mayor Sandy Favre (1,987 votes), and City Council candidates James Rotondo (2,057), Tony Omali (1,953), all Democrats, won with over twice the number of votes.

Chong's campaign staff called the result shocking, since this year's total was much less than last year's 1,300 votes. One Chong staffer said, last year Chong ran for City Council and got 1,300 votes, but this year two Republican candidates ran, and we received few votes. The campaign office counted 200 Koreans as voting.

This was Chongs third bid for a City Council seat. It seems that the Democratic Party's negative campaign to provoke racial conflict among residents affects me disadvantageously, said Chong, referring to an incident which has been an issue in the Korean American community. During the campaign, Mayor Favre distributed pamphlets calling Chong a boss and an alien and charging that he would represent only Korean Americans' interests.

Among 1,300 Korean eligible voters, 73 percent (950 people) voted but failed once again to produce the first Korean City Councilman in the Eastern United States.

Dong-suk Kim, director of the New Jersey Korean American Voters Council, said it is not possible to produce a Korean politician with only Korean votes, and when the Korean community and the support of the local party are united, a Korean candidate will win in the election.

In this election, the Republicans and Democrats argued over how to apply for absentee ballots and count them. On election day, the Democratic Party contended that 276 absentee ballots, assumed to be from Koreans voters, should not be counted.

The Democratic Party asked the County Prosecutor to examine the legitimacy of the absentee ballots and Judge Josep Yatino, of Bergen County Court, decided not to open the ballots until the legitimacy of the 276 absentee ballots was determined.

VTMBH Article: Line Breaks

1

VTMBH Article: Date

2002-11-06

VTMBH Article: Thumb

VTMBH Article: Article File

VTMBH Article: Hit Count

37

Citation

“David Chong lost his third bid for Palisades Park City Council by an unexpectedly large margin,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed November 8, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/1419.