Fort Lee Republicans Host BOE Candidates Forum

The United Republican Club of Fort Lee hosted yet another BOE candidates’ forum Tuesday in lieu of its monthly meeting.

Helen Yoon, Tracy Mattei, Paul Umrichin and incumbent Joseph Surace provided brief summaries of their platforms and qualifications, followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Incumbents Michele Ramirez-Stux and Peter Suh did not attend the forum, but the four who did mainly reiterated--or in some cases clarified--their positions on a range of issues and fielded questions from club members and others, many of which had been asked at recent such events in one form or another.

Club member Martha Cohen, who announced her candidacy for a seat on Fort Lee’s borough council, moderated the town hall-style forum.

Club president David Cohen said last week that the forum was not intended to be a debate, but would rather follow a similar format to that of an event in February, when the group hosted Republican Freeholder candidates.

“We didn’t want to replicate what [last week’s Fort Lee Homeowners Association Candidates Night] event is all about,” Cohen said at the time. “We wanted to give them five minutes to discuss their qualifications and their background, and then just go right to audience participation. We feel that candidates should go one-on-one with the audience—the individual members, who come with their questions and concerns.”

Editor's Note: Stay tuned! Patch will take a closer look at Tuesday's forum in a subsequent article this week.

Election day is April 27.