Incumbents retain both freeholder seats BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer The incumbent Democrats who were re-elected to the position of Middlesex County freeholder will seek to expand green initiatives and continue cooperative purchasing and shared services throughout the 25 towns in the region. "We want to help towns ... maintain the cost of government," H. James Polos said. "I think we had a very solid platform, not only showing what we accomplished but ideas and visions for the future, and that's what voters look for." Polos and fellow candidate John Pulomena were re-elected Tuesday night by an unofficial 2-to-1 margin over Republican candidates Geoffrey Champion and Andrew Tidd. The elected officials believe this is due to the policies and programs they have helped implement over the past three years, related to open space acquisition, fiscal responsibility and expanded educational services. "When you work hard, you hope you make the right decisions and implement the right programs, and when you see the votes come in, it shows they support you," Polos said. "I think the voters are intelligent and well informed and they made a true decision based on the candidate, not just the party line." However, the Republicans believe the enormous amount of contributions received by their opponents is the true reason for the discrepancy in votes, that their $2,000 was no match for the $200,000 given to the Democrats. "Money buys elections in Middlesex County," Tidd said. "Perhaps some might think that's not such a bad thing, not realizing how the Democrats came into all this money. Lucrative no-bid contracts for county vendors in return for campaign contributions are also a free pass for developers to overdevelop open space in return for campaign contributions. So while you're wondering how you will be able to pay your tax bill while you're sitting in a traffic jam, remember, we were your Republican voice." Thus, Tidd said a main focus of the future must be a tough pay-to-play reform. "These elections cannot continue to be bought. Candidates need to be elected on their merit, not on the largess of their campaign accounts," he said. "I guess we did OK, considering we are outnumbered 3 to 1 [in registered voters] and were outspent 100 to 1. I think we held our own." Champion said that although the candidates were accused of not creating new ideas and of running a campaign based only on negative tactics, he and Tidd felt a great sense of importance in letting residents know that the Democrats are "taking money and not making good use of it." He commended the Republicans for bringing more attention to wasteful spending in the dredging of the Raritan River in New Brunswick that will create a pier for private developers, and the rifle range in Woodbridge that is costing more money than necessary. "I just feel the county could do better and money spent could be spent better," he said. "It concerns me that the population has gotten used to it. That bothers me. Corruption is never appropriate. If I did something wrong, I expect to be punished, not be re-elected." He did take note of the positive programs implemented thus far by the Democratic freeholders with regard to special education, expanding nursing services and improving trade schools, but said "this probably could be done at a lesser cost." Pulomena could not be reached by press time.