After the fall: Brick Dems will rise again Former Mayor Newman says party plans to rebuild BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer BRICK TOWNSHIP - The battered Democratic Party here isn't dead yet. "We are starting to talk to each other, and that's important," said former Mayor Daniel F. Newman. "We will be ready for two years from now. There are some things that are happening now." Newman said he hadn't been to a local Democratic Club meeting in more than five years. But he decided to get involved again shortly after the November elections, when former Mayor Daniel J. Kelly and all four Township Council candidates went down in defeat. "I wasn't happy during this election watching things that were going on," he said. The party was in trouble "besides the obvious" problem of former longtime Democratic Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli, Newman said. "I don't think you can steer a ship unless you are working at it full time," he said. "Just because it gets dark at night, you still have to have somebody in the wheelhouse." Thirty-three people showed up at a Democratic Club meeting held the last week in February, he said. "There are people showing a renewed interest," Newman said. "This was a viable party five years ago. We owned everything except one council seat." "The Democratic Party lost its leadership desire and we just crumbled from within," he added. "It's not important to name names. The important thing is to recognize what happened. Our job now is to put the pieces back together and start again." Scarpelli, who was elected to an unprecedented four terms as mayor, resigned on Dec. 8, 2006, and pleaded guilty in federal court one month later to accepting bribes from an unnamed developer. He is currently serving an 18-month sentence at the federal prison at Fort Dix. Scarpelli was also ordered to pay back $20,000 in pension benefits as part of his sentence. Newman, who served two terms as mayor, said he considered Scarpelli a "dear friend." "I was godfather to one of his children," Newman said. "I was crushed over this." Republican Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis, who won Scarpelli's twoyear unexpired term in November, said any political party's success depends on who is at the helm. "I'm not going to say anything about any leader of any political party," he said. "The Republican Party, not too many years ago …, wasn't in great shape either." Acropolis said the demise of the Democratic Party in Brick has been "greatly exaggerated." "Anybody that thinks the Democrats went away, they ran a spirited election," he said. "Unfortunately, those who say there is not a Democratic Party in Brick, thatmay be playing to underdog card too soon. The Democrats controlled the mayor's office until 100 days ago." The Democratic Party will come back "slowly and intelligently," said Newman, who served two terms as mayor, four terms on the Board of Education, was chairman of the Municipal Utilities Authority for many years and served as a state legislator in the 1970s. "We will assume the role of the loyal minority," he said. "We will not be on any hatemongering trips. But we're not going to sit around and get punched in the nose and tell everybody we like it." Local Democrats need leadership and a "decent way" to run aminority political party," Newman said. "That doesn't mean you have to keep screaming and insulting people. That is not what we are going to do. If anybody wants to do that, they are going to do it without me." When asked if he planned to run for public office again, Newman didn't hesitate. "Never," he said.