Tenafly's longtime mayor ousted by rival who knocked on thousands of doors

Ricardo Kaulessar | NorthJersey

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TENAFLY — The fifth time was not the charm for Mayor Peter Rustin, who lost his reelection bid on Tuesday.

Unofficial results showed Rustin, an independent, finishing second to Councilman Mark Zinna, a Democrat, drawing 1,294 votes to Zinna's 1,540. Republican Emanuel Savas received 185 votes.

Rustin said he was not too surprised by the results and took the loss in stride.

"I've been doing this long enough to know that anything can happen, and my opponent worked extremely hard," Rustin said. "Sixteen years is a good run, and I appreciate that the town gave me the opportunity to serve for 16 years."

Rustin said he thinks that many of the 185 votes that went to Savas would have gone to him and narrowed the loss. However, he believes his loss has more to do with new voters.

"I do believe the new people in town, the ones who didn't know me, the ones who weren't aware of how hard I worked and how accessible I am, that obviously did not help me," Rustin said.

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While Rustin is winding down his tenure, Zinna said he is looking forward to serving the borough's 14,000 residents as mayor after three terms on the council.

Zinna said shoe-leather politics helped him win the seat.

"We ran our campaign the old-fashioned way, knocking on doors. I am literally wearing a pair of shoes where the sides have split open because we knocked on thousands of doors," he said.

"When I went to someone's door and said, 'Hi, I'm Mark Zinna. I'm running for mayor. What's on your mind?' — people told me what's on their mind."

Zinna said his first tasks as mayor are getting streets paved, making infrastructure improvements, upgrading the downtown and bringing professionals into his administration to help him carry out his goals.

"I'm a resident of Tenafly, first and foremost, and I raise my family here. And you would want to look to the future and build on all good things here and make them better," Zinna said.

Rustin, who will serve through the end of December, said he was proud of accomplishments such as making the borough compliant with the state's affordable-housing requirements, and his appointments to local boards and commissions.

"After 16 years, the majority of the people on these boards are people that I appointed," Rustin said. "And I would like to think that these boards, committees and commissions work well and are an upgrade from what I inherited."

Ricardo Kaulessar is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com Twitter: @ricardokaul