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Incumbent Asbury Park Mayor Myra Campbell has filed to run for re-election in the 2014 city council race.

All five council seats are up for grabs in the November 4 election and it will be the first time in the city’s history voters will directly select their mayor.

As of 10 a.m. Tuesday, Campbell is the only person to have submitted the minimum 89 nominating petitions required to run in the election. She did so on Friday, according to City Clerk Steve Kay.

Campbell was voted into office in the May 2013 municipal election and was sworn in as the city’s first African American female mayor July 1 of that year [photo at top shows Campbell the day she was sworn in to office].

Asbury Park voters approved a change of government referendum in the last November general election, which cut short the terms of all five seated council members. The referendum was placed on the ballot by the city’s charter study commission, which spent months holding public hearings and considering various options.

As a result of the change, municipal elections will now be held in November. The elections will continue to be non-partisan, where all candidates run in one column without party affiliations. Candidates may continue to group themselves as tickets.

In order to win election as mayor, one candidate must secure more than 50 percent of the popular vote. If no candidate gets over 50 percent of the vote on election day, a run-off election of the top two candidates will be held four weeks later. That will require the winner to get a majority, either in the first round or the run-off.

Campbell told the Sun last week that she would file for re-election and make a decision by late September whether she will continue to run or drop out of the race.

Nominating petitions for the November 2014 municipal elections must be submitted to the city clerk’s office by 5 p.m. today.

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