Amy Quinn Makes Her Bid To Become Asbury Park's Next Mayor

ASBURY PARK, NJ — On Nov. 3, there will be an election for Asbury Park mayor. There are two candidates: Deputy mayor Amy Quinn vs. Dan Sciannameo, a member of the Asbury Park Planning Board.

Both are Democrats.

Quinn has been the deputy mayor of Asbury Park since 2015. Before that, she was a councilwoman and she's allies with Council members Yvonne Clayton and Eileen Chapman, who both endorsed her. She was also endorsed by longtime Asbury Park Mayor John Moor, who announced this year he is retiring.

"It makes it a little easier to retire if she is the one who’ll be sitting in my seat," Moor previously said.

In addition to being deputy mayor, Quinn is a lawyer for the Community Health Law Project in Eatontown, where she advocates for low‑income and disabled residents. She is married, and she and her wife have a child.

“I love Asbury Park,” said Quinn. “I’ve devoted over a decade of my life to serving it. How many other candidates for Mayor of a small city can say they have its name tattooed on them? ... Like Mayor Moor, I promise to listen to all voices and concerns, study all sides of every issue, seek the greater good for the most people, and defend the edgy weirdness that makes us a great place to live, work, and visit.”

In this article, she responds to some of the attacks her opponent Sciannameo made about her.

"Thirteen years ago when I ran for council, the waterfront had block after block of vacant lots and derelict buildings," said Quinn. "The abandoned mess at 3rd and Ocean stood as a symbol of failure to outside naysayers about the city’s redevelopment efforts for over 30 years. 'Asbury Park is never coming back,' they liked to say. The old Salvation Army Retirement Facility’s only inhabitants were birds and raccoons. When I ran in 2013 the two things people wanted most was successful redevelopment and solutions to our skyrocketing crime rate."

"We adopted innovative community policing strategies like officers on bikes and walking neighborhoods and outreach through churches to address crime. The FBI Crime Index is an objective measure and it shows that crime in Asbury Park has declined by two thirds since 2013. And 2026 is the best year so far. While working on solutions to crime, we were working and negotiating with developers, and now for all to see we are one of the most popular destinations in the world. Do I love all of it? No. I’ve voted 'no' on FOUR of the Master Developer’s major projects."

"My opponent, who’s been on the Planning Board since 2021 (because we appointed him twice), stated at their June 1st meeting that he has never voted against one of the Master Developer’s projects," she continued. "So if you're a fighter now and going to challenge these developers and their entities, what were you doing for the last five years? You didn't fight them; instead, you voted 'yes' on all their projects as a Planning Board member. To me, what you’ve done in the past is the best indicator of what you will do in the future."

Sciannameo criticized Quinn and the current leaders in City Hall for Wesley Lake flooding, a lack of parking in town and increasing taxes.

"Our rapid success with development has created brand-new problems," responded Quinn. "Our lakes’ flooding and parking issues are just a few of many examples. We require every new development to study and adopt significant flood mitigation measures, but it hasn’t been enough with the “rain bomb” episodes due to climate change that have caused unprecedented flooding events around the world. We are doing our best to adapt in real time to this evolving situation, but it takes well-thought-out planning and design to come up with solutions that will last many decades instead of just being a bandaid. For Wesley Lake we’ve been studying and taking short-term measures in conjunction with Neptune Township, the County, Environmental Protection Agency, Army Corps of Engineers, and several other authorities since the flood that closed several businesses along Lake Ave."

"Longer-term measures are going to take longer in order to do it right. For Deal Lake we had to work in conjunction with six other neighboring municipalities and all those other agencies to make major changes like electrifying the flume for flood mitigation along Deal Lake Drive and where it meets Ocean Avenue. You can’t just yell at these entities that it’s urgent. You have to form partnerships with them and build ongoing relationships and seek common ground. It honestly seems to me that my opponent hasn’t been paying attention and hasn’t done his homework about the work being done by the Council and the city’s three lake commissions when he asks this question. Disregarding that work is, frankly, disrespectful."

She also responded to property taxes increasing, another thing Sciannameo criticized her for.

"As a homeowner in Asbury Park, taxes are just as big an issue for me as everybody else. I have a modest home and live on a modest income because I work for a nonprofit. My opponent claims that I’m passing the buck to the school board and Trenton when I say that it’s the school taxes, the school taxes, the school taxes."

"In fact, he’s the one trying to shift blame here just because it makes for a potent campaign talking point. I fear that if he really believes the City Council, let alone the Mayor alone, can solve this problem, that means he doesn’t have an adequate understanding of what the Council does, the fundamental causes behind our tax hikes, and certainly not a plan to do anything about it. Asbury Park’s municipal tax rate has seen the third lowest increase in Monmouth County over the last 10 years. 82 percent of your tax hike last year was because of the school budget colliding with the state’s funding formula. And yes, I’ve been doing something about it, not just hurling slogans."

"I’ve been advocating with our state elected officials since before the hikes started, and am strongly supporting Senator Gopal’s current bill to limit state aid cuts to 2 percent of a district’s budget per year and stabilize school property taxes using other mechanisms. I also support Senate Bill 1807, which would reform how PILOT funds can be distributed without harming state aid, and also studying how the school board can sell off unused property without it harming the aid. Some of these are a hard sell in Trenton, but I’m tireless about it. City Council is willing to work with the school board around such issues, but we also need more stability on that body instead of its members turning over every few years. Such stability has been good for that which the Council has control over, and I truly wish that people would take our Board of Ed elections just as seriously as they take this race for mayor."

Sciannameo also accused Quinn of running a favoritism operation in her time as Councilwoman and deputy mayor. "I've heard the same refrain from residents: If you want something from city government, you better be in good standing with the deputy mayor. If you’re not, good luck to you,” he said. "The message is simple: support us, vote with us, do what we say and stay quiet — or face the consequences."

Quinn responded:

"I am so happy my opponent is asking this question. I am an attorney. Every week I go to court and someone disagrees with me. Usually multiple people. I have a dialogue and come to a solution or we go to trial. No retribution, no drama and most importantly civility. We either come to a solution by talking or we let the judge decide. With Asbury Park, I listen to and contemplate every concern expressed to me by our residents. We can disagree, and later move on. People can disagree with me strongly, within the bounds of civility, and I’ll continue working with them in the future. And there are countless people in town who will attest to that."

"My opponent is projecting these things onto me because his entire campaign revolves around the fact that he HATES Madison Marquette," said Quinn, referring to the developer that plans to restore Convention Hall on the Asbury Park boardwalk. "It goes back years. He wants to sue them. He wants to sue to take back the historic structures on the boardwalk even though it would cost the city a lot of money with no guarantee of success and no evidence that he has thought out what would happen after that. He hates Madison Marquette so much that he was willing to sabotage the $75 million in tax credits to restore Convention Hall that we worked to get. Now he is in a campaign and the tax credits were supported by the majority of residents and so he’s changed his tune. I have more issues with Madison Marquette and iStar than I can list. I have voted to hold MM in default of their redevelopment agreements multiple times. And the next day I had to call them to talk about some other issue of mutual concern. Governing by anger and lawsuits breeds chaos and cripples actual progress, as any student of Asbury Park’s history can learn from the many years that we languished in decay. My opponent has said 'yes' and 'yes' and 'yes' to developers while he’s been on the Planning Board while secretly fuming about it, and then he blew up at them and ran for mayor in retaliation at me as if I’m all chummy with them. It’s a passive aggressive style that I don’t think we need in a mayor."

Patch also asked Quinn what her plans are, if any, to revitalize Main Street in Asbury Park. Sciannameo said places like Main Street and the city's West Side have been ignored and fallen into disrepair while the city and developers always focus on the beachfront boardwalk.

"My role on City Council, which is pretty much the same role I’d have as Mayor, is to support businesses in town in any realistic way that I can," replied Quinn. "Main Street is one of the most successful and longest surviving business districts in Asbury Park. We've been working actively with those businesses for years to beautify Main Street and have implemented treescaping, benches, bike racks and funds from our Urban Enterprise Zone that they can use to upgrade their facades. But the very last thing we want to do is intervene in the relatively stable growth of this vital corridor. We seek ways to nurture existing businesses rather than create new circumstances that would result in a flood of new players. The same goes for the Springwood Avenue Corridor. I’ve been working on housing and parks and infrastructure solutions there since the first day I took office, and encouraging entrepreneurs to take advantage of UEZ grants. But I don’t think it’s my place to tell people in that neighborhood how to revitalize their own community. I listen and try to support as appropriate. It’s certainly not my place to tell them what to do, and I know that such an approach would not prove fruitful in the end."

Quinn is also endorsed by the Rev. David Parreott, Jr., a former Asbury Park Councilman, retired police captain and Christian faith leader.

"In my 92 years here I’ve seen people run for office vowing to revitalize Springwood Avenue, protect affordable housing, and many other good sounding promises," he said. "Amy Quinn and her team actually brought key parties to the table and made such things happen. I am very proud to support her for Mayor.”

Here's Quinn's campaign website: aqforap.com/about-amy/

Election Day is Nov. 3. Early, in-person voting runs Oct. 24 - Nov. 1; the closest location for early voting is the Neptune Twp. Senior Center, 1607 Corlies Avenue, Neptune, NJ. There is nowhere to vote early in person in Asbury Park.

Mail-in ballots were sent to homes last week.

Her rival: Asbury Park Mayoral Candidate Dan Sciannameo, Not Afraid To Clash With Developers Or City Hall (Oct. 12)