Sean Byrnes - Mary Mahoney

Sean Byrnes - Representative For Township Committee

Committeeman Sean F. Byrnes was elected to the Middletown Township Committee in 2007. He was elected in a year which was favorable to Republicans.  Despite having veteran Republican politician, State Senator Joe Kyrillos on the ballot, Sean still won the Republican leaning Middletown with decisive numbers.

Sean is a Monmouth County native having grown up in Red Bank.  He attended Red Bank Regional High School, graduating in 1981.  He entered the Coast Guard Academy shortly thereafter, completing a rigorous training and academic program.  He also rowed on the Varsity Crew Team for three years, winning a Small College National Championship in the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia, PA.  He graduated from the Coast Guard Academy cum laude with a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Government. 

Sean retired as a Commander from the United States Coast Guard after 22 years of service. Over the years his duties have included serving as an Operations Officer on Coast Guard Cutter Gentian, preparation of operating budgets for Coast Guard units, serving as a staff attorney, and most recently as an Assistant Chief of Staff for the Coast Guard in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Sean holds a Juris Doctor degree from the Georgetown University Law Center, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Government from the United State Coast Guard Academy. During his military service, he also graduated from the Coast Guard's Maritime Law Enforcement School and received numerous awards, including two Commendation medals.

After completing law school in 1992, Mr. Byrnes retired from the active duty Coast Guard, and accepted a position with the prestigious law firm of McCarter & English in Newark.  For the next four years, he worked as a trial lawyer litigating matters involving products liability, premises liability, automobile liability and other tort claims. 

Anxious to practice where he grew up, Mr. Byrnes took a position in 1996 with a local Red Bank law firm.  He continued his litigation practice in state and federal court, trying cases and developing a specialty in employment law.  Sean, who has served as the Prosecutor in Atlantic Highlands, opened his own general law practice in 2004, and currently is partner with the firm of Byrnes, Kirkwood in Red Bank.

Throughout the 1990’s, Mr. Byrnes also continued his public service in the Coast Guard Reserve.  From 1992 until 1996, he worked on Governors Island, New York as a staff procurement law attorney with the Coast Guard Maintenance & Logistic Command, Atlantic.  During this time he completed Contract Law Officers course at the U.S. Army JAG School in Charlottesville, VA.  In 1996, Mr. Byrnes accepted a position as a staff attorney for the First Coast Guard District in Boston, Massachusetts.  For seven years, he commuted one weekend per month and two weeks per year to Boston, Massachusetts. During that time, he was chosen to serve on the Coast Guard Roles and Missions Council and returned to active duty for a period of time in Washington, D.C in 2000.  He returned to active duty at the Coast Guard’s Activities New York Command following the invasion of Iraq in 2003.  More recently, he was recalled to active duty to serve as the Assistant Chief of Staff for the Coast Guard Sector in New Orleans for a period of 30 days.  Upon his retirement from the Coast Guard Reserve in April 2004, he was serving as the Reserve Logistics Officer, Coast Guard Sector New York. 

As a local resident, Sean has placed a high priority on public service.  He has served as a member of the Red Bank Board of Education, Red Bank River Center and as a founding Board Trustee with the Parker Clinic. He served five years as Chairman of the Board of the Red Bank Branch of the YMCA, and two years as their Chief Volunteer Officer. Over the years, he has coached basketball and soccer in Red Bank and Middletown. He also serves as a minister and lector at the Church of St. Leo the Great, Lincroft

While on active duty with the Coast Guard, Mr. Byrnes met and married his wife, Anne Clabby Byrnes, who grew up in Middletown, graduating from Red Bank Catholic High School in 1981.  Anne attended Rutgers University and was a Certified Public Accountant before leaving her job to raise her five children.  She now works as a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker.

Sean will not be up for re-election until next year.  However, the Monmouth County Democratic Party has nominated him to run for Freeholder this year.  If he wins that election, he will be replaced on the Township Committee by another Democrat.

Mary Mahoney - Representative For Township Committee

Mary Mahoney has lived in Middletown for 24 years. She has been married to George Mahoney for nearly 25 years and has two sons, William, 15, and Jack, 14. While raising her two boys, Mary has been active in her community, volunteering her time as a member of the Lincroft Elementary School PTA. She served as the Vice President of the PTA from 2005 until 2007. Mary’s commitment to improving her local community prompted her to join the Lincroft Village Green Association in 2006. Since then, Mary has been an active Board Member advocating on behalf of Lincroft residents to the Middletown Township Committee and Monmouth County Board of Freeholders for safety improvements and traffic softening measures along Route 520. Her efforts on behalf of these improvements continue to the present day.

Prior to raising her children, Mary graduated from River Dell High School in Oradell, New Jersey and then earned her Associate’s Degree in Retail Management and Fashion Merchandising from Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts. For over two decades, Mary worked in the highly competitive garment industry; first as a buyer for Mercantile Stores -- ultimately rising to the position of Senior Buyer overseeing a multi-million dollar clothing department -- and later for Pyke Mfg. Co. based in Salt Lake City, where she opened and managed their NYC Showroom. Her work with Pyke required extensive travel throughout the United States and afforded her an opportunity to manage people and manage a budget. She enjoyed the autonomy to decide how to run her business and allocate resources to meet the bottom line expectations of her employer. Over the course of twenty years, she honed her skills in the business world and, as a result, thoroughly understands the importance of managing costs and sticking to a budget.

More recently, Mary has been busy raising her two sons and continues to work part time on a home-based business and as a design/sales associate at Pottery Barn. She enjoys skiing, tennis, cooking, reading and entertaining,

Having attended and actively participated in recent township meetings, Mary became disillusioned with the way our local government operates. She believes that twenty-nine years of one-party rule has produced inefficiency and waste. What she believes is missing -- and what she will offer to Middletown residents -- is a common sense, open minded approach to the issues confronting Middletown.

Mary looks forward to the opportunity to continue her advocacy on behalf of the Middletown community as an elected Member of the Middletown Township Committee. She is proud to run alongside Committeeman Sean Byrnes, because they share the same passion for government transparency, fiscal responsibility and community inclusion. They will work together to stop the special insiders who have controlled Middletown for decades. Mary Mahoney knows how to run a tight ship and work within a budget. She will join Sean Byrnes in his efforts to bring business practices and organizational improvements to local government in an effort to stop the never-ending spiral of increasing taxes.