ANNOUNCEMENT: 2024 Candidates for Garwood Council
By Vincent Kearney | Published in the Union County Hawk, April 4, 2024
The Garwood Democratic Committee is happy to announce our 2024 candidates for Borough Council!
Incumbent Councilman Sean Keagan Foley is seeking re-election for a full 3-year term as a Member of Council, after winning the 2023 race for the final year of an unexpired term. On the Council, Sean has hit the ground running as this year’s Chair of the Finance Committee, attended training for newly elected officials and on municipal budgeting, and contributed actively to the work of the Police and Public Works committees. Sean is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker/Psychotherapist and an Eagleton Institute of Politics Fellow. A former volunteer firefighter in Middlesex County, Sean has dedicated his life to helping build communities by supporting families and individuals as a social worker. He has worked assisting foster youth, helped and advocated for families and individuals who are experiencing homelessness, educated communities about the dangers of smartphone and social media addiction, and has developed initiatives to assist with the opioid epidemic. Currently, he is the CEO of Compassionate Mental Health Services, where he provides psychotherapy services to individuals and families throughout the area. Sean and his wife Lina live in Vermella Garwood Station along with their dogs Nova and Kai. They are expecting their first child later this year.
Seeking election for his first term as a Member of Council, Chase Padusniak is a lifelong resident of Garwood who will be completing a doctorate in English Literature at Princeton University in May 2024. His father and mother, Frank and Robyn, moved to Garwood from Clark in 1988, where they settled on the south side in the house Chase now inhabits with his wife, Gabby, two cats, and two dogs. Over the past several years, Chase has worked as a university instructor, volunteered to teach inmates at Northern State Prison in Newark, tutored middle and high school students, volunteered at Harvesters Soup Kitchen in Manhattan, and worked on a feature film. Chase is also a founding member of the Garwood Partnership for Arts and Culture (GPAC), where he has helped coordinate and organize art exhibitions, workshops for local children and adults, and the upcoming Garwood Poetry Festival. He and Gabby are parishioners at St. Thomas the Apostle Byzantine Catholic Church in Rahway.
Vincent Kearney – Chair
Garwood Democratic Committee