Jane Gruenebaum will now serve on the Sussex County Council for District 3, which covers northeast Sussex County. The race ended with 20,610 votes for Gruenebaum and 17,050 votes for Republican opponent and incumbent Mark Schaeffer.
After a great deal of public criticism of the council in recent years, greatly over the development of Sussex County, Gruenebaum will go on to become the third new face on the five-person council this election cycle. Long-time president Mike Vincent lost to Matt Lloyd and current councilwoman Cynthia Green lost to Steve McCarron during the primary in September.
Gruenebaum is the former president of the Sussex Preservation Coalition, a role from which she resigned during the summer after declaring her candidacy for Sussex County Council District 3.
According to the biography on her website, Gruenebaum grew up in Springfield, Ohio. She taught political science at Columbia University and was an executive director of the National League of Women Voters.
Gruenebaum told CoastTV how excited she is to get started.
"It was a vote not for me per se, but for the issues that we were talking about and their desire to see something done about it. So I'm very, very pleased to have been, selected. And I look forward to working on these really critical issues," Gruenebaum said.
For her first term, Gruenebaum plans to focus on overdevelopment, supporting first responders, infrastructure and supporting education.
