According to a report in Friday’s Asbury Park Press, the movement to recall Lakewood Township Committeeman Charles Cunliffe has been halted. Ben Weber, a member of The Committee to Recall Charles Cunliffe, said enough signatures to force a recall election were within reach, but the effort was stopped in late March because “(Cunliffe) is better off under the threat of another recall then bringing in someone new who’s unknown.”

The committee needed the signatures of 25 percent, about 9,000, of the registered voters here by this month. Weber said about 7,000 signatures had been collected before the effort was cancelled in March, leaving another two months to gather the remaining 2,000. Instead, there was a consensus on the recall committee that Cunliffe had become more sensitive to the community, more mindful of budget spending and less of a bully to colleagues, Weber said. Cunliffe could not be reached for comment.