Lame duck Newton Mayor Wayne Levante today announced his independent run for Sussex County Freeholder, having filed his petition yesterday afternoon with the county clerk’s office.

Censured by his peers for his social media activity, Levante lost his local reelection bid on May 8th.

His term as mayor ends on June 30th.

But he forged ahead today with new political plans.

“The residents of Sussex County deserve better than just standard rhetoric like transparency, accountability and ‘change.’ Our community has serious issues plaguing our lives and wallets that need to be addressed strongly and immediately,” Levante said. “For far too long Sussex County residents have subsidized and supported other parts of the state while we have been ignored. It is essential that someone advocates to keep our tax dollars here, bring even more aid back home, and then be able to budget those funds much more efficiently.”

Levante said his platform focuses on the core Republican principles of smaller, limited government to help lower taxes and spur economic development.

“Despite continued talk of increasing shared services, redundancies throughout local governments continue to plague Sussex County,” said the mayor. “School consolidation is by far the biggest issue of our generation and one that I have taken the lead on despite nasty retaliation by those who have much to lose. With declining enrollments and increasing costs, Sussex County residents are being priced out of their homes. I’ve shown that I have the backbone to confront these issues, and ones like them, head-on without wavering. We simply can no longer afford status quo.”