Filipe Pedroso, who spent 13 years on the Bridgewater Township Council, announced he's running for mayor as a Republican, setting up a primary challenge against incumbent Matthew Moench in 2027. Pedroso framed his campaign around rising municipal taxes, climbing sewer bills and a wave of high-density housing he says has reshaped the township under Moench's leadership.
Pedroso made the announcement Tuesday, according to Patch, capping a public career that included service on the Township Council from 2012 through 2025. He told Insider NJ he has lived in Bridgewater since 1978 — 48 years, per TAPinto — and said he grew up, built businesses, and is now raising his own children in the township. Moench is up for re-election in the coming year, per the same TAPinto report.
Taxes and Sewer Bills Take Center Stage
According to a release cited by Patch, Pedroso called for a change in direction after what he described as climbing municipal taxes, sewer bills, debt and development pressures during Moench's tenure. He put the municipal tax levy increase at 42 percent over that period, according to his campaign, and said residential sewer charges had risen more than 35 percent while business sewer charges jumped as much as 300 percent — figures that are campaign claims and have not been independently verified. Pedroso said, as Patch reported, that no Bridgewater mayor had raised municipal taxes so much in such a short period.
Those numbers track a longer arc than the township's most recent budget cycle. The Township Council approved a $51.4 million municipal budget in June 2025 that carried a modest 0.001 municipal tax-rate increase, the same Patch coverage on the budget vote noted. Pedroso voted against that budget, arguing that municipal taxes had already climbed 22 percent over the prior four years, and he pushed instead for a zero-percent increase, a $21.63 per-household refund and a lower sewer rate going forward. Moench, for his part, said at the time that an average home assessed at $576,459 in 2024 would see its municipal-services tax bill rise by just $34 a year under the adopted budget.
Development Pressure and More Than 700 Units
Pedroso's campaign also pointed to the pace of residential construction, saying the administration had advanced more than 700 high-density housing units — though the evidence describes those units as advanced, not necessarily approved. Development fights have defined parts of Bridgewater's recent political landscape; a 2022 revision to the Center of Excellence agreement eliminated all housing, a proposed supermarket and a hotel from what Patch described as the largest development proposal in the township's history.
Six Priorities and a Résumé Built Locally
Insider NJ reported that Pedroso outlined six immediate priorities for his campaign: cutting unnecessary spending to lower municipal taxes, lowering sewer bills, putting residents before political insiders, protecting neighborhoods and quality of life, supporting police, and restoring what he called integrity and hands-on leadership. He also called for greater transparency in township spending, contracting and hiring, and questioned whether the township's office of constituent services had been used to provide high-paying jobs to political allies.
Pedroso's pitch leans heavily on his local record. He worked on the Township Council's Budget-Finance Committee beginning in 2012, spent 10 years on the Zoning Board of Adjustment including a stint as vice-chairman, and founded Preserve Bridgewater in 2015. He also serves as chairman of the Somerset Regional Animal Shelter board of directors and has served on the Finderne Rescue Squad, according to Insider NJ and Patch. Pedroso said he was announcing his candidacy with humility and responsibility, framing his bid as a continuation of decades spent in township service rather than a late entry into local politics.
