Parties dig in as control of Burlco board is up for grabs

As New Jersey politics go, Burlington County's freeholder race is normally a yawner.

It goes something like this: Democrats say they can be a watchdog on a board monopolized by Republicans, and vow this will be their year. The GOP says there's no need to change a government that has run efficiently under their rule, and they win.

Now partisan control over the five-member board is up for grabs, the first time so much has been at stake since 1982, when the current party chairmen were teenagers.

That year one Democratic freeholder sat on the board, and the party could have picked up two open Republican seats. But Democrats were unable to wrest control from the GOP, as they had in 1973 during the Watergate scandal (before losing it again two years later). The departure of the lone Democrat at the end of 1983 was the start of a quarter-century freeze-out.

Six months ago, Democrats - again helped by disillusionment with a Republican president - picked up two freeholder seats and the county clerk's office.

This November, the party must pick up just one of two open Republican seats to have a majority.

While many voters will pay little attention to politicking until the fall, both sides are preparing for a heated election coming off their recent candidate endorsements.

"The Republicans have always made it a very strong race," said State Sen. Diane Allen (R., Burlington), "but because control is up, I'm sure that the Democrats will be putting an enormous amount of money behind it as well. I would be surprised if it was anything else than that."

To replace longtime Freeholders Jim Wujcik and Bill Haines, who are retiring, the GOP looked at Lumberton Township Committeeman Patrick Delany and Stacey Jordan, daughter of a former freeholder, who was appointed to the board for 2008 but lost the November election.

This month, the party endorsed Florence Township Councilman Bruce Garganio and Medford Township Councilwoman Mary Ann O'Brien to run against Democrats Kimberly Kersey, a Mount Holly councilwoman, and Jim Bernard, who last year lost his race for a Township Committee seat in Cinnaminson. Kersey and O'Brien are lawyers; Garganio is a member of the carpenters union, and Bernard, a member of the electrical-workers union.

Garganio said his experience in Florence would help him attract businesses and jobs to the county and find ways to lower property taxes. O'Brien said addressing the hard economic times was the "number one" issue.

"Everyone knows it's a huge race," said Chris Russell, a political consultant for the Burlington County GOP.

County Republicans blamed last year's losses on the trickle-down effect of the popularity of Barack Obama and disillusionment with George W. Bush. With no presidential election this time, Russell said, Democrats will "have to win this race on their own merit."

So far, Democrats have submitted to the county the ethics package and green-energy plan that were campaign promises, Freeholder Mary Anne Reinhart said.

Yet in their newfound power, Democrats haven't always been on the same page.

Reinhart and running mate Chris Brown at times have had tense relations, according to people who know them. For starters, after they were sworn in as freeholders at the county building Jan. 1, they held separate celebrations at bars a mile apart.

They have disagreed on some policies, most notably a proposal to cut freeholder salaries and eliminate their health benefits. Reinhart was the lone freeholder to oppose the measures, saying that she considered the position a full-time job and that there were other ways to save money. She has a real estate license but said she had not been active in the business since taking office.

Meanwhile, the party leadership shunned newly elected County Clerk Tim Tyler after he kept a Republican as deputy clerk. The county's Democratic chairman, Rick Perr, sent out an e-mail to Democrats afterward saying it was a "sad day for the party."

"The party is extremely united," Perr said. "We have said from the beginning we are not putting into office clones who march to the directive of political officials."

Reinhart and Brown "are two independent people who agree on a lot of things a lot of the time," he said, "but they don't agree on everything."

Perr said much had changed since the 1970s, emphasizing Democratic wins at the municipal level and the party's 30,000-plus voter-registration advantage.

"County government sets the policy direction of the county," he said, "and we've dealt the last 30 years [with] a government which has avoided responsibility and accountability and which has allowed and fomented corruption . . . and those things need to change."

Kersey, the freeholder candidate, said she wanted to help complete the mission her party had begun last year, when the numbers "overwhelmingly spoke to change."

She has served on Mount Holly's council for just one year but comes from a political family. Her aunt is Senate President Pro Tempore Shirley Turner, and her father, William, was a Morris County Democratic Committee chairman.

Kersey is also on the board of trustees for the Burlington County College Foundation, where Perr's wife volunteers.

If Democrats fail, they will have another shot at a majority in 2010, when a third GOP seat opens up.

Each side expects the worst from the other.

Russell said he assumed the kitchen sink was coming, while Perr predicted it would be the dirtiest campaign the Republicans have run in 30 years.