Aubrey Fenton

The retirements of Congressmen Jim Saxton and Mike Ferguson offers the potential for an interesting game of political musical chairs.

In District 3, if John Adler goes to Congress, look for Louis Greenwald to replace him in the State Senate.  That will open up a sixth district Assembly seat that Cherry Hill might claim, although that decision will be made by party leaders.  Most of the Cherry Hill Councilmembers are potential candidates, and one interesting replacement for Greenwald would be Councilwoman Shelley Adler, whose husband could be a Congressman.  This is a safe Democratic district, and legislators picked at a Special Election Convention would be virtual shoo-ins for the November 2009 elections.

There seems to be two certainties in the race for Jim Saxton’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives:  that candidates from Burlington and Ocean counties will face off in a Republican primary, and that the GOP nominee will face a tough general election against State Senator John Adler, the likely Democratic nominee.

The GOP front runner is Diane Allen, a four-term GOP State Senator from Burlington and former TV news anchorwoman for the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia.  But Allen must first establish some form of détente with Burlington GOP leader Glenn Paulsen, with whom she is engaged in a fairly vicious intra-party battle, before she can expect to win a big plurality in her home county. 

Rev. Aubrey Fenton, a Republican Freeholder from Burlington County, with Rep. Jim SaxtonRev. Aubrey Fenton was as shocked as any other Republican to hear that 12-term Rep. Jim Saxton’s would not seek re-election. But after getting the news on Friday, Fenton shut himself off from the political world as he typically does on weekends, taking sanctuary in his church to focus on his Sunday sermon.

So it wasn’t until Monday that the 37-year-old Burlington County Freeholder saw published reports that Burlington County GOP leader Glenn Paulsen, who’s feuding with potential congressional candidate state Sen. Diane Allen -- the early favorite for the Republican nomination – was talking up a potential Fenton run.

Paulsen later told PolitickerNJ.com that Republicans ought to look into supporting the candidacy of Fenton, an African-American, as an opportunity for the national party to reach out to minority voters. Plus, he said, Fenton is more socially conservative than Allen, meshing with the national party’s stance on issues like abortion and gay marriage more than the moderate Allen.

The field of potential Republican candidates to replace Jim Saxton next year is still large, but a few of the names first floated have removed themselves from consideration.

Morris County Republicans have only lost once in a countywide election -- back in 1973 when Democrat Douglas Romaine won a Freeholder seat in the midst of the Watergate scandal. That gives them some room for optimism that they won't have too much trouble holding the seats of two Freeholders who announced this week that they would not seek re-election in 2006. But one political pundit who does work for both parties had an interesting take that's worth at least reprinting: that Freeholder John Murphy, a likely candidate for Governor in 2009, should use his political clout in Morris County to help the GOP, which has lost the last two gubernatorial elections and the last ten U.S. Senate races, to help expand the Republican base by promoting Black and Latino candidates for countywide office. New Jersey Republicans have only one minority county elected official: Aubrey Fenton, an African American who was elected Burlington County Freeholder in 2005.

VASQUEZ SUES ADDIEGO, FENTON, KENNEDY & OTHERS FOR DEFAMATION
In Their Most Expensive Campaign Ever, Burlco GOP Freeholder Candidates Resort to Maliciously Publishing False Statements

Today Democratic Candidate for Burlington County Freeholder Amy Vasquez filed suit for defamation of character after repeated vicious and deceptive personal attacks have been launched against her by the Burlco GOP.

“It is shameful that Dawn and Aubrey have resorted to such disgraceful campaign tactics. I am proud to have led a clean and honest campaign based solely on the issues,� Vasquez stated.

The complaint is reprinted below:

FENTON DECLARES THAT LOWERING PROPERTY TAXES IS “CRIMINAL� ACTIVITY
Spending Will Continue to Grow Out of Control with Fenton

For the last two nights at public debates throughout the county, Republican Freeholder candidate Aubrey Fenton has declared that lowering taxes would be a criminal activity. This ludicrous statement came as part of the GOP fancy footwork defense to raising taxes by more than $12,000,000 this year alone. Apparently, Dawn Addiego and Aubrey Fenton will say anything in an attempt to escape responsibility for the 11% increase in taxes at a time when ratables are on the rise.

FREEHOLDER BOARD HAS CONSISTENTLY PLACED TAXPAYERS FIRST WHILE OPPONENTS HAVE CONSISTENTLY PLACED THEMSELVES FIRST
While the Freeholder board cut the county property tax rate each year for the past 23 years, Vasquez didn’t pay property taxes.

AMY VASQUEZ AND DEAN BUONO COULDN’T BE MORE OUT OF TOUCH WITH THE CONCERNS OF BURLINGTON COUNTY RESIDENTS AND TAXPAYERS AND HOW BEST TO ADDRESS THEM