Francis Bodine

Evesham has more registered voters than any other municipality in Burlington County, and in 2006 cast the second highest number of votes in the county. It is one of the premier swing towns in the state, and in increasingly competitive Burlington County, it is the ultimate battleground in the fight for control of county government.

On Tuesday, Evesham rejected their longtime Mayor, Gus Tamburro, and replaced him with Tamburro's '03 campaign manager, ex-NFL Assistant Coach Randy Brown. While municipal elections in Evesham are nominally non-partisan, the influence of both parties loom large in these local elections. Tamburro and his unsuccessful Council candidates were strongly backed by the Burlington County Republican organization, while Brown (who will now take office with a Council majority) had the backing of powerful South Jersey Democratic leaders. Make no mistake: Evesham was a huge win for the Democrats.

Several of today's non-partisan municipal races may potentially effect the results of key races for the Legislature -- next month and in November.

In the eighth district, candidates backed by South Jersey Democrats swept local contests in Evesham, a swing town in increasingly competitive Burlington County.  With a massive -- and high tech -- grass roots campaign, former Philadelphia Eagles Assistant Coach Randy Brown upset the longtime incumbent, Republican Gus Tamburro.  Assemblyman Francis Bodine, who switched to the Democratic Party after Republicans dumped him from their ticket, backed the Brown slate, which won control of the Council as well.  Bodine is running for the State Senate against County Clerk Phil Haines.

Democrats are depicting Evesham’s municipal races tomorrow as a Little Bighorn scenario in which the Republican Party has fallen back and circled the wagons around Burlington County’s power center, where the GOP has traditionally maintained control.

The Democrats believe they can ride in tomorrow with 40 people working the phones and over 100 campaign workers on the ground going door-to-door, and sweep former Philadelphia Eagles kicking coach Randy Brown to victory over long-serving incumbent Mayor Gus Tamburro. They say they’re primed to win in this suburban community of 42,275, where last year Sen. Robert Menendez scratched out a win.

Francis Bodine may have switched parties, but he hasn't moved out of the legislative office he shares with State Senator Martha Bark and Assemblyman Larry Chatzidakis. Republican legislators in the eighth district have split an office for years and that didn't change when Bodine left the GOP to become the Democratic candidate for State Senate.

Glen Beebe, a Republican who served as Deputy Executive Director of the Assembly when the Republicans were in the majority, has been Bodine's top staffer since 2001 -- his entire $95,000-a-year salary is paid out of Bodine's staff budget -- yet he continues to divide his time between the three legislators. Bark and Chatzidakis are not seeking re-election.

Republican Frank Blee will step down as the Assembly Minority Whip -- the number three post in the GOP leadership -- and Jon Bramnick of Union County appears to be the favorite to succeed him.  Blee, who won just 39% of the vote in his bid for State Senate at a Special Election Convention in February, has decided not to seek re-election to an eighth term in the lower house.  Some Republican legislators had privately urged Blee's ouster after the Atlantic County Republican said he would back Democratic Assemblyman James Whelan for State Senate against GOP incumbent James "Sonny" McCullough.

You can't say that Democrats don't have a big tent: their State Senate candidate in the eighth district is Assemblyman Francis Bodine, who switched parties last week. Bodine is not your typical Democrat: he opposes civil unions and same-sex marriage; he is pro-life and opposes stem cell research; he runs with the endorsement of the National Rifle Association; and opposes minimum wage hikes and has not won major labor support in his previous races. If he beats Burlington County Clerk Philip Haines in the Senate race, he would arguably become the most conservative Democrat in the New Jersey State Senate.

Assemblyman Herb Conaway, Jr. attended Francis Bodine's press conference in Moorestown on Thursday, and bid "welcome" to the newly registered district 8 Democrat.

Conaway  is running for re-election in neighboring district 7, along with Jack Conners.  The ticket is rounded out by Clinton speechwriter-turned undertaker Richard Dennison of Florence, who is challenging State Sen. Diane B. Allen. 

MOORESTOWN - They used to ride Eisenhower about his golf trips, but since Ike had liberated Europe they tended to look the other way.

Not so for the Burlington County Republicans when it came to Assemblyman Francis Bodine.

Off-loaded by Republicans last month, Bodine leapt into the waiting arms of U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews and the Democratic Party in Moorestown on Thursday, announcing his intention to run as a Democrat for State Senate.

Less than two years ago, Burlington County Democrats filed an ethics complaint against Assemblyman Francis Bodine, calling him the "King of Conflict" and accused him of violating ethics rules.

Former Easthampton Mayor Don Hartman and former Mount Laurel Public Safety Director Sandy Weinstein, who challenged Bodine in 2005, said that Bodine helped his employer, engineering firm Adams, Rehmann, Heggan Associates, obtain a no bid contract from the Shamong Board of Education. They also alleged that Bodine co-sponsored and supported legislation that would provide $95 million for the reconstruction of dams while his employer -- and campaign contributor --was involved in dam reconstruction projects in the Medford area.

ROBERTS: BODINE BRINGS HIS INTEGRITY & EXPERIENCE TO DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS

(TRENTON) - Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr. today said Assemblyman Francis L. Bodine (D-Burlington) brings veteran legislative experience and a wealth of knowledge from 30 years in public service.