Glenn Paulsen

The most creative press release of the week, so far, comes from the Burlington County Democrats -- with a David Letterman-style Top 10 list:

Democratic State Senate candidate Seema Singh had some trouble achieving at last one of her strategic objectives last weekend while campaigning at the Irish Music Festival last weekend at the Hibernian Lodge in Hamilton Township: she appeared a bit frustrated by her inability to buy some bottled water.  Singh asked a volunteer manning the Guiness booth: "Is that all you sell at this fair, beer?"

One of the best candidate recruitments for Assembly Republicans was in the seventh district, where former Philadelphia Flyers All-Star Brian Propp is challenging incumbents Herbert Conaway and Jack Conners. The Burlington-Camden district leans strongly to the Democratic side, but another celebrity candidate, former TV news anchorwoman Diane Allen, has won four elections there as a Republican by relatively comfortable margins. Republicans believed that Allen's coattails -- a spring GOP poll had her re-elect at a solid 55% -- could help Propp win.

But Propp may be the victim of limited GOP resources. One year after Democrats won the Burlington County Surrogate race, the Republicans are on the defensive: their main goal is hold their two Freeholder seats and re-elect Sheriff Jean Stanfield. And a party switch has made the normally Republican eighth district a little more competitive -- Assemblyman Francis Bodine, a Republican elected official for the last thirty years, switched parties earlier this year (after the GOP dumped him) and is now running for an open State Senate seat against County Clerk Phil Haines. That has also put the two open Assembly seats in play.

Burlington County Republicans are denying a published report that Col. Michael Warner will resign as GOP County Chairman and that his predecessor, Glenn Paulsen, will return to the post.  Some Democratic insiders have been suggesting that Warner could face a challenge after losing control of Evesham in last week's municipal elections, but the Chairman has been on vacation this week and no changes -- if any -- have been finalized.