Jean Stanfield

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.

State Sen. Diane Allen has stopped short of entering the race for Jim Saxton’s House seat, or even announcing an exploratory committee.  Instead, she has formed a Congressional Campaign Advisory Committee as a prelude to a bid for the open third district House seat.  Burlington County Sheriff Jean Stanfield and Freeholders Bill Haines and Jim Wujcik will serve on the committee.

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.

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 Township Republicans Kick Off Campaign

Candidates tout the need for change to residents at local business

(Burlington Township, NJ) - On Thursday June 8th, the Burlington Township Republican team of Fred Schwartz, Donna Dorrall, Dave Parker, and Anant Patel kicked off their campaign for Council at Mulligan’s Ice Cream and Restaurant. While addressing activists, county leaders, and supporters, the candidates discussed the need for change and the way that the current council is out of touch with the residents of Burlington Township.