Rick Perr

It’s on.

Chris Fifis, the Lumberton Democratic Chairman who is the favorite of South Jersey Democratic leaders to become chairman of the Burlington County Democrats, put out a statement officially acknowledging his candidacy for the chairmanship in response to Assemblyman Herb Conaway’s (D-Delanco) decision to run for the post.

“I remain as committed to strengthening the Burlington County Democratic Party as I was when I took the fight to the entrenched GOP in 2004,” said Fifis, who that year ran unsuccessfully for freeholder and ran for assembly in 2007.

The party, currently headed by Acting Chairwoman Alice Furia, will elect a new leader in June.  The former chairman, Rick Perr --  who just last year was considered a rising star in Democratic circles after presiding over a pickup of two freeholder seats and the county clerk's office – resigned under an ethical cloud after revelations surfaced about his involvement in a PAC that raised money for arrested Hoboken mayor Peter Cammarano.  

The GOP has a 3-2 majority on the freeholder board, and this year they successfully defended two seats left open by retiring Republicans. 

Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Delanco)

Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr. (D-Delanco) wants to be the next chairman of the Burlington County Democratic Committee, setting up a potential contest to lead the troubled organization.  

“What made me decide to run was that we have a need for a county party that functions.  We have a lot of important races coming up in the near term, and quite frankly we’ve had under the old regime dysfunctional leadership that’s led to problems getting things done,” said Conaway in a phone interview from the League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City.  

Conaway, a medical doctor, practices internal medicine at Cooper University Hospital.  He has served in the assembly since 1998, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress against former U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton (R-Mount Holly) in 2004.  

Facing pressure from South Jersey Democrats, former Chairman Rick Perr resigned in August over his involvement in a PAC that raised money for former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, who was arrested on corruption charges in July.  Since then, Alice Furia, long-time party activist and vice-chair, has headed up the party.

Furia will remain as chairwoman until June, when the county committee will elect a new leader. 

Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce wants former Burlington County Democratic Chairman Rick Perr fired from his teaching job at Rutgers – Camden School of Law over his involvement in the New Frontier Political Action Committee.

Perr was forced to resign last month as party chairman after a news report tied him to the operation of the PAC, which was founded to aid South Jersey campaigns but donated money to arrested Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, a Hoboken council running mate and Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy.  

DeCroce wrote a letter to Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick requesting Perr’s termination as an adjunct professor.

“Ethical lapses have significant consequences and it would be height of hypocrisy for him to continue teaching courses on Election and Political Campaign Law,” said DeCroce  “President McCormick, along with the chancellor and dean at Rutgers-Camden Law School, cannot afford to have the school’s reputation tarnished by its affiliation with someone who cannot adhere to the same principles he teaches to his students.”

Early this year, prospects for Burlington County Democrats looked their best in decades.

Democrats Chris Brown and Mary Ann Reinhart were sworn in as freeholders after ousting two Republican incumbents in the November election, narrowing the board’s GOP majority from 5-0 to 3-2.  To make matters worse for the GOP, the two Republican incumbents up for reelection – Bill Haines and Jim Wujcik  – opted to retire, leaving those two critical seats open.  All this came after Democrats built a voter registration advantage of 26,000 over the GOP.

The pieces were in place for Democrats, represented by Mount Holly Councilwoman Kim Kersey and electrician/labor leader Jim Bernard, to take control of the freeholder board for the first time since the 1970s.  But then the party fell apart and reversed fortunes with the GOP.    

The county’s Democratic chairman, Rick Perr and its treasurer, Jeff Meyer, bowed to pressure to resign over their involvement in a PAC that was formed to help South Jersey campaigns but donated money to several North Jersey ones, including arrested Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano.  That muddied the Democrats’ ethics-charging message in a county where Republicans have seen their share of corruption scandals. 

Mercer County Democratic Chairman Richard McClellan scored a clear victory over the local GOP this week.  After the Republicans tried to make an issue of Democrats taking contributions from Rick Perr's controversial New Frontiers PAC, McClellan said that even though the Election Law Enforcement Commission hasn't ruled on questions regarding the PAC, McClellan would put the monies they received in escrow just to avoid even an appearance of impropriety.  He pledged to contribute that money to charity if ELEC finds Perrpac did anything illegal.

Then McClellan beat the crap out of Republicans with their own issue, suggesting that if they "are truly serious" about the need to return tainted dollars, that could start with giving the nearly $52,000 the Mercer County GOP received from Harry Parkin, who was Mercer County Executive Robert Prunetti's Chief of Staff and is now serving a federal prison sentence for corruption, and from cohorts and firms that were involved in the scandal.

DeAngelo Must Disclose How He Received New Frontier PAC Money, Who He Spoke To

Wayne DeAngelo Must Return Tained New Frontier PAC Cash

Burlington County Democratic Vice-Chair Alice Furia, a long time activist who has watched eight chairmen come and go, will lead the party temporarily starting next month.  

Furia will take over for Chairman Rick Perr, whose resignation over his involvement in the controversial New Frontier PAC will take effect at the beginning of September.  Furia’s term ends in June, 2010 although an election for a permanent chair may be called some time between then and the 2009 November election.    

Furia, who at 74 has been involved in the party for 35 years – 20 of them as vice-chair --  has no plans to run for a full term.  She has served in the acting chair position three times before – most recently before Perr took over for former chairman Gary Karr.  

“This is for the young people to get in there and work their butts off.  I just want to now bring to the party some order,” she said.

The leading contender and is Chris Fifis, a former assembly and freeholder candidate who co-owns Ponzio’s Diner in Cherry Hill.

Eighteen hours after Burlington County Democratic Chairman Rick Perr resigned amidst a protest from local Democrats over his connection to a political action committee that helped finance Peter Cammarano's campaign for Hoboken mayor, a top party leader says that the controversy was not a Burlington County Democratic problem, but rather "a problem involving two individuals who happened to be Burlington County Democrats."

"The Burlington County Democratic Party is unified, strengthened and positioned to move forward toward November as we continue to fight for reform for every resident of our great county," said Alice Furia, the Democratic Vice Chair.  "In an unprecedented display of unity, county Democrats at every level and in every region stood up and rebelled against corruption in our own house."

The full text of Furia's statement: