Warren Wallace

Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney gets much of the credit for making Gloucester County solidly Democratic.

Gloucester County Republicans are facing a contested race for the leadership of a party that has not won a countywide election in twelve years, just as gubernatorial and legislative races present a possible opportunity for victory.  If Republicans are to win the race for Governor, they'll need to compete in places like Gloucester, which have voted consistently for Democratic statewide candidates in recent years.  But while Democrats win Gloucester, their margins of victory may not be insurmountable.

Democrats have an edge in voter registration, but 42% of the voters are not affiliated with either party.  Those are similar numbers to Atlantic (45%) and Burlington (41%) counties, where Republicans control the Freeholder boards.   The last Republicans to win a Freeholder races in Gloucester County were Mary Virginia Weber in 1995, and Daniel Mangini and Stephen Atkinson in 1994.

The last Republican victories in Gloucester were in 1997, when Chuck Gill was re-elected Sheriff and James Hogan was elected County Clerk.  Gill did not seek re-election in 2000, and Hogan switched parties before running for re-election in 2002.

2008 was a blowout for Democrats - Barack Obama and Frank Lautenberg carried Gloucester by 17,000 votes, about 55%, and Stephen Sweeney won re-election to his Freeholder seat by 21,000 votes.  Warren Wallace, a Freeholder with a taint of ethical questions, still won re-election by 13,000 votes.  But statewide races have been a bit closer in recent years.  In 2006, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez won Gloucester by just 6,200 votes over Thomas Kean, Jr., even as Democratic Freeholder candidates were winning by 16,000.  In the2005 race for Governor, Jon Corzine beat Doug Forrester there by 8,000 votes while Democrats were winning the Freeholder race by 14,000 votes.

Phyllis Scapellato and Larry Wallace, the Republican candidates for Gloucester County Freeholder in 2008, want GOP County Chairman Loran Oglesby to resign.

Led by a former Republican freeholder candidate, critics of Gloucester County Republican Chairwoman Loran Oglesby have launched an offensive intended to force her from office.

"If she cares anything about this party she'll resign now -- step down gracefully while she still has good favor," said Phyllis Scapellato, a school administrator who unsuccessfully ran for freeholder last year, coming a little under 14,000 votes short of the least popular Democrat, Freeholder Warren Wallace. 

Oglesby is up for reelection in June, but her detractors would like to see her removed before then, so that she does not have a role in picking the next slate of county-wide candidates for the beleaguered minority party.

Scapellato, who thinks that her top vote-getting running mate, Larry Wallace, might have beaten Warren Wallace had it not been for Oglesby's management, has started a Web site, itsnotlorensparty.com that states its sole aim as to "begin the search for a new chairman of the Gloucester County Republican Executive Committee."

A summary of daily newspaper endorsements in local races:

GOP Freeholder candidates call on Stephen Sweeney to tell the voters how much he knew

By most measures, Gloucester County should be a politically competitive place.

Its towns are mostly rural and suburban, it has a large blue collar population, and it only went for John Kerry over George W. Bush by about 6,000 votes in the last presidential election.

But over the last decade, Democrats – aided in part by George Norcross’ powerful political machine in neighboring Camden County, the political prowess of native son Stephen Sweeney and plenty of Republicans willing to switch parties – have had little trouble holding on to full control of the county’s government and taking over the majority of most towns’ elected offices.

Maybe they say it every year, but Republicans feel that this time they may be able to pry at least one county-wide seat out of the Democrats’ grasp: the one that belongs to Freeholder Warren Wallace, whose re-election comes about just as his one-time political ally – former State Sen. Wayne Bryant – faces a corruption trial over a job he held at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), where Wallace worked as associate dean for academic and student affairs for School of Osteopathic Medicine before being dismissed over accusations of unethical behavior. In 2006, he was accused of shredding documents while the school was being investigated.

In May, Wallace filed a lawsuit against the school, charging racial discrimination over his firing.  But he may be called to testify at Bryant’s trial as a “person of interest” – further associating him with the former state Senator.

“We absolutely have a real shot at it,” said political consultant Steve Kush, who this year is running the Republican freeholder candidates’ communications shop.  “The proof is in the pudding.”

Republicans Phyllis Scapellato, Larry Wallace and Dan Roberts are running against Democratic incumbents Wallace, Sweeney (the state Senate Majority Leader who reconsidered his decision not to run for freeholder again) and Frank DiMarco.  Roberts replaced Frank Stellaccio, who dropped out in June.

The pudding, according to Kush: a letter Democratic counsel Timothy Chell sent to Gloucester County Republicans, warning candidates not to use several claims about Wallace recently outlined in a Philadelphia Inquirer article.  He thinks its proof that the Democrats are running scared.

“Any use of the factual inaccuracies published in the Inquirer will be considered actionable by the Gloucester County Democratic Party and Dr. Warren S. Wallace personally,” wrote Chell.

No double standards this time Mr. Sweeney

With only 90 days to go until Election Day Gloucester County Republican Freeholder candidates Phyllis Scapellato and Larry Wallace are calling on their opponents to accept an invitation to at least five debates.

“Wallace Watch” continues, Gloucester County GOP Chair awaits rewrite of Defense Manifesto and launches www.defensemanifesto.com.

Enter to win a paper shredder in honor of Warren Wallace’s UMDNJ secretary.

Gloucester County residents have a right to see the entire Defense Manifesto