There is considerable speculation that the Democratic mayor of Evesham, Randy Brown, will switch to the Republican Party.  Brown’s victory in a 2007 non-partisan mayoral race was heralded as a huge gain for the Democrats in one of the premier swing towns in the state. Evesham has more registered voters than any other municipality in Burlington County, and in 2009 cast the highest number of votes in the county. In increasingly competitive Burlington County, it is the ultimate battleground in the fight for control of county government.

Brown managed the 2003 re-election campaign of longtime Mayor Gus Tamburro, a Republican.  Four years later, he was recruited to run by then-Democratic County Chairman Richard Perr and unseated Tamburro.

Last year, Perr resigned amidst a fundraising scandal after forming a political action committee that poured money into the campaign of Hoboken mayoral candidate Peter Cammarano.  Cammarano was arrested on federal corruption charges just weeks after taking office.

Former state senate candidate Richard Dennison told PolitickerNJ.com today that he plans to announce a run for Burlington County Democratic chairman shortly.  

“I’ve been following the typical volley that’s been happening on your Web site, in the papers, in phone calls with friends,” said Dennis, a Florence resident.  “Our party has a huge vacuum of leadership. I definitely think there’s a huge constituency in the party that’s not being served.”

Dennison’s bid comes shortly after Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Delanco), who had gathered significant support for his chairmanship, dropped out of the race.  Dennison supported Conaway, who has not elaborated on why he decided not to run.  

“I was a bit disappointed to see him bail out, to be honest with you,” said Dennison.  “Our party is in paralysis right now, make no mistake about it. I see so much potential in this county.”

The Burlington County Democratic Committee will pick its new chairman in June.  At least one other candidate, Riverside Municipal Chairman Gary Haman, is running for it.

Assemblyman Herbert Conaway (D-Delanco) has dropped his bid for Burlington County Democratic Chairman, notifying party leaders by letter this weekend.  That leaves Gary Haman as the leading candidate to replace Alice Furia, who took over last year when Democrats demanded the resignation of Rick Perr.

Alice Furia, the acting chairwoman of the Burlington County Democratic Committee, is not ready to concede to Assemblyman Herb Conaway’s (D-Delanco) push to hold an election for county chairman on February 4. 

In a memo to county committee members she plans to send today, Furia calls a previous letter Conaway sent to them about the upcoming election “null and void.”

“In my 35 years experience with elections, we as a party have never had a candidate call the election, pick the date, time and place,” said Furia.  “This was done in a very improper manner.”
 
Burlington County Democratic leaders had originally planned to hold Furia over as acting chairwoman until June, when the party would elect a successor for a full two-year term.  But at Thursday night’s county committee meeting, Conaway pushed for and narrowly passed a resolution to bump the election up to Feb. 4. 

Furia said that proper protocol was not followed because she and members of the committee were not given a paper copy of Conaway’s resolution beforehand.  Instead, she said, the resolution was read aloud, quickly.  Those who showed up to support Conaway had a copy of the resolution, Furia said, but nobody else did.

“The people that voted on it did not have a copy of it to know what they were voting on,” she said.

The Burlington County Democratic Committee has been in turmoil since August, when former chairman Rick Perr resigned over his involvement in a controversial political action committee.

Chris Fifis, the Lumberton Democratic chairman, has dropped out of the race for Burlington County Democratic chairman.

Fifis has endorsed Gary Haman, the Riverside municipal chairman and former state committeeman, to run in his place.

“While I am humbled by the outpouring of support for me to chair this great party, now is not the time for further intra party battles. We can't change Burlington County unless we are united and the person to effectuate that change is clearly Gary Haman,” said Fifis in a written statement. “We will win with Haman's leadership. He's a voice of reason in an organization that needs one agenda -- winning majorities to put taxpayers first, for a change.”

Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Willingboro) is also running for chairman, and last night narrowly pushed through a resolution to  hold a vote for an interim chairman on February 4 instead of allowing Acting Chairwoman Alice Furia to stay on until the party elects someone to a full term in June.  The resolution passed 33-30. 

Assemblyman Herbert Conaway (D-Delanco) upset several South Jersey Democratic leaders yesterday when he showed up at a meeting of the Burlington County Democratic committee and made a motion to oust the County Chair, Alice Furia.  Furia took over last summer when Rick Perr resigned, and her term ends in June; Conaway has announced his intention to run for County Chairman.  But what this really means is that Conaway wants party support to run for State Senate the next time the seventh district seat comes up, and he’s using his County Chairman bid as leverage to get commitments for a State Senate campaign.

Sources say that Rick Perr, forced out of his post as Burlington County Democratic Chairman last summer amidst allegations that he formed a political action committee to raise money for Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, appears to have resurfaced.  Perr is leading the campaign to elect Mt. Holly Democratic Committeeman Larry Green as the new County Chairman.  Perr is reportedly meeting with some Democratic insiders in an effort to derail the two leading candidates, Assemblyman Herbert Conaway (D-Delanco) and businessman Chris Fifis.  Perr's motivation: perhaps its spite?

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 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.”