Camden County Democratic Primary Challengers Sue Clerk's Office

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ - Three candidates who intended to challenge the Democratic Party establishment in Camden County have filed a lawsuit against the county clerk after they say he illegally removed two of their names from the ballot.

Democratic Camden County Clerk candidate Rena Margulis, and Democratic Freeholder Candidates Jennifer O’Donnell and Michael Lovett, who all filed nominating papers to run as “Democrats of Camden County” in the June 4 Democratic Primary, filed a lawsuit against Camden County Clerk Joseph Ripa, Deputy County Clerk John Schmidt, and County Counsel Christopher Orlando on Thursday.

They claim he illegally invalidated the candidacies of O’Donnell and Lovett. O’Donnell is a member of the Gloucester Township K-8 School District’s Board of Education. Lovett is an HVAC construction superintendent with Steamfitters Local 420 from Haddon Township.

In the court filing, they said O’Donnell and Lovett fulfilled all necessary statutory requirements to run for office, including obtaining more than double the required 100 signatures of Camden County Democratic voters.

However, the county says an investigation by the prosecutor's office determined that signatures were fraudulently obtained, which would legally invalidate their candidacies.

The plaintiffs claim Freeholders Carmen Rodriguez and Ed McDonnell urged Ripa to disqualify them, citing a handful of signatures collected by O’Donnell’s former running mate, Jerome Taylor. Taylor, an activist from Camden City, resigned from the campaign after his son was murdered in February, according to the court filing. Lovett replaced Taylor on the ticket.

In the complaint, they assert the decision to invalidate the candidacy of O’Donnell and Lovett — who fulfilled all Election Law requirements to be on the ballot and who are innocent of any allegation of wrongdoing — on the basis of an undisclosed number of signatures collected by former candidate Taylor which Ripa’s Office deemed suspect without providing any proof, is unprecedented and punitive.

“The Camden County Clerk’s Office was compelled to reject the petitions in question based on fact that an investigation was done by the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office and signatures were found to be fraudulently obtained," Camden County spokesperson Dan Keashen said. "In regard to the lawsuit, it is baseless considering the facts that are already available and the investigation that has already been completed outlining the actions in question.”

More than just the freeholder candidates are impacted by this decision.

The plaintiffs assert that the decision infringed upon the constitutional political association rights of the plaintiffs and over 100 Camden County residents who filed nominating petitions in nine towns countywide to run for Democratic County Committee and local offices in the same bracket or column on the ballot with O’Donnell and Lovett as “Democrats of Camden County.”

Among them are Sam Sweet, former councilwoman Crystal Evans and former school board members Ellen Reese and Linda Gilch, who are challenging the incumbent Democrats on Gloucester Township Council.

The group is also fielding candidates for state assembly, county clerk, county freeholder; local offices in Cherry Hill, Camden City and Runnemede and for Democratic County Committee in Collingswood, Cherry Hill, Haddon Township, Oaklyn, and Woodlynne.

Earlier this week, Sweet said the views of he and his running mates align with O’Donnell and Lovett, and that bracketing with freeholder candidates means they will be included in the first two columns.

The "bracketing" system is what is used to place candidates for office in a column together. In Camden County, candidates can be bracketed together if they share a slogan and there is a common countywide candidate, such as a freeholder or sheriff.

In 2017, Sweet challenged Mayor David Mayer in the Democratic Primary. That year, he and his running mates ran across a similar problem when they were told they would have to change their slogan to bracket with a gubernatorial candidate.

They did that, but were still denied because Jim Johnson, the candidate they attempted to bracket with, didn’t have a countywide candidate who shared the slogan. As a result, they were left all the way to the right on the ballot, which they believe puts them at a disadvantage as people may not look in those columns for lack of a candidate at the top of the ticket.

Read more here: Primary Challengers In Gloucester Township Must Overcome Ballot Placement

The ballot drawing for this year’s primary is set for 3 p.m. Friday. The plaintiffs have asked for a Superior Court judge to decide the matter on an expedited basis so they can avoid prejudice to their rights as candidates and to the rights of the over 100 candidates who requested to bracket with them as “Democrats of Camden County.”

Late Thursday afternoon, Camden County Superior Court Judge Michael Kassel denied the order to show cause, the plaintiffs said.

“The conclusion by Judge Michael Kassel to dismiss this case without the county even having to represent itself or weigh into the matter further underscores the meritless claim that was put forward by these litigants," Keashen said. "Again this was a case that was used to defend a fraudulent act investigated by the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office in regard to faulty signatures for a petition to be placed on the ballot. The Camden County Clerk’s Office fully respects the decision of the court and will move forward with the ballot process.”

Ripa is on the ballot, and the plaintiffs said Margulis will have much inferior ballot position, as the Freeholder candidates are the linchpin of candidate brackets.

Margulis has a private professional practice in myofascial therapy. She manages the Facebook group Cherry Hill United and is a former board member of Amnesty International USA.

The plaintiffs also accuse the clerk’s office of ignoring a challenge to several signatures appearing to have been written in the “same hand” on nominating petitions circulated by Democratic county clerk candidate Mohammad Kabir and purported Democratic freeholder candidate Steven Panarello. Panarello’s nominating petition included signatures of members of the Camden County Democratic Committee, Inc., Carmen Scarduzio and Joseph Pillo.

The plaintiffs claim the defendants caused an “investigation by a law enforcement agency” to look into signatures collected by the former freeholder candidate and aggrieved father, Jerome Taylor.

Meanwhile, the defendants appeared to launch no such investigation into a challenge made against Kabir’s obviously “same hand” signatures or the “same hand” signatures collected by Panarello, a candidate having the support of members of the very same Camden County Democratic Committee Inc. whose challenge to Taylor’s petitions was granted by Ripa’s Office.