Primary Challengers In Gloucester Township Must Overcome Ballot Placement

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ — Sam Sweet tells everyone he sees, “You have a choice for Gloucester Township Council this year.” Sweet will stop anyone and everyone he sees on the street to let them know about his bid to challenge Mayor David Mayer, and about his running mates’ bids to unseat members of council who are up for re-election. He doesn’t have much time, though; the Democratic Primary is June 6.

The Gloucester Township Democrats are seeing a challenge from within their own party this year. Joining Sweet are council candidates David Johnson, Christopher Pandolfo and Barbara Rojas. They will challenge incumbents Dan Hutchison and Michelle Winters, and their running mate Scott Owens.

Voters in the primary will have to seek out Sweet, Johnson, Pandolfo and Rojas, though. While Mayer, Hutchison, Winters and Owens will share a column on the primary ballot with gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy in Column 6, the opposition won’t share a column with anyone. They will be out in Column 10, alone following the draw for ballot placement earlier this week because they weren’t able to “bracket” with anyone else.

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.

When Sweet, Johnson, Pandolfo and Rojas initially submitted their petitions, their slogan identified them specifically as Gloucester Township Democrats. However, the team wanted to be able to bracket with Progressive Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Johnson. They were told they would have to change their slogan.

Sweet approached Gloucester Township Solicitor David Carlamere about changing their slogan. Carlamere contended that petitions can only be altered due to a defect, and he said the slogan wasn’t defective. Sweet disputed this claim, saying it was defective because it prevented him from bracketing with the candidate they wanted.

Carlamere also said he was cautious about changing the slogan because Gloucester Township residents who signed the petition to support Sweet and his team may have felt differently if they had a different slogan. However, the sides ultimately came to an agreement and the slogan was changed.

“On the same day, I received a call from the county, and they said bracketing wouldn’t be possible because Johnson doesn’t have a countywide candidate,” Carlamere said. “I asked him if he still wanted to change his slogan, and he said no.”

“I told him we would change our slogan back if there was no way to be bracketed, but I felt that we should’ve been allowed to bracket with Jim Johnson.”

The Johnson campaign felt the same way. The campaign sent the Camden County Clerk a letter, dated April 12,calling the county’s denial of Sweet’s request to bracket with Johnson “illegal and unconstitutional,” on the grounds that it violates the candidates’ First Amendment rights of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Association. It sent a second letter reiterating these concerns following the April 17 ballot drawing.

“When designing the ballot, the County Clerk’s Office follows the statues of the State of New Jersey and applicable case law,” Camden County Spokesman Dan Keashen said in an email to Patch concerning the issue. “Per the statute, for there to be considered a valid bracket, there needs to be consent from candidates at the county level of the ballot to the candidates above and below on the ballot desiring to be bracketed. In this case, there were no county-wide candidates agreeing to bracket with Mr. Johnson or Mr. Sweet. As such, Mr. Johnson was included in the draw for governor and Mr. Sweet will appear in the column after the columns designated for gubernatorial and county-wide offices.”

He also said there were no county freeholder candidates willing to bracket with Johnson and Sweet. Sweet says he was never told by Assistant Camden County Clerk John Schmidt that there needed to be a countywide candidate included in the bracket. Although the onus to find a countywide candidate is on the gubernatorial campaign — in this case the Johnson camp — Sweet said he could have aided in a search for a consensus county candidate locally.

The specific state statute referenced reads as follows:

“For the primary election for the general election in all counties where voting machines are or shall be used, all candidates who shall file a joint petition with the county clerk of their respective county and who shall choose the same designation or slogan shall be drawn for position on the ballot as a unit and shall have their names placed on the same line of the voting machine; and provided further, that all candidates for municipal or party office in municipalities in counties where voting machines are or shall be used who shall file a petition with the clerk of their municipality bearing the same designation or slogan as that of the candidates filing a joint petition with the county clerk as aforesaid, may request that his or her name be placed on the same line of the voting machine with the candidates who have filed a joint petition with the county clerk as aforesaid by so notifying the county clerk of said county within two days after the last day for filing nominating petitions and thereupon the county clerk shall forthwith notify the campaign manager of such candidates filing a joint petition as aforesaid of said request, and if the said campaign manager shall file his consent in writing with the said county clerk within two days of receipt of said notification from said county clerk, the clerk of said county shall place the name of such candidate on the same line of the voting machine on which appears the names of the candidates who have filed the joint petition as aforesaid; provided also that any candidate filing a petition with the Attorney General may request that his or her name be placed on the same line of the voting machine with the candidates who have filed a joint petition with the county clerk as aforesaid by so notifying the county clerk of said county in writing within two days after the last day for filing nominating petitions, and thereupon the county clerk shall forthwith notify the campaign manager of such candidates filing a joint petition as aforesaid of said request and if the said campaign manager shall file his consent in writing with the said county clerk within two days after the receipt of said notification from said county clerk, the clerk of said county shall place the name of such candidate on the same line of the voting machine on which appears the names of the candidates who have filed the joint petition as aforesaid.”

Sweet and his team met all the deadlines put forth in the statute. Sweet was told by an attorney that the interpretation of the statute is up to each individual county.

Sweet compared his situation to that of Congressional candidate Alex Law who sued the county last year over what he called “secret” ballot practices.

In the end, whether or not there is any room for legal challenge, Sweet said one thing is clear to him.

“They make it very hard for normal people to run for office,” Sweet said.

His team already knew it would be difficult to challenge the incumbents. Fortunately for him, as he put it, “I’m not a shy person.”

He’s the kind of person who will stop you on the street, and tell you about your choice in this year’s Gloucester Township Democratic Primary.

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