NJ 3rd District Primary Election: Who's Running, How You Can Vote

Tuesday's Primary Election in Ocean and Burlington counties includes voting for the representative for the House member from New Jersey's Third Congressional District.

There are four candidates seeking the two-year House of Representatives seat. Kate Gibbs and David Richter are vying for the Republican nomination for the Nov. 3 general election. The winner of Tuesday's GOP primary voting will face Democrat Andy Kim, the incumbent, and independent candidate Martin Weber.

Because he is an independent, Weber is not part of the primary voting but will be on the general election ballot. You can read his profile here: NJ 3rd District House Race: Martin Weber

Kim is finishing his first term representing the Third District, after he defeated Republican Tom MacArthur in 2018 by less than 4,000 votes. You can read his profile here: NJ 3rd District House Race: Andy Kim

If you have a mail-in ballot and have not yet returned it, or if you are planning to vote at the polls on Tuesday, you'll find more on that below.

The race for the Republican spot on the November ballot has been heated from the start. Gibbs, a former Burlington County freeholder, announced her candidacy in November 2019. Richter announced his in January, launching his campaign with a speech in Wildwood at President Donald Trump's rally.

(You can read their profiles here: NJ 3rd District House Race: Kate Gibbs and NJ 3rd District House Race: David Richter.)

The race has been nasty, with Richter and Gibbs trading barbs over a number of personal issues, including over who supports Trump's policy goals more.

Gibbs is the deputy director of the Engineers Labor-Employer Cooperative 825, a labor union. Her campaign has criticized Richter over an endorsement he received from a former assemblywoman, Maria Rodriguez-Gregg. Rodriguez-Gregg, a Republican, spoke out against Trump in 2016 in an interview with PolitickerNJ.

Richter is the former CEO of Hill International, a construction management company founded by his father. He stepped down as CEO in 2017, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. His campaign has insisted Gibbs should return campaign donations from the International Union of Operating Engineers because that union actively supported Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The two faced off in a debate on June 16 hosted by SaveJersey blog and TapInto Barnegat/Waretown. (Watch it here.) Both candidates claimed victory afterward.

Both grew up in South Jersey. Richter describes himself as someone who built a business and created jobs, who understands the challenges that businesses face, and as a political outsider who isn't beholden to party politics. Gibbs describes herself as a Republican who can attract supporters across a wide group of voters, and that as a working-class woman she relates to the working-class people who make up much of the district.

The two candidates agree on many of the core issues of most Republican campaigns, including opposing late-term abortions, supporting tax cuts, and protecting access to firearms under the Second Amendment. As a result, the campaign between them has focused more on what each sees as the other's weaknesses.

The two have battled for endorsements, particularly in Ocean County, where the county Republican Club's screening committee recommended Gibbs but Richter received the endorsement by a 68-60 vote, InsiderNJ reported. Gibbs has the Burlington County Republican Club's endorsement. The endorsement gives them party-line spot on the ballot.

Richter has switched districts — he initially planned to run for the 2nd District seat held by Jeff Van Drew before Van Drew switched to the Republican Party — and Gibbs has called him a seat shopper. Richter told the Burlington County Times he made the switch in part because he considers it to be his home district; he grew up in Willingboro. He has homes in Lawrenceville, Avalon and Island Heights. During the debate, he said he plans to live in Ocean County going forward and will be selling his home in Lawrenceville.

Gibbs has taken criticism over a shoplifting arrest in 2006, when she was 20 years old, and a marijuana possession charge; she has apologized for those incidents and said she was a kid who made mistakes. She also was ticketed for drinking beer on the beach in 2015, which she said happened during a gathering after a 5K. Richter claims the incidents are indications that she does not respect the law.

Gibbs has criticized Richter on the issue of a Securities and Exchange Commission fraud investigation into Hill International that looked at its financial records during the time when Richter was CEO. Foreign currency losses were not properly reported, Compliance Week reported. Hill and its chief accounting officer reached a settlement agreement with the federal government. A senior accountant also was charged. Gibbs said Richter should take responsibility since he was the CEO at the time. Richter said the issue was not something that would have been obvious in reviewing the financial reports.

Richter criticized Gibbs over the fact that she works for a union, and said she will be expected to do what they want if she's elected to Congress. Gibbs said Richter is more interested in having a title than he is in representing the people of the Third District.

If you are planning to vote in the primary, here's what you need to know about the process:

If you received a mail-in ballot because you are a registered Republican or a registered Democrat, here are the ways you can submit your vote:

• Mail it back, following the instructions on the ballot. It must be postmarked no later than 8 p.m. on July 7, 2020, to be counted in the election.
• Deliver your completed ballot in person to the Board of Elections in your county.
  • In Burlington County, it is at 50 Rancocas Road, Mount Holly, and is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
  • In Ocean County, the Board of Elections office is at 129 Hooper Ave., Toms River. The Board of Elections has special hours, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Friday and again on Monday and Tuesday, at the Mancini Room at the Ocean County Library, 101 Washington St. Board of Elections staff also will be available from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday for voters.
• Drop your completed ballot off in a secure ballot drop box. The drop boxes are under surveillance 24 hours a day, seven days a week and ballots will be picked up daily.
  • In Ocean County, they are located at:
  • Northern Ocean County Resource Center, 225 4th S., Lakewood;
  • Ocean County Southern Service Center, 179 South Main St., Manahawkin;
  • Ocean County Parking Garage, Madison Avenue, Toms River;
  • Brick Township Municipal Building, 401 Chambers Bridge Road, Brick;
  • Manchester Branch of the Ocean County Library, 21 Colonial Dr., Manchester.
  • In Burlington County, they are located at:
  • Pemberton Community Library, 16 Broadway St., Browns Mills
  • Mount Laurel Municipal Building, 100 Mount Laurel Rd., Mount Laurel
  • Medford Township Public Safety Building, 91 Union St., Medford
  • Cinnaminson Township Municipal Building, 1621 Riverton Rd., Cinnaminson
  • Mansfield Township Municipal Building, 3135 Route 206 South, Columbus

The deadline for dropping your ballot off in the dropboxes is 8 p.m. on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.

If you choose to vote in person, there will only be provisional ballots available; there will not be voting machines, the county clerk's offices said. Vote-by-mail ballots will not be accepted at polling locations.

The Ocean County polling places for the primary can be found here. The Burlington County polling places can be found here.

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