Daws Proves Third-Party Power in First-Ever Independent Run

If you looked at the results from the West Deptford township committee race Tuesday night and thought they looked familiar, there’s good reason.

With Len Daws running as the first independent candidate in township history, the race broke much like the 1992 Presidential race between Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush and Ross Perot, with Daws filling Perot’s role, picking up just over 18 percent of support from the 5,900 voters this year and denying the major party candidates a chance at a majority of ballots–none of the Republicans or Democrats managed to get more than 48% of voters to cast a ballot for them.

While it was the Democrats who went down in defeat this time, unlike that 1992 race, the third-party candidate effect was undeniable.

West Deptford Democratic Party chair Gerald White said it’s entirely likely Daws pulled enough votes away from Hunter Kintzing and Denice DiCarlo to tilt the table against them.

“He was a spoiler,” White said. “I think that was his intent.”

Daws didn't disagree with White's assessment of his affect on the race, though he didn't cast himself as a spoiler candidate.

“I’m probably more closely aligned with the Democrats” despite running as an independent, Daws said, and given his tenure as a Democratic committeeman for 17 years, he said the logical conclusion is that voters who would have otherwise gone for the Democrats went to him.

Daws’ role wasn’t totally unexpected, either. Republican Ray Chintall said he and running mate Sam Cianfarini projected Daws would get between 500 and 1,000 votes, and that the effect on the race was obvious.

“He took a good amount of people away from the Democrats,” Chintall said, and he and Cianfarini were counting on that to give them the edge against a large Democratic base.

Daws also pointed out the possibility of what’s referred to as “bullet voting”–where voters intentionally vote for just one candidate in a pick-two race, citing the 327 under votes as evidence for that.

“I had a lot of hard-core supporters within the Democrat Party,” Daws said, and added that many of those staunch Democrats are upset with where the party has moved locally.

“I know that had to have somewhat of an effect on the race last night,” he said in referencing the possibility of a bullet vote.

That may have played out in other races, as well. State Senate President Stephen Sweeney had some difficulty in parts of his hometown, actually losing on the ballot in six districts and only winning a slight majority overall–51.64 percent–among West Deptford voters.

White said the Democrats’ loss was a clear signal voters wanted a change in leadership, and said he didn’t regret replacing Daws with Kintzing and DiCarlo, who he said represented a new, more positive outlook. Despite Daws’ thousand-plus votes, White said things would’ve been different, had Daws been on the Democratic slate.

“Had he run (as a Democrat), he would’ve lost,” White said.