As the New Jersey Globe has learned, Gloucester County Republicans are headed for a civil war in the June primary if competing slates of candidates for the Legislature and District Houses prevent two tickets to Siberia.
A new group of candidates will establish the lines led by Assemblymember Beth Sawyer (R-Woolwich), who is challenging state Sen. Edward Durr (R-Logan) in the 3rd District, Christopher DelBarello, a former Washington City Councilman who is seeking the GOP nomination for state Senate in the 4th District.
With two full tickets, it will be less clear to voters which ticket the organization supports.
In the State Senate, Derr has the structure of the Gloucester Republican Party; Gloucester County Commissioner Nicola DeSilvio fills the line in the 4th District, where state Sen. Fred Madden (Washington) is retiring after 20 years in office.
Woolwich Mayor Samuel Macarone Jr will be on the renegade line for surrogacy. He will face former East Greenwich Town Committeeman Stephen Batillieri for a chance to challenge Democratic incumbent Giuseppe Chilo.
All three county commissioner candidates have held public office: James R. Philbin Jr. is East Greenwich’s deputy mayor and former chairman of the Gloucester County Republican Party; former Harrison Township Committeeman Adam Wingate, who came within 1.25 points of winning the county commissioner race last year; and Franklin Deputy Mayor Heather Flame.
They will face three candidates supported by organizations running alongside Durr and DeSilvio: US Army veteran Frank Fisher, parent rights advocate Brooke Rivello and Eric Anderson, a businessman, US Army veteran and emergency room technician.
The winners of the primaries will face the Democrats Jim Jefferson, incumbent, Washington Township Mayor Joan Gattinelli and Pitman Councilman Matthew Weng. Gatinelli and Weng replace Lyman Barnes, who is not seeking re-election, and Heather Simmons, a candidate for the 3rd District Assembly.
Darr is running alongside Assemblyman Bethon McCarthy Patrick (R-Mannington) and Hopewell Township Committeeman Tom Tedesco, who is running for Sawyer’s open Assembly seat. Sawyer is running with just one other Assembly candidate, James Collins Jr., nephew of former Assembly Speaker Jack Collins, and is backing McCarthy Patrick for re-election.
In the 4th District, DelBarella is running against two Assembly candidates: former Buena Council President Matthew Walker, a member of the executive board of one of the state’s most politically influential unions, Operating Engineers Local 825; and Amanda Esposito, a public school teacher from Mantua.
Maccarone, who held local office in Woolwich from 2005 to 2020, is the third generation of his family to serve as mayor. His grandfather began an 18-year term as mayor in 1956, and his late father spent nine years on the township committee and was mayor from 1998-2000. He made an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the State Assembly in 2015.
Batillieri retired from the township committee in 2022 after serving twelve years.
East Greenwich is at the center of a battle to deny a second term to Durr, the truck driver who ousted Senate President Steve Sweeney two years ago. Mayor Dale Archer was considering a Senate run himself. He told POLITICO in January that Derr was “unqualified, controversial, and has proven he can’t even handle the job of senator.”
Durr won organizational lines in Cumberland and Salem counties.
Wingate originally planned to run on a board led by Mickey Ostrum, a Salem County commissioner who challenged Darr in the primary, and Sawyer. But Ostrum dropped out of the race after losing the party conventions in Salem and Cumberland and seeing Darr elected to the line in Gloucester. Wingate was not offered a slot on the organizational line for county commissioner this year.
It is unclear whether DelBarrel’s ticket will field candidates for county commissioner in the Camden County portion of the 4th District. While he served as a member of the Washington City Council — a position his brother took over last year — he now lives in Gloucester Township in Camden County.
Democrats nominated former Assemblyman John Burzicelli (D-Paulsboro) for Senate District 3 and Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-Washington) for Madden’s Senate District 4.
