Democrats retain hold on Camden County freeholder board

Camden County Freeholders Ed McDonnell and Carmen Rodriguez won their reelection bids, fending off a well-financed Republican challenge to the Democrats' long hold over the board.

"We made some real hard decisions over the last couple of years, about budgets and personnel, and I think the voters appreciate that," McDonnell said. "I didn't know what to expect with the national climate."

This year's campaign for the freeholder board saw unusual life with the candidacies of Republicans George Zallie and Scot DeCristofaro. Vigorous critics of the Democratic machine that has controlled Camden County politics for almost two decades - and flush with $153,000 of Zallie's own money - the Republicans attempted to match the Democrats television ad for television ad in the final 10 days of the campaign.

"We're probably going to spend $190,000. We haven't spent that amount in a very long time," said Rich Ambrosino, treasurer of the Camden County Republican Committee.

The McDonnell-Rodriguez campaign had spent $218,584 as of its last campaign-finance report, filed Oct. 22.

Both tickets ran on a hard pro-business platform with promises to cut government spending. The county budget totaled $384 million in 2010, continuing a years-long rise that resulted this year in a 2.3 percent property-tax increase.

And with the national tide moving against incumbents, there was a sense this could be the year Republicans breached the Democratic freeholder board.

"You know, it's frustrating," said Rick DeMichele, chairman of the Camden County Republican Committee. "We did well in some towns, but at the end of the day we didn't do well enough where it mattered, countywide."

In the Fifth Legislative District, which spans Camden and Gloucester Counties, rookie State Sen. Donald Norcross, head of the Southern New Jersey Council of the AFL-CIO and brother of South Jersey Democratic boss George Norcross III, and Assemblyman Gilbert "Whip" Wilson, the former Camden City councilman, easily won their special elections after their legislative appointments last fall.

In Camden, Deborah Person-Polk won her race for the City Council seat she was appointed to this year.

One consolation for Republicans on Tuesday came in Voorhees Township, where Michael Friedman defeated Dean Mazurek for a seat on the previously all-Democratic Township Committee.