Laid-back race for Camden County freeholder board

A whole lot of people want to break onto the Camden County freeholder board this year, but there's not a whole lot of energy being expended to do it.

Long shut out from the all-Democratic board, five Republicans seek the nomination for three seats in the June 2 primary.

But the three party-endorsed candidates weren't even mentioned on the county party's official Web site until late last week.

One candidate, Nick Kush, said he worked nights as a school janitor so his son was doing most of the campaigning. He has no campaign literature, he hasn't raised a dime, and he didn't know the names of his running mates.

Kush, 63, of Runnemede, calls himself "Nick the janitor" - a la Joe the plumber - and likens himself to "that wrestler," Jesse Ventura, who ran an antiestablishment campaign for governor of Minnesota.

But can Kush win? "Honestly, I don't think so," he said. "Nobody knows me. The thing I'd be running on is honesty. I'm a square guy. I can talk to people."

Still, "if in a snowball's chance in hell I get elected, I'll do my damnedest."

Kush is running with Carl Canfield of Berlin Township and Anthony Casa, 24, of Cherry Hill, who said last week he hadn't campaigned much because he was expecting his second child any day now.

"Over the last couple of years with tax increases, I came to the point I wanted to get involved and see if I can understand why taxes are increasing," he said.

"As a freeholder you have the ability to work with the county budget," he said, "to see what is necessary, what is not necessary, to see if you can minimize every expense."

Last week, for the third year in a row, the freeholders passed a budget that lowered the tax levy, but Casa said the board could do more to work with towns to decrease their own tax burdens.

Another slate of Republicans, Gene Mignogna of Pennsauken and Jammes Valencia of Sicklerville, split with the county party so they could run on Steve Lonegan's ticket. The conservative Lonegan is challenging front-runner Christopher J. Christie in the GOP gubernatorial primary.

Mignogna, 52, who runs laboratories at a hospital, wants to reduce "spending that's not necessary."

As an example, he cited the Pennsauken Mart project. County freeholders approved the demolition of the low-end market more than three years ago. A planned housing complex to replace it has yet to open, and Mignogna said that was lost tax revenue.

He said that he had raised "very little money," but that he still believed he could win the nomination and crack the one-party control.

"If you're all one party and you're writing out checks, who are you going to write them out to?" he asked. "People you owe favors to. That's just the name of the game."

On the Democratic side, Freeholders Jeffrey Nash and Rodney Greco are running with a political newcomer, Ian Leonard of Camden, a New Jersey Air National Guard reservist. Leonard hopes to take the spot of Freeholder Joseph Ripa, who is leaving the board to become Camden County clerk.

Leonard has worked for Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts for a decade and is now his chief of staff. Part of the reason he is running, he said, is that, "one time, Joe said to me there's no greater thing on Earth than being a public servant."

Leonard, 32, said he wanted to continue the freeholders' work in "running government more efficiently, doing more with less."

But he wouldn't comment on some of the freeholders' more controversial moves, such as their recent clashes with unions over contracts and their plans for major changes at the Camden County Jail.

The party-endorsed slate faces a challenge from Janice Leonetti, a 54-year-old title company clerk from Collingswood.

But she isn't doing traditional door-to-door campaigning, and she acknowledged that the Democratic incumbents weren't doing anything wrong. She counts several freeholders as "good personal friends."

"I feel like I have a lot of maturity and experience to bring to the table to service the people of Camden County," she said.

Specifically, she'd like the county to finance training programs for the installation of solar panels. And she wants to help parents of children with disabilities better communicate with one another.

Elsewhere in Camden County, election day looks quiet. Most towns do not have contested primaries for their governing bodies.

In Berlin Borough, four Democrats are running for two council spots. Four Republicans seek two spots on the Stratford council, and two Democrats are vying for one seat in Waterford.

The most crowded races are in Camden, where three Democrats are pursuing the nomination for mayor and six are running for three council seats, and in Winslow, where there's a contested Democratic primary in all four wards.

The party-endorsed slate, made up of Committeeman John Wilson, Coronel Vanst, Thaddeus Mackey, and Barry Wright, faces off against a team calling itself Democrats for Winslow's Future, made up of Committeeman Karl Wm. Auwarter, Louis Parzanese, Katherine Fisher, and Lee De Ramus Sr.

Wilson, 44, a retired police officer, said he was seeking no tax increase this year, and, because water bills spiked in 2007, he wanted to give residents a $25 credit on their bills each quarter.

"People are out there and hurting," he said, "and I just think we have to do whatever we can to help them out."

Auwarter, 46, who owns a construction company, said his slate represented a new generation of political leadership. "It's time for a regime change," he said.

Specifically, he wants Winslow to consider sharing services such as solicitors, engineers, and fire districts to save money.

"A different mentality," he said, "needs to take over."