The Congressman of the 2nd House District of New Jersey, Jeffrey Van Drew, switches his political party. Cries of deceit, foul play and backroom deals are rampant. Those who voted for him and contributed money to his campaign are outraged.

One would think that a smart political party would capitalize on that outrage, and proceed with a unifying, above-board process to select a candidate to run against him in November whose allegiance to the voters was beyond question. But no, the south Jersey Party machinery is turned on and robotically proceeds to do the opposite.

Most of the eight Democratic Party county chairman in the district promptly endorsed one pre-ordained candidate before the others are even heard. So, in Camden, Burlington, Cape May, Gloucester and Cumberland counties, a single person determines who appears on the ballot in the Party column as its choice. The machinery’s cables apparently reach even as far as the U.S. Senate, where both New Jersey Senators discover new interest in south Jersey and jump in as well.

Despite the fact that this autocratic candidate selection is contrary to the broader, inclusive direction in the Bylaws of the National Democratic Party, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is nowhere to be seen. Appeals are made to the Governor’s office and the New Jersey State Democratic Committee for a fair process. Nothing happens.

To its credit, Atlantic County does hold a Convention and when an actual vote takes place the machinery choice garners only 28 percent, and the winner 60 percent.  Likewise, Ocean County says they will hold a vote by email.  But despite efforts to sandbag the process with unfounded accusations against one candidate and by stacking the deck of eligible voters, when they see that the machine candidate is headed for a big loss, they cancel it and say they wont award the Party line to anyone.

When Party officials are privately questioned about this, their response is basically, well sure it’s not a fair process but most of the voters looking at the ballots and the Party column don’t know that. So I suppose the perverse logic here is that as long as we practice the same deception as our Congressman, everything’s OK. But it’s really not. The vote in Atlantic County was a resounding repudiation against the back-room process. So, it appears that the Party leadership has misjudged the voters.

I am disappointed with my Party’s apparatus.  But overall, I am actually hopeful, and that hope lies with the voters in the 2nd District. We are not the wealthiest or most highly educated District in New Jersey.  But the voters here have plenty of “street smarts”, and are good, fair and honest people. In the June 2 primary election, they will sift through their, in some counties biased ballot structure, and make the right call.

Bob Stern
Beach Haven

Editor’s Note: Stern later called for Earp’s resignation in a followup email:

To: Wyatt Earp

Chair, Ocean County Democratic Committee

Words cannot express our deep disappointment with your decision and the failed Ocean County Democratic Committee process for determining the Party line in the 2nd congressional district.  In the face of a public health crisis, democracy and democratic process should be the one of the most important things that our Democratic team does.  Instead, we get a last minute decision made by you alone which shows a failure in leadership and leads to the conclusion that only your resignation and that of the Vice-Chair will allow County voters to successfully elect Democrats in a fair and transparent manner.

We asked and documented fair questions about the virtual convention process over the past week, including the status of members and last minute change in procedures that were readily resolvable.  And instead of giving us information, you decided it would be better to take away our voice!  The only reason for your abrupt cancellation of the 2nd House District vote, must be because it became clear that your preferred candidate was going to lose badly.  This is unconscionable. Maybe we should not have been surprised, since your actions during the screening process were equally objectionable.

This also continues a pattern of partiality that occurred in 2018, and resulted in the disastrous nomination of Congressman Van Drew. We had hoped that the revisions made to our Convention rules to prevent people from outside of the 2nd District influencing the outcome would have resolved that issue. But it is now clear that no paper changes can instill the character in leadership that is necessary to provide for free and fair elections, and lead elements of the Democratic Party.  Actually, with everything that is going on in our communities, you should have allowed the convention to go forward for all candidates to show that no matter what happens, our democratic principles will not die.

Your lack of leadership, and failure to simply allow for the committee to have an independent vote leads to only one conclusion. We must ask for your resignation and that all of the Vice chair so that this Party can change course, come together and win the Congressional and other seats in November.

Sincerely

John Kostopoulos, Bob Stern on behalf of several members of the Ocean County Democratic Committee, 2^nd District