The South Jersey Progressive Democrats held their reorganization election tonight at the old post office in Merchantville, Camden County. Approximately 6o hearty souls braved a wintery mess to help SJPD chart its course for the next  year.

SJPD members chose Kate Delany to lead the organization for the next year. Ms Delany also chairs the Collingswood municipal Democrats, much to the chagrin of the Machine Democrats aligned with George Norcross. Delany defeated the machine-backed slated last June to score the upset victory.

(Full results are below)

In case you’re curious which machine I’m referring to, it’s the one that’s on Twitter as we speak lobbing Trump-y insult like “fake progressive” or “phony progressive” at anyone who doesn’t kowtow to the Norcross clique and certainly everyone in this room, which includes Sue Altman of NJ Working Families.

I was at tonight’s meeting and I’m pretty sure everyone here’s a real progressive despite whatever the Mr. Norcross’ machine purists have to  say. I mean, who made George Norcross the gatekeeper of progressivism anyway?

“Sometimes I’m a Republican and sometimes I’m a communist,” Ms Delany told InsiderNJ, referring to the incoherent insults tossed her way. “We tried really hard during the process to decide what progressive means to us because the machine has watered it down. So what does it mean? Two things: substantive progressivism, our values, things like social justice and the environment. That’s coupled with procedural progressivism like transparency and fair representation.”

Katie Ingersoll was in the mix for the VP slot and ultimately she prevailed. Part of her pitched acknowledged the tension between progressives and the Democratic machine currently running the show. Would we ultimately supports the machine candidate someone asked.  That question came up a lot.

The short answer: Maybe.

“It’s important for this organization to be smart about the battles we pick,” Ms Ingersoll said. “But we won’t benefit from supporting republicans.”

FULL RESULTS

President Kate Delany

Vice President Katie Ingersoll

Secretary Rena Margulis

Treasurer Patrick Mooney

Membership Director Lora Gordon & Linda Rubiano

Communications Director Kristin Affirme

Elections Director Chris Emrich

Organizing Director Adam Sheridan