Booth Wins CamCo Chairman Battle Round 2

Remember roughly a year ago when the Camden County GOP was on the verge of a civil war over the chairman’s post? In 2011, former Chairman Rick DeMichele was dragged through the mud by a group of unhappy former candidates and committee members. From that sad debacle came DeMichele’s eventual resignation and the emergence of two camps. One behind Cherry Hill attorney Stuart Alterman, and one behind Voorhees attorney and Army Reserve Major Tom Booth.

That race, for the unexpired term, ended with Booth winning quite easily, but left him with a fractured party. Being a member of the CCGOP (municipal chair in Voorhees), I got to see first hand the mess we have going on down here. To Chairman Booth’s credit, he did a pretty great job last year picking up the pieces that literally shattered on the ground just before last year’s primary filing deadline. The CCGOP had a full slate of candidates, a net gain in local Republican seats, and growth in places like Pennsauken and even Camden City. The party also successfully went after an illegal Democrat candidate in LD4 who was enjoined from taking office for a while as a result. On the other hand, the party again, for the 22nd year in a row, failed to pick up a single countywide position, and internal struggles between members and municipal clubs continued. So Round 2 of the battle stemmed from those latter issues.

Long time CCGOP member Joe Adolf decided to take a shot at the most thankless job in New Jersey politics, and this time to do it legitimately, without attacking anyone’s reputation in the media or going insanely negative with half truths. Instead he sought support among the committee members like an adult. Adolf, a former State Senate candidate and former Mayor of Magnolia, is from the all-Republican controlled town of Berlin Borough.

He and Booth traded persuasive speeches on their vision for the way forward in one of the bluest counties in New Jersey to the packed room at the Woodcrest Country Club in Cherry Hill, and then the vote came out 83 – 32 in favor of re-electing Booth, this time to a full two year term. With the distraction of having to face internal detractors (at least for another year or so), Booth might be able to make some things happen this year. With a solid focus on local towns, the CCGOP has the opportunity to take control in four towns this year from the Democrats, while no Republican controlled towns are in any mathematical danger of flipping.

Brian McGovern
About Brian McGovern 748 Articles
Brian McGovern wears many hats these days including Voorhees Township GOP Municipal Chairman, South Jersey attorney, and co-owner of the Republican campaign consulting firm Exit 3 Strategies, Inc.

9 Comments

  1. I wonder if Brian McGovern worked with the CCGOP during the 2010 campaign? If he had, he would understand the disgust and revulsion felt by many volunteers toward the manner in which the CCGOP neglected candidates. Dale Glading, who ran to oppose Rob Andrews received precious little assistance from the CCGOP. I say good riddance to DeMichele and there's a couple more who would have to go before I ever again volunteer hundreds of hours going door-to-door and working the phone banks. And I know there are many others who feel exactly as I do.

  2. Actually, I've been working as a committee member in the CCGOP since 2008. In 2010 I ran a great candidate in Voorhees and won. We also got substantial help from Rick DeMichele and the county organization. Also, I worked on Glading's primary campaign in 2010.

    You cannot call it neglecting candidates when the organization needs to move its sparse resources around to where it can actually make a difference. Glading unfortunately had no shot that year and the campaign did very little to raise money on its own. You don't beat someone like Rob Andrews with no cash. CCGOP pumping more than nominal support into that effort would have been akin to flushing it down the toilet.

    If people in the CCGOP were more focused on building up local organizations and winning towns, rather than only volunteering for more grandiose efforts like congress, the whole county would be better off.

  3. Brian, I agree that the odds were very long concerning our race, but I take exception with your allegation that we did very little to raise money. We held multiple fundraisers, sent out multiple mailers, and called/emailed/contacted countless prospective donors…while simultaneously knocking on 50,000 doors and making thousands of phone calls…in addition to working 40-60 hours a week in my ministry. The problem was that very few people wanted to dig deep to support a Republican candidate against a 22-year Democratic incumbent who enjoyed a 3-1 edge in voter registration…and the media's refusal to cover the race, let alone the allegations against Andrews that are finally coming to light, certainly didn't help either.

    I also don't know what you are referring to when you say that I insulted George Zallie. We campaigned together many times and I don't recall a single cross word between us. As for the event with the Lt. Governor, if memory serves me I was out-of-town on a prison ministry trip.

    You, Matt and the others at Save Jersey are doing a GREAT job addressing important issues and promoting the conservative cause, so please focus on that. I may not have been a perfect candidate, but I did work my butt off in both 2008 and 2010, earned major newspaper endorsements (the Inquirer in 2008, the Courier in 2008 and 2010), received more votes in 2008 than any GOP candidate since 1974, and received a greater percentage of votes in 2010 than any GOP challenger since the early 1990's.

    As for the reference to my ego, that was nailed to the cross back in 1977 when I trusted Christ as my Savior.

  4. I forgot to mention that I initially declined to run in 2008 and 2010, but was talked into it by Chairman DeMichele in 2008 and both DeMichele and Matt Rooney in 2010. So my ego (or lack thereof) played no part in my decision to run. I was simply tired of seeing Andrews run unopposed like he did in 2002 and 2006, and I wanted to leave America a better country for my three children. I had no other agenda.

  5. Dale none of that was a shot at you. I was referring to the people in the CCGOP who complain that we have no organization but refuse to help build locally in the towns. You put your name on the line, and thats more effort than most people will even consider.

    No doubt that you worked hard on your race, but no denying that it was an incredibly uphill battle, something everyone knows when they run for that seat. Greg Horton is running this year and will be a great candidate, and I will support him and pray he wins, but that does not change the numbers game that makes CD-1 so difficult. It will take considerable effort, resources, and local organization.

    Also I did not mention anything about George Zallie anywhere here did I? Or said anything about your ego? Or you having an agenda? Where are you reading this from? My reference to your race was only in response to the initial comment, and not to criticize you, but to point out that losing a race in CD-1 cannot simply be blamed on the CCGOP as much as it can be blamed on the electoral map.

  6. Brian, there was a related facebook response to Lorraine's post from the CCGOP, so I thought you had written it. Sorry about that, but whomever it was should check their facts first before posting. The bottom line is exactly what you said: South Jersey politics and CD-1 in particular is such uphill sledding that we all have to stop sniping at each other and recognize that we aren't the enemy. In fact, as Republicans, we agree on a whole lot more than we disagree on, so let's emphasize those areas and stand united against the Norcross/Sweeney Democratic machine.

  7. Dale, you are correct. My initial response was replied to by someone other than Mr. McGovern. That response has been removed as was my second response. Apparently my remarks hit a sore spot with the CCGOP.

  8. And you were correct, Lorraine, when you said that our volunteers worked enthusiastically and tirelessly throughout our campaign. I owe you all a great debt of gratitude; you were the BEST campaign volunteers any candidate ever had!

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